OT: We all started somewhere- Your first job

I was working as a waitress at a cocktail bar. That much is true.

Caddie. 14 years old. Made 15 per loop

Worked at the member service desk at Sam's Club in Muskegon. Interesting crowd of customers, but not nearly as interesting as the WalMart next door.

Hot n Now making $5.75

-I picked raspberries for .10 a quart in the neighborhood.  There are alot of raspberries in a quart if you are picking and don't get to eat them.  Whew! 

-First job with a pay check was putting party ice in bags at an ice factory and loading the ice trucks.  I think the pay was about two dollars an hour.  Whew!    

I walked an older ladies 2 Scottish Terriers. Cutest, friendliest dogs you ever saw. Every woman stopped to talk to me, at 12, I was in heaven. I also mowed lawns and picked green beans at a truck garden.

I mowed lawns and worked picking blueberries at one of my friends' farm at around 13 or so, sold Cutco knives in high school, then washed rv's the summer after graduating. 

In Canton, the one at the corner of Cherry Hill and Canton Center (it's moved across the street now). I worked there starting at 14 in 8th grade, and worked there for 7 years through high school and some of college. By the end of my stint I could make a Blizzard like a champion. I still kinda miss that job...

I painted churches at 15. My first real summer job was at a GM parts plant. I worked the line all day every day. I made great money, but the job was brutal! I lifted greasy GM truck bumpers from the fork lifts and then had to hang them on a moving line. We had to get 3 on the rack as it moved quickly by us. When they came out they were freshly coated at about 1200 degrees. Had to get all 3 off and onto a new fork lift. Repeat all day!!!!

I was a bus boy at Denny's, and loved that carrot cake. I moved up to working as a bus boy at the Innkeeper, which was then the fancy restaurant out at Detroit Metro airport. In addition to bussing, we also did room service for the attached hotel. I had some pretty wild things happen doing room service.

I called Little League games, girls softball games, etc for like $6/game.  We'd also operate the scoreboard/keep score for older kids baseball games.  Man those were the days...

We had to take chickens off a truck and cram them into cages. We all duct taped our arms because the chickens would scratch bite and claw at us. It was brutal. 5 bucks an hour was good money in 1987 though.

Still my favorite job I've ever had.

I washed returned rental cars for Hertz on the weekends. It was out at the airport. We'd pick a car up, drive it back to the bay, wash inside and out, fuel it up and drive it back. 10 bucks an hour, which wasn't too bad in the early 90's. My mom was working on a documentary series at the time, so she was also paying me to transcribe video for editing. Think I was getting 50 bucks a tape.

So I could stop mowing lawns and work with a friend of mine as a dishwasher at a local family restaurant. Highlight of every night was taking the trash out so we could smoke a doobie out by the dumpster. I don't think the owner ever understood why we were so enthusiastic about taking out the trash. Eventually graduated to busboy and prep chef. Worked there all the way through high school.

Had an internship at U of M's Dental School in high school. Not sure if that counts...

for the rag that can no longer be mentioned.  It was better then.  

Then caddying at Meadowbrook CC.  Long days, but for a 13/14 year old, great dough.

For six summers. My dad pushed me hard and I hated it, but he saw I was a lazy bastard and eventually I shaped up and busted my ass. Owe a ton of my work ethic/attention to detail to him

My first job was playing poker starting at about 14. Height of the poker craze and would play casual games with HS and college kids in town and some shadier underground games as I got older. I didn't particularly enjoy the game at the time, but tracked my win/loss via spreadsheet and it was way more than I could make elsewhere. Mostly I think everyone else was just terrible more than I was good.

I worked at a department store in Dallas when I was 16, in the men's underwear department. I don't know whose brilliant idea it was to put a teenage girl in men's underwear. I remember a caregiver coming in to buy underwear for the man she took care of. She didn't know his size, so I had to open all the packages and unfold the boxers so she could see them. They just kept getting bigger and bigger, and I found myself holding up a pair of like 46 boxers and she said, "Yep, those are the ones." I grew up a lot in that job. 

Paper boy.  And I sucked at it because I would never deliver early enough.  Lots of blue collar people on my route that wanted their paper by 6:30 am.  I was typically an hour late and my customers were not happy most of the time.  Collection days were always fun.../s.

The Great Steak and Potato Company at Eastland Mall in Evansville, Indiana. I'd make about 120$ every two weeks, and pay my parents 25$ for car insurance, put 30$ in my gas tank, and go buy whatever Xbox game came out that week.

(which gives you an idea how long ago THAT was) working for minimum wage, I worked in "shipping," which meant I became very adept at using a handtruck, a box cutter, and a straw broom. I got a raise because the fed increased the minimum wage. 

One of my motivators for success was thinking about being stuck in a job like that. Oh, and I was working for my father, which really sucked...trust me I did not go into the family business. This was actually a good thing, because textile manufacturing went overseas beginning in the mid 70's.

Breton Village Mall in Grand Rapids. I grew up eating their summer sausage.

Worked at a deli/catering company throughout high school. I came to dread Thanksgiving and Christmas considering how busy we got and how late we stayed every night. I was 16 years old and during my first Christmas rush, I worked from 11am - 2am several nights. My holiday breaks weren't much of breaks at all. But I was getting paid $10/hr, and for a high school kid with no bills to pay, that's great money. Made me feel great to really earn my money, considering I had several friends who were just handed everything and didn't appreciate their money at all.

That place taught me what hard work really is.

Borgin and Burke's. I don't want to talk about it.

Delivering room service at a 5 star, 5 diamond hotel.  Greatest job ever. Hourly wage sucked, but the tips were great.

Delivered room services to Walter Payton, Paul Newman, Mario Andretti and a lot of rich people.

I was with a crew of room service waiters aged 17 to 19. We got away with murder. So many interesting and hilarious experiences that have unfortunately never been topped since.

 

 

 

Did coat check on the weekends with my best friend. Since we were really only busy at the beginning and end of the night we eventually decided to bring in a TV and a PlayStation and play NCAA Football all night. Tips were good most nights and we could eat all the leftover food we could handle and drink as much coke as we wanted so we were quite happy. Eventually started to bus there then cook for golf outings.

My first was a summer job working in a move theater for $2.90 an hour, so you know it was a long time ago. O.J. Simpson came in one day (it was during summer camp when he was with the 49ers) to see "Meatballs," which starred Bill Murray. He was early, so he had to wait in the lobby for a while until the prior showing ended. When it did, the audience came streaming out, which was mostly kids. As O.J. saw this, he said "It's nothing but kids...is this some kind of kids' movie?" He then turned to me and asked "hey...is there any finger fucking in this movie?" I replied "well, not on the screen." There was no drummer around, so I didn't get the rim shot.

I was a "skate guard" and concession stand worker at the Birmingham (MI) ice rink. I think it was $9/hr, which was pretty good in the late 90s. Loved that job.

My first job was with the local Little League baseball organization. I got to drag the fields, chalk the lines in the infield and paint the outfield, make the batters box, etc. Great first job to get to hang outside on a baseball field every day after school

Janitor at a machine shop. Sucked.
Lead to a shipping and receiving position for me that I would end up working 60+ hours a week.

I guess I can say I am happy I did it because I made me realize I how I needed to get my ass to college and I did!!!

After a three-week fiasco with a minimum wage job, the next summer I worked as an engineering student at the Pontiac Fiero plant. The plant had a wood block floor and a leaky ceiling. After heavy rains, the floor would swell and it looked like a lunar landscape.

It wasn't a real job per se, but when I was about 7 years old, my brother and sisters and I would do a bit of yard work for my grandparents (my dad mowed the lawn because we were so young).  What I remember most was my grandmother plying us with lemonade and cookies while my grandfather groused about kids these days.  One of his favorite refrains was "when I was your age I worked from sun-up til sun-down for 25 cents.  I was never quite sure if what he was telling was true, but given that he was born in January 1900 on a farm, it's likely he was doing manual labor before the age of 10.

Later, I did snow shoveling and yard work for neighbors from about age 12-16.

At 16, I got my first "real" job: a busboy at a Sveden House buffet. There were almost never any tips. Ever since then, I always tip well unless I get really crappy service.

Paper route for the Flint Journal.

My first job was an assembly line job making front engine covers for $3.15/ hour. I've been a roofer, carpenter, referee, high school coach, and now physician.

My first job was an assembly line job making front engine covers for $3.15/ hour. I've been a roofer, carpenter, referee, high school coach, and now physician.