What was your first job EVER?

[thegreenroom1]

Just for fun.
My first proper summer job was at age 13, it was in a hotel for the carvery lunch service. I was paid 5 an hour and worked 3 or 4 hour shifts 4/5 days a week.

What was your first job?

I was a groom on a stud farm.

Saturday girl in a hairdressers owned by a family friend at around 14ish. He was a lovely bloke, but he had really badly managed bipolar disorder which resulted in him going into hospital less than 3 months after I started. I went from being Saturday girl to being defacto manager overnight as he rented chairs to other stylists and desperately needed someone to be there all day to keep on eye on them to stop them stealing the stock. It was an absolute NIGHTMARE but I did get my hair done for free every other week - silverlinings at that age.

For £1.50 an hour aged 12 loads of weekends my friend and me would work at a catering company helping at weddings. Often starting at 6am a and finishing at 11pm. Knackering but 18 hour shift you made £27. They must have made a fortune of us as it was a posh company in the late 80s.

In a local shop on Saturdays and any days off school or college. I was 15 when I started on £1 per hour! I stayed for 7 years until I’d finished college and moved to an office job. The owner said he’d sell up when I left, and he did.

Babysitter 13-16
Au pair 16-17
McDonald’s 18
Factory Worker 19
Weekend and holiday work as barmaid/waitress/kitchen helper 18-22.

Dolcis shoe shop £2.09 per hour. Bloody loved it 😁

Kwik Save, on the checkouts. I was 17 and got paid £2.53 an hour. I thought i was rich beyond my wildest dreams when I turned 18 and got the princely sum of £4.10 an hour!

I loved that job though, met some of my best friends and my first serious boyfriend and we had a such a laugh.

Waitressing at my aunties restaurant/hotel in the summer from age 14. Had so much fun working with my cousins, and staying up late when there were weddings and getting to sleep in a hotel room after.

I was an ocassional usherette at a cinema aged 15 . £1.50 an hour plus a torch.
I watched Jungle Book 28 times.

Age 14 worked Saturdays on a fruit and veg stall on the market.

i was a waitress/pot washer/drinks maker at a farm owned tea room from just after i turned 13. £5 an hour and all the homemade cake i could eat. my mum worked there so she got me the job. i loved it. i left at 15 because i fell pregnant and all the old ladies knitted me beautiful blankets and cardigans before i left.

A fish and chip shop. I was 13 and paid £2 an hour cash in hand plus all the chips I could eat!

I was about 9 when mums on the estate realised that if they sent their kids to me with a shopping list and some money I would take the kids with me to do the shopping on the list for 50p - which bought tthem a whole hour of peace and quiet. Some days I earned a tenner. I felt proper grown up when I brought fish and chips home for the whole family out of my earnings. This sounds like something out of Catherine Cookson doesn't it?

Worked in a cafe on a saturday 9-2 when i was 15 and had 2 babysitting jobs as well. Used to make about 15 pound per week in total and this was mid 80s. This was a fortune for me, i lived in an extremely deprived area of NE and both parents were on the dole. For the first time ever I could buy makeup, clothes and get the bus into town with friends to go to the ice cream parlour. I loved having those jobs( they were shit!) But i loved the independence they gave me.

Waitress in a poshe hotel at 17. Some of the people I served were absolutely vile, and some were so lovely! I lasted 5 months but I hated almost every moment of it.

The manager and multiple members of staff smoked. I didn’t. They all went out for multiple breaks during busy Friday/Saturday shifts. I didn’t. On one particularly hot evening I stood outside the kitchen for no less than 30 seconds when the manager came out to have a go at me for skiving I left soon after.

Meat room assistant in Sainsburys.

Weighing sweets at an old fashioned sweet shop at 14. £5 per hour plus all the sweets I wanted. I stayed till I was 18.

A childminder (in their home) to two brats from 8am to 5pm 5 days a week aged 15, for the miserly sum of £40 per week. I was 15. I was fired for not showing interest in the job and for falling asleep on the job. At 15, I wasn't ready for 9 hour days minding two delinquents.

I later took a notion at aged maybe 17 that I wanted to be an au pair in order to travel and asked the mother for a reference. She refused to give me one as she said I shouldn't be working with children. She was right haha!

Paper round, penny a paper, 700 papers for £7

My worst moment in that 'role' was when the 3 year old did a poo and shouted at me to wipe his bum! I refused to do it on the 15 year old logic of 'GROSSNESS'. I think he told his Mum on me.
They also told on me sleeping from 8am to 9am. I was a teenager ffs and it was exploitation at its worst. Pay peanuts, you get monkeys (or my good self lol). They weren't bad kids, though the boy was a little bit more of a bold child. The little girl was a nice little girl. She was 6. I was just too young for childminding. This would have been 1992 or 1993.

Working in a corner shop at 14, it sold fake booze and imported cigs.

When I was 11 I got myself involved in washing the neighbours cars and walking their dogs

My 1st paid job was a football coach and then my 1st office job was working for a medical research facility logging all the results of research trials

Thursday evenings and Saturdays on the till in the Co-op when I was in 6th form. I was paid £13.50 which was a fortune in 1980.

I've also worked in a cafe in Italy, and on the bog for the summer after the childminding fiasco - that one was piece rate so I earned fuck all but got a great tan and had fun with the boys.

I then worked in Penneys (Primark) for about a week and fuck me but that was boring - I was stacking the toiletries shelves.

I worked in a supermarket called Crazy Prices where they were renovating the store and my job was to walk around with a sash on saying 'I'm here to help' and help customers find mustard or the freezer aisle while they were changing the layout of the shop or help people struggling to carry their baskets etc..

I also did a stint in McDonalds in NI where I was told off for not smiling (I had the notion that staff in McD's were grumpy, not smiley - so was a little surprised at that reprimand). I also have no qualms about eating in McD's ever since as I know the cleanliness and meticulous care that goes into maintaining their standards.

Also did a stint in Tescos stacking shelves.

I've also worked in an Italian Fish and Chip shop and in the kitchen of a hotel as a dishwasher/waitress. All before the age of 21 haha.

Then I got my first serious job. A receptionist in an investment bank.

I worked in WHSmiths on Saturdays when I was 15. This was in the days of £sd and I was paid a guinea a day. I had to clock in and out. I wore a blue nylon overall and sold greetings cards. The till was electric, but it didn't add up multiple items or work out the change, so my maths skills definitely improved.