Question: What was your first job and how did you get it?
I was a clerk at a local department store when I was in high school. We part-timers were called "contingents", which meant we worked in whatever department was short a regular clerk. It was awful if you were put in draperies. What does a 16 year old know about draperies?? Got the job by simply applying. Was paid $1.60/hr.
Relation Questions:
Answer:
Babysitting--always babysat my siblings so when other folks asked about a reliable babysitter, people referred them to me; I was something like 12 or 13 when I started that. Then around 14/15, I started working in an accounting office removing the outdated CCH pages and replacing them with the new ones, making copies using some machine (can't now remember what it was called, this was before photocopies were available). In the summer, I worked at the hospitals as an aide. My last summer after high school I worked in some kind of research library doing office work (although I can't say what, I always look back at that job and feel like I must have been high because I remember so little about it except I had to get up real early in order to walk all the way there). After school I helped my older brother deliver newspapers but I didn't get compensated for it--just didn't want him doing it all alone and spending twice as much time trying to cover his route.
My first proper job as an employee was as a warehouseman in a warehouse supplying stationery, food and furniture to schools and local government offices. My earnings were £9, 7s and 6d for a 40 hour week (that's £9.37 in our current decimal currency).
I went for the job because I had no choice. I was totally unprepared for the world of work, had performed poorly at school, had many ideas of what I DIDN'T want to do and nursed fanciful ideas of getting away with doing very little. My parents gave me a simple choice: get a job and pay your way or get out. I tried getting out but, being so unprepared for the real world, soon came crawling back.
To be honest, I was a rotten warehouseman and stretched their patience from time to time. I don't think they were sorry to see me leave to follow another fanciful dream of getting more qualifications. My lack of income was again a problem at home so I gave up my studies and went for an interview for the first job the Labour Exchange could find for me, in an accounts department. It was definitely not an occupation I would ever have considered but provided a foundation for a career progression that has worked out better than I could have ever imagined.
Strange how things work out. It makes me wonder what more I could have achieved if I had been properly prepared for the realities of life and my place in it.
I had a paper round from 2 years before I left full time school. It didn't pay much but was better than nothing. My brother already had a round with the same newsagent and he heard that another deliverer was required.
My first full time job was as office junior. I had to do some typing (I wasn't good enough at shorthand at that time to have letters dictated to me), answer the telephone, make the tea and run errands between departments. I got the job by answering an advertisement in the local paper. I applied for five jobs, was offered an interview at all five and was offered all five jobs - so I had the choice. The chances of that happening now are about a zillion to one I think. It was workers who were hard to get in the late 50s so jobs were not hard to get.
Other than a paper route at about age 10, my first "real" job was working for local farmers mostly weeding beans. Pay was about 25 cents a row and you could do 4 rows at a time. Most fields were a half mile long so each round, down and back was about 2 acres and I got 2 bucks. So you could make good money if you did a few farms in the summer. Was hot work but all the farmers fed you like it was your last meal and they paid cash. No taxes taken out back then I guess.
A young guy age 14 up to 18 could make maybe 300-500 for the season. Doesn't sound like much but in 1967, it wasn't too bad. You still had a lot of summer to goof off also. At age 16, a couple days work you would have about 50-75 dollars in your pocket. Gas was only 30 cents a gallon, smokes were the same price, and even having an older guy buy your beer, it was still just about $1.50 for a six pack and the older guy always charged you about 25-40 cents per six pack.
I just knew some guys that got together and one of them always found us jobs and we were always asked to come back the following year so it was good for about 4 years of work. I don't think anyone walks beans anymore. Farming has changed quite a bit
I left school at 15 in 1965 and didn't really have anything in mind for a job,i didnt take any exams,i was ill a lot of my schooldays with chronic asthma,anyway i was lucky wasnt I, there was full employment,i went to the local labour exchange and the lady in there said,well,what do you want to do then? she mentioned woolworth and boots,I didnt fancy working in a shop,i told her i didnt want to work in an office either,my mother was with me and said i was too fussy,then the woman said,what about a library? yes,that appealed,i loved books and as luck would have it the local library at the end of my road needed assistants,how lucky was that? my mother wanted to come to the interview with me, but i persuded her not to,i was a big girl now,i was asked about qualifcations and i thought,oh no i havent got the job,but one of the men interviewing me,(there was a panel of 2 men and 1 woman) said,well you seem bright enough we will give you six months probation and see how you do,he winked at me,dirty old perv i thought! I worked in the library for 2 years until my family moved out of the borough,i enjoyed it so much,i worked in libraries on and off for nearly 40 years,i ran my own library eventually,my dad was so proud of me,he was a factory worker and my mother was a cleaner and he always said he wanted better for me,i miss them still today! the library where i started was the kensal rise library,it was opened by mark twain in 1910,its a lovely building and to the shame of brent council they shut it earlier this year as part of council cuts,they shut 6 of their 12 libraries!
I mowed lawns, and shoveled snow. I asked the property owner if I could do the job for him. My first real job was delivering papers. I waited for several months until a route was open. Then I had to interview for the job. I got 40 cents a month per subscription. I had to collect the money, and sell to get new subscribers.
I was 16 and got a job in the kitchen of a four-star restaurant in Detroit...The Roostertail. I did nothing but prepare salads and pastry trays. My cousin was the head chef there, and approached me about it. I thought it was going to be a breeze, so I jumped at the chance to earn my own money. I had no idea though, about just how hoity-toity and picky people can get about how the white asparagus is arranged on their salad plates...Jeez!
I walked down to the hospital and went down to the business office. I don't remember where they sent me. Hey it was 46 years ago. I worked on the floors as a kind of gofer. I'd get the nurses things, patients thngs, run to the pharmacy, the kitchen, ect. When I went to get my first paycheck signed, he embarrassed me so bad! He made me count the cash to see if i got the right amount and laughed at me turning red. I never forgave him.
I was a soda jerk in a drug store, after school. My dad was friends with the pharmacist who owned the drug store and assured him that I was a hard worker. I was hired before I met this man. I worked there for almost two years and I loved becoming a part of his family too.
Fun job and did not have to experience the interview process.
Packaging potato chips in little bags and stapling the top and then boxing them. Got paid by the bag. My best friend's mom got me the job after I beat the crap out of him for pi$$ing on my pants leg. She thought it would be the best way to keep us away from each other. She was right. I was 14 at the time, it was 1947 and this is a true story.
telephone operator at AT and T just walked in and asked to apply they came and inspected my home and talked to my parents i waS ONLY 17 AT THE TIME THEN i HAD TO TAKE A PHYSICAL AND THEY SENT FOR MY HIGH SCHOOL TRANSCRIPT AND THEN THEY CALLED and told me to report the next monday.
It seemed like they did too ,much checking to me . it was october, 1960, They questioned where i had been since june? I was in the convent. i had graduated at the convent high school in August and they stayed there until Sept. 25.
saw a sign in the window of a restaurant in 194o in London,I was quite tall and passed as 14 the legal age to work,but I was only 12 I did this for 4 years when I had to leave do National Service,had good tuition but when I came out of the army I did not go back to cooking
I worked as an office aid to a principal and her assistant when I was in high school, I was required to have an office job for my cooperative-office-education class and there were a certain amount of school jobs open for that class.
I typed all kinds of p.r. announcements for a newspaper office. Was scared silly at first, because we used manual typewriters and long rolls of cast-off newsprint paper to type on. (I was used to elec. typewriter.) But I soon got the hang of it. It was only about 12 hours a week, but I learned a lot.
When I was 16 I started "Beauty School" in Sioux Falls,SD and attended 14 months of training. I was working licensed full time in a shop in MPLS, MN at 17 yrs. old........I walked into the shop...did a sample comb out on an employee and was hired. I was lucky. it was the first place I tried.
I worked in a hosiery factory and actually got promoted in 3 months. I was only 15,but I guess I worked hard. I got the job from the classified ads in the Sunday paper.
Delivering The Louisville Courier Journal via bicycle in high school.I got the job because I knew the carrier who was giving up the route.Getting up at 4 a.m.carrying 50 lbs of newspapers on a single gear bicycle got me in excellent physical condition.
it was working in a Factory,i was 15,and i just walked in,and asked the Manager and he gave me the job.
My first paycheck job was at a county campground, I applied for it and got paid $1.70 and hour. The side benefits were city girls that got stuck camping and loved to piss off their parents by chasing the teen campground employee.
I was a cashier still in high school. Worked in a department store on Friday nights after school and all day Saturday. I applied for it at the store.
Surveyors helper at age 13. I held the stick. The surveyor was our neighbor. He thought I was a good worker around the property so he offered me the job.
First real paying job was working of a local dairy farm - they needed summer help in haying I was a local guy and got the job.
I was 15 and my father got me the job working in an office. I didnt last long because I couldnt really do the job and I didnt like being stuck at a desk and doing rote clerical work.
Sonic Drive as a car hopper, I went in a filled our an application and got the job. I was in m last year of high school.
1950's...summer job...a friend told me about it and I applied at Cinerama as an usherette showing people where their seats were located.
We no longer have Cinerama in this day and age.
Guitarist in rock 'n roll and rhythm 'n blues band. I joined up with a band that had lost one of its members. That was in 1957.
First job still in High School usual starter job grocery store. Went to the store and applied for it.
I worked at a glass company where my dad was a glaizer. Started $1.60 an hour.