What was your very first job?

[ofwarren]

My parents ran a pub so my first job was working behind the bar, even though I was only 15.
After that I got a job in a food production factory on the production line making lasagnes and did a stint in McDonalds while I was at college.

Anyone have any weird or interesting first jobs?

A paper round for the weekly local freebie rag. I hated it!

I always wanted a paper round but my DM never let me for some reason. Why did you hate it? The weight? Dogs?

In the good old days (OK, mid 1970s) the week I left school at age 16, as a stop gap before I went to college in the September, I had a job through a temp agency as a "tea lady" in a local office.

I put the "boiler" on, got the teapots down, filled them with leaves (proper leaves not tea bags!), let them brew then put them on a tea-trolley with milk, sugar etc. and walked them through the offices so people could fill their cups (no mugs, really, in those days) at the designated times....

Babysitting for friends of the familly.
Collecting and ticking off the electoral register forms once they'd been returned, so they knew who they had to go back to ask for uncompleted forms.
Cleaning for an elderly family member.
Waitressing.

School uniform selling in the summer holidays
Serving and cleaning in a shop.
Stacking shelves in Tesco.

All before graduating.

I was 14, I took coats from customers, hang them up and return back to them at a restaurant. I made non alcoholic drinks and wash glasses at the bar (ordered from the waiters). £20 for 5pm-11pm in the 80s.

I had a paper round when I was 12 but that was normal in the 80s. Looking back though - pretty horrific in the winter going out on my bike at 7am in the pitch black and ice 😱 Worth it for my £7 a week though!

I was a YTS in a video rental shop

It was great , I got free hires and £27.50 wages , thought I was rich

Sweet shop 14-15 in the 80s for £1 an hour. It was rubbish pay even then

Waiting on in a cafe during the Summer holidays at the age of 13. I remember using the machine to steam heat milk for the frothy coffee. Also had to use the industrial dishwasher - it washed the dishes in minutes but they were too hot to handle when they came out.

I later got a job working in a gift kiosk on a pier.

Saturday job in a florist.

Was the school uniform selling in a shop?

I totally forgot about YTS schemes!

Saturday job in a newsagent at 14 for £2 per hour.

Christmas postie several times
Shoe shop
Dry cleaning shop
Hospital cleaner
Waitress in a cafe at a zoo.
TA in a primary school
Barmaid in the union bar

Bingo caller

Depends what you mean by job, really.

I first earnt money by helping my sister on her paper-round.

I first earnt money that wasn't already within the household by singing for weddings (back in the Olden Days you could have five or six on any given summer Saturday).

Then there was ringing for weddings
Then my own paper round
Then babysitting
Then checking the solicitors' files that were about to be chucked for anything that ought to be kept (£5 from the petty cash for a couple of hours' work during my free study periods)
Then photocopying and such-like for a sole trader in niche collectibles (a friend of my sister)
Two lots of chambermaiding during summer holidays
My first full-time work was on the packing line of a toiletries factory (are they called factories? warehouse? pretty sure at least some of it was put together on the premises)

Working as a chambermaid in a holiday camp when I was 13 in 1979 on Saturdays. I earned £5 and there was a coach that picked us all up. We started at 8am and finished around 1.30pm.

My first paid employment wasn't until I was a PhD student, being a 'demonstrator' for the undergrad labs.
This consisted mostly of telling them to check they'd plugged in and turned on whatever piece of equipment 'wasn't working', and teaching them a bit of Fortran.... it was a long time ago!

Working in a soft play place

Worked in a pharmacy from age 15.

3hrs on a Thur after school and Sat morning. Did that for nearly 6 yrs, all through uni and only stopped when I qualified in my profession.

A Saturday library assistant and I cleaned for a friends family at 14. Had to leave the Saturday job due to being ‘stalked’ and got fired from the cleaning job as my mother punished me for something no doubt small by not letting me go to work. Didn’t work again until she opened a business that I worked at a few hours a week, can’t remember if she paid me tbh. Then went to work in a sawmill after I left school in the office

Working in a newsagents shop aged 11.

It seemed easier to pick up a little job in them days. I remember reading the ads in the paper, looking at cards in shop windows and going down the job centre where they had boards up in the middle of the room and you would take the card of the job you were interested in to one of the staff who would ring the company there and then to arrange an interview.

My eldest DS is 19 now and at uni but last year when he wanted a job it was much more complicated.

Saturday job at Woolworths. Got to work on the record department and allowed to play the tunes I wanted. Happy days

Collecting lost golf balls, take them to the clubhouse and get maybe 20p per ball. Aged 12 or so.

A bit of knocking on peoples doors offering car washing. Kitchen porter stuff about 14.