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?

Shop assistant in a sweetshop that was also a sub-post office.
Selling ice creams in a shop, 4 sizes of cone with and without flakes. Used an old serving spoon and had a seg down my middle finger at the end of the summer. They were 4,5,6 and 8p, plus 1p extra for a flake.
Packing Christmas puddings at Cadbury in Moreton in the heat wave of 76
Testing meat pies etc in a public analyst's lab.

Age 18 fresh out of sixth form. HR IT assistant on 7k in 1994.

First job was as a silver service waitress at a hotel doing weddings when I was 17.
Followed by stints as a waitress at a hotel (breakfast shift), market researcher, Saturday Sales Assistant at Holland & Barrett but my favourite was as a Tour Guide.

Packing Chocolates in a Factory at age 16 ( I am 42 now). Did it for 6 weeks in the holidays before starting College. History just repeated it self and both Sons just worked there as a First Summer job before University. I was paid £4.45 p/h and Sons £9.50 p/h.

Sports Direct.

Had a newspaper round after school each night delivering 30 papers and got £3.60 a week for it. At 16 I got a Saturday and school holidays job working in a shoe shop, the shoes were cheap, plastic shoes and there’d often be raised voices and police involved when people tried to return shoes for a refund. I used to get paid £11 a day

Started babysitting at around 13
Aged 15/16 I worked packing orders for a local business that did mail order
Than worked in a pub when I was in the 6th form, waitressing to begin with then behind the bar once I was old enough
Then at university I worked in a shoe shop.

My DC (now aged 20, 18 and 16) have all had jobs in the school and university holidays and at weekends. Much the same as we used to do - bar/kitchen work, admin work, retail.

Waitress aged 14 for my dads friend. He paid me £10 an hour! Ridiculous now I think about it

I used to encode cheques that had been paid into banks - i'd sit at a desk that had a track and a number pad.

Id look at the value written on the cheque, place the check into the track and key in the value (and sometimes the sort code and account number too)

Out the other end would pop the cheque with all the numbers across the bottom

My first job was collating paperwork for my mum in her market research company. We got paid about £4-£5 for a whole day!
We did mystery visitors when we got older. We being my sister and I.

My next job was between 6th form and college, working in the X-ray dept at the local hospital. I went back each summer during college to cover annual leave. I got paid £70 per week.

Weighing out 3 and 5 pound bags of potatoes from a big sack in the local corner shop when I was 11, I was only paid 20p per large sack which would normally go on sweets as soon as it was handed over!

Oh and babysitting on a Saturday night for my mum's friends. I was 14-17. They paid me with whatever was in their pocket when they got home and a taxi. The wife left me cigarettes and permission to have my boyfriend round!

Babysitting mostly and I did a lot of volunteering. My first proper job was packing frozen fish in a factory.

I worked Sundays at Matalan for 2 years while I did my A levels. I hated the place. While I was there the manager was sacked for gross misconduct (theft), and another woman who worked in the jeans dept got caught stealing and was arrested. It was nasty, I’ve never set foot in a Matalan since! 😖

Age 13 dogsbody in local pub. Ironed bosses clothes even his flipping underpants, cleaned deep fat fryer with ammonia, cooked, waitressed, washed up and cleaned tables.. looking back I'm fairly sure a teenager wouldn't be allowed to use ammonia for cleaning purposes now.. Once mixed ot with fairy liquid in hope of removing especially stubborn stained and it gave off awful fumes.. you could actually see them!!

1st Saturday job was in a wee independent electrical shop in the 80s, £7 a day, and I seemed to spend most of it wiring plugs on to things - nothing came with plug on it in those days, used to drive me bananas in the run up to Christmas with all the fairy lights!

1st proper job after uni was writing dictionaries, I started at M!

Working on a candy floss stall and doing hair wraps at festivals in Europe. Age 15 to 16. First 'proper' job was at just turned 17, packing flower bulbs in a Dutch warehouse.

Summer job cleaning and doing food bowls at a cattery.
I was ripped to shreds by the moody little bastards.
I bloody loved that job 😃

I had a Saturday job in a bakery from when I was 15.I worked extra during the school holidays.Most of the Saturday staff were from my school.

YTS in the wages department for borough council. I was taken to my desk, and then the internal post guys came around, and handed me -
1 pen,
1 pencil,
1 a pencil sharpener
1 30cm ruler
1 eraser
and an ashtray