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?

Data entry. Not in the least interesting in itself, but this was in 1981 & 1982 - 40 yrs ago - well before data and entry were much of A Thing. I was 13 & got paid... wait... 60p/hr. 🤣 Thought I'd gone up in the world when I got a Saturday job at the town library for £1.10/hr 🤣🤣

Looks like it was very common to have a job as a child back in the day too.
When were the child employment rules brought in does anyone know?

I’ve no idea how it came about because my mum hates Tupperware but back in the early 90s she and some friends got into the Tupperware selling cult and roped then 7- or 8-year-old me into licking a billion envelopes and stamps to post out some kind of pamphlet, for the utter slave wages of £5 for a whole Saturday afternoon (which she then made me save in my piggy bank!)

My first proper full time job after graduating, I had to scour the websites of councils, schools, housing associations and charities for the names of their employees, and then try to work out their email addresses based on the set company formula (firstname.lastname / initial.lastname / whatever) which was almost always somewhere on the site so that we could mercilessly spam them with promotional material to sign up for our e-learning or come to our conferences.

Sold carpets in a carpet concession in do-it-all. £3 an hour. Good money in 1989, started saturday and Sunday for 4 hours then did Thursday and Friday late night after school … they transferred me when I went to uni, but then they went bust!

Worked in a old jar sweet shop weighing and dispensing into little paper bags. Everything was 60p for 4oz. I still got that twisty flip habit when folding up paper bags.

15 and trying to fund my summer festivals plans, I worked in the cafe at the local zoo, which was mostly mundane but watching the elephants go by on their walks and having my own break by the tigers enclosure was a perk.

@ofwarren - I'm now in NZ. Have recently discovered that there is no minimum age to work here... Couldn't believe it. DD (13) has friends waitressing already.

A Saturday job on a very busy market stall which sold fruit & veg. It was bloody hard work outside in all weathers. The owner employed lads and girls. The lads’ job was to fetch & carry sacks of spuds, nets of carrots, boxes of bananas etc. The girls’ job was to serve & have a bit of banter with the customers. I was 15 when I started, the pay was £1 per hour in 1985 and it saw me through my A levels.

Babysitting for local family - cash in hand - 13ish
Dishwasher for boys football club - evening event - cash in hand - 14ish
Holiday playscheme - summer holiday - 15
Mcdonalds - first real paid job - 16

Loved earning money and spending it even more!

Age 14. 1986
Silver service waitress for an outside catering company. Mainly the masons doos, I've seen more than one dressed pig's head! They used to lock us out of the function room between courses, fantastic tips though.

Waitress when I was 15/16. Had that job for two years before I went to university.

Working the cafe/catering dept at the local (fairly large) theatre, after school and one shift at the weekend. Used to do the ice creams at interval and serve teas, coffees and meals before curtain up. Was quite fun, we could go into the viewing room during the first act and watch some of the shows. When Ken Dodd was in we had time to write and perform a small one act play between all the catering staff using kitchen utensils as props 😂 We were all really good friends and most of the staff were plucked from the theatre's youth theatre or summer drama school so all of a similar drama nerd personality. The older bar staff came from the local uni and were mostly there because it had a respected film course so again, similar personalities.

Also got to meet quite a few celebrities and serve them their dinner, leave stuff to be signed if we particularly liked them and on one memorable occasion avoid the press under strict instructions NOT to talk to them for fear of losing our jobs after one celebrity sadly had a mental health crisis whilst in rehearsal for panto (that's probably quite outing!)

It is still, to this date, the longest job I've ever had, started when I was 16, graduated to be able to take bar shifts when I turned 18 and was definitely still there early 20s. I even carried on doing a few shifts when I got a full time day job though I think that was out of a sort of weird loyalty to my first job and not really knowing how to give my notice for fear of upsetting people!

A well known bakers, I loved it. It gave me so much confidence, I stayed there for 4 years.

I delivered a free paper to 650 houses, 649 of which didn't want it

Paper round
Babysitting
Saturday dogsbody in an Estate agent

In the early 70s, I babysat for various neighbours, then at 14, I got a job on a market stall (had to have a work permit)at weekends, selling toiletries.

The dogs weren’t too bad once you’d worked out where they lived. Worst things were doing it in the dark in the winter, bad letterboxes and extra leaflets, which paid more but were not worth the money for the hassle they caused!

Respect, I did about 200 and that was bad enough!

Paper round from 13, 2 hours afterschool Mon-Fri in RS McCall, Saturday job in local record store (very cool job!), cutting broccoli in the summer holidays from 15 for £1 an hour. £40 a week was a lot of dosh in the 70's!

My parents owned a hotel so my first job was waitress. From the age of about 14 I worked after school - evenings and weekends. My dad paid me the full rate so no complaints from me 😋

Are you my DSis?

My first job (following in her footsteps) was also in Woolies, but in toys and gardening. I think pay was about £8 or £10 for the day, but a subsidised lunch in the canteen was 10p. Got to play the new video games before Christmas so that we knew how to demo them (early 1980s).

My first proper job was in the body shop. I absolutely loved it.
I then moved to the Disney store on Oxford street and it was horrendous. We would get mega wealthy tourists come in - they would literally throw a shopping list at you and expect a personal shopping experience including carrying it to their chauffeur driven cars. They were unbelievably rude and would shout at you in various languages if something was out of stock. Then kids would come in and just trash the place, whilst the managers were constantly telling you to "be more Disney". One lunch time I could take it any longer so left and didn't go back.

My first job was working the till at a supermarket at 15. Which I don’t think is all that interesting.

But I also did cleaning as a part-time job with my mum who cleaned for a woman who collected salt and pepper shakers and tea pots. Literally it’s a thing. She’d written several books. Her house was floor to ceiling display cases of salt and pepper shakers. She also had a lot of cats. She was a really interesting woman.

Then also had a job riding polo horses. And did a summer stint before uni for a genetics company cross-pollinating maize and sweetcorn by hand. 😂

Babysitting-I was about 12 and the money I earned (a full £5 a time) was meant to pay for everything from san-pro to my school uniform (my mother gave up buying me anything I needed by the age of 13-I was expected to support myself)

then I got a job answering phones in a taxi office-a full £2.50 an hour

I then had dd and went into childminding

Age 14 in a hotel restaurant serving lunch £5 per hour…