OT: We all started somewhere- Your first job

At tam o shanter country club in west Bloomfield. A 2 minute bike ride from my house. Get there at 6 and maybe get in 2 loops. Depending on how generous your players were, it could've a 50 or 60 dollar day. And done by 3 or 4. Not bad for 13 years old

The summer before my 13th birthday, I stuffed envelopes for a neighbor's mayoral campaign. He paid two other teens and I $5 per hour cash. (He didn't win, but years later was elected mayor of another town, and involved in a scandal.)

Mopping jail cells at the GRPD. I had to pay for two Mustangs I totaled in a single-driver accident.

I grew up living next to a softball diamond just outside of Gladstone in the UP, I spent a shit ton of time over at the diamond watching the old guys play beer league softball. Well I was probably 10 and one off the guys asked my Dad if I'd be interested in mowing thee field once a week for the summer. I gladly accepted the job and went to work. My dad even bought a riding lawnmower so I didn't have to push more the field. They paid me at the end of the season. It lasted 2 or 3 summers until my Dad took a new job and we moved. 

At 16 yrs old. Lasted 2 days because parents said uniform was stinking up house.

Dishwasher at Beau Jacks in Bloomfield Hills. Good times.

I started at the age of 15 at a warehouse that ships sports equipment  to schools (gym/playground stuff) all over the country. Now, at the age of 34, still at that job.

Combination dishwasher/busboy at the Howell Big Boy.  Both roles by one person ... the whole restaurant.  During the lunch rush it was impossible to do both roles ... I was so busy bussing tables the trays stacked up back in the dishwasher room.  If they ran low on glasses, plates or dishes I'd try to focus on the dishes, but then the complaint was tables not getting bussed.

Cashier at Menard's. My head nearly exploded every day from the "save big money at Menaaaaaaard's!!" jingle that played constantly.

Btw, you're welcome for having that stuck in your head now.

McDonald's, was probably 15. hired in at $4.25/hr

Corn detassling when I was 14. Bee stings, corn stalk paper cuts, high heat, and dirty drinking water for $5.85 per hour before taxes. This was specifically to pay for half the cost of Michael Jordan basketball camp.

Grew up in N Michigan in a resort town. small town...one of the Hotels downtown near the Lake had a I guess youd call it a burger joint/ takeout place,,burgers hot dogs fries shakes etc etc. I was the shops errand boy assistant cook and whatever else He needed..and I stayed out of his way. He was maybe 25-26...Two weeks later I showed up for work and the owner was there and said he quit and could I run it until he found a replacement..I JUMPED on that.

He never did hire anyone else and I ran that place during summers and after school for a while until maybe 17 when I went on to big and better things..I always had money throughout High School because of that ,and have always been grateful for the oppurunity.

My dad who was the smartest man I ever knew coached me on being on time, being organized, and most of all being efficient and finding better ways to do things. I  miss him and owe him so much. All of that has led to the best job Ive ever had and absolutely LOVE. There are days on my job I tell myself I cant believe they are paying me to do this!  Its the best feeling in the world and one I do everything to keep...

I owe it all to that store owner and my Dad...

$4.25/hr. Still have the shirt for Halloween party emergencies.

I was 13. Worked at a vet office. Mostly cleaning up, playing with animals and helping the secretary out but did get to observe a few surgeries and help birth some kittens.

Colony Market in Grand Blanc was the first official one. Went in a week before my 16th birthday and applied. Stared the day after my birthday when I was officially of age

and most memorable: a Good Humor Man! My route consisted of abandoned factories and cemeteries. Ever try to sell ice cream to people at a burial? Also, I bumped the fender of a car trying to back into a parking spot and had to bribe the owner with all of my ice cream so he wouldn't report it. Driving back to headquarters in a thunderstorm, my bells fell down and blocked my wipers from working. I quit after one day.

Exactly the same as you. 12 yrs old working the muck fields and doing all the back breaking work mixed with the tomfoolery you described.

I got paid $2 an hour to steer the tractor that pulled the hay wagon through the hay fields while it was loaded behind me for 2 weeks every summer. I didn't have the leg strength to depress the clutch so my Dad would have to run up from behind and hop on the tractor when it was time to stop (obviously, you go reeeeeal slow when loading bales on a wagon). My first job where I had to fill out a W-4 was as a bus boy at Dinks Restaurant in Chagrin Falls, OH when I was 13. $4.25 an hour and the worst part (other than hefting leaky 70 pound garbage bags full of un-eaten food stuffs into a dumpster) was the 4 mile bike ride (uphill both ways, lol) to get there and back.

I had a paper route when I was 14. That's when I first learned that people suck.

 

Fucking McDonalds.

I lasted all of a month and quit.

It was just awful.

Had a brief stint after that bagging at A&P, followed by an insane summer of 15 hour days working at a heavy equipment rental company during the day and a movie theater at night.

After my freshman year of college I found a job waiting tables and that took me through college.

Worked at a drive-in theater in high school back when they were a thing.  I worked in the concession stand and my primary job was to keep fresh popcorn on the display.  They told me I could eat all the popcorn I wanted but that I would get sick of it after a week or so.  I never did the entire summer - I still love popcorn but today's microwave stuff can't compare to the old stuff i made.  I was the only guy working with a crew of high school girls, so it had other benefits as well.

Paperboy.

I was an ice hockey referee basically all through high school, and even kept doing it through some of college. Fantastic money, as even the little kids' games were like $12/hr, it was all cash so I totally skipped out paying taxes, and the scheduler was a real good friends with my dad so I got basically as much work as I wanted. I was lucky that I could basically not work during the summer except for a few tournaments and a goalie camp run by my friends' dad.

My first paying job was as a paperboy in 4th grade. It was the old-fashioned time, I had a giant bag with newspapers in it attached to my bicycle and I went around throwing the paper at peoples front porches.

Used to direct cars where to park for events. Lots of free sun and lots of boring times. Eventually got promoted to actually take cash. Also officiated basketball and umped baseball during the same stretch. My favorite job after that was life guarding. It was the best summer job when I was home from college.

corn picking

it...fucking...sucked...

Umpires youth league baseball/softball at wattles park in battle creek. I think we made like $10 a game.

Mowed lawns and babysat, but when I was 15, I got my first job as a lifeguard, which was for three summers.  My first office job was as a summer peon at a certain three-letter agency where my mother worked.  I just did filing, organizing and other clerical duties, and I would get kicked out of our office when certain things were being discussed that I was not cleared for.  It was a pretty good experience.

I was a busboy at breakfast place. At work at 630amSat and Sunday. Funtimes

14 years old I got an "in" and became a golf caddy at a country club, despite never watching or playing golf. it was a seasonal job, paid pretty much only by the tips I earned, and required my mom to drive me halfway across town each saturday. not great. that fall I got a job as a stock boy /sandwich maker at the local liquor store. that made for great years all through high school.

I did the paper route thing and mowed lawns and shoveled driveways. My first ever "real" job was helping a ranch family we knew put up a new fence line. And other assorted odd jobs. Ever since then I take special joy in eating steaks and hamburgers, if there was ever an animal that deserves to be food........

Good luck to your son.

Paperboy for the Ann Arbor News. I did it for a couple years in middle school, until I realized that having to deliver everyday, including mornings, on the weekends and every single holiday (regardless of the weather), was not worth it. The fact the mailman (with his holidays and Sundays off) had a song about him always rubbed me the wrong way after that.

Golf caddie.  14 years old.  Made $12 first loop working for Milt Weiss.  Seems like yesterday.

Subway. Never order the seafood sub. Trust me.

Delivered newspapers and then caddied. The first job where I actually had to be somewhere on a schedule was working at a movie theater. Never eat movie theater hot dogs. Always amazed me when somebody actually purchased those things.

Worked at a night club where wise guys would pull up and toss me their keys so I could park their cadillacs. Couldn't even see over the wheel and I was parking cadillacs. Then me and my buddy Tommy used to sell smokes out of a van. It was quite the life.

Cub scout fundraisers, paper route, mowing lawns, then the first one I applied for was as a kitchen helper at a fancy restaurant down the road.

In the Midwest in the summer. I made like 5 dollars an hour when I was 12 to get up at 5am to walk through the wet, bug infested, corn fields. I stuck with it until high school when I got "promoted" to driving the tractor.

... was Wendy's in the second half of high school. I learned time management and the need for a work ethic, which meant far more than a small salary. Also mowed lawns and worked on a house flip, so drywall, wiring, plumbing, installing kitchen utilities, stripping floors, etc. Again there, the little minimum wage meant far less than the skills I learned.