to think that most of us have worked behind a bar/ in a factory/supermarket/ as a cleaner at some point, HAVEN'T we?????

[bejeezus]

Came up in conversation today in the office, that I have worked as a barmaid; my colleagues where and I was equally that non of them have...I thought EVERYONE had worked behind a bar at some point in their life???

Ive had variousjobsinmylife, including factory work, working in kitchens, dog kennels, cleaning, callcentres; and now Im a professional

it gotme thinking--i went to uni and worked holidays/ evenings and weekends...now i think about it, hardly anyone else did that!

Am reading 'Chavs' at the minute and the author makes that very point....very large majorityof politicians have never done that kind of job and so cannot relate to the working classes AT ALL. It really hit home, how very far removed from normal folk, politicians are these days

But,most of yous have done/do these kind ofjobs-right?

Christ, is anyone else here old enough to remember the expression 'pin money job'???

I'm not bothered really I like my job

ehetlb so your parents don't think you can get upset at your job unless it's a 'career' they deem worthy of such title?

well, I know I learnt tricks from working around drunks that came in very handy when DS was a toddler, and waitressing certainly gives you good skills for remembering conversations till you get somewhere you can write things down...

isn't it about being rounded, and able to work on different levels according to the requirement?

Also I have been in the forces and even training, rifle drills, getting cs gassed for respirator training etc and the arly starts arent anywhere near as hard work as working in a really busy bar till 3/4am every night.

HavePatience - I've never worked as a teacher - but my hat is off to you all. V.tough job I imagine.

I've mostly been a waitress, since I was seventeen, but have worked since I was fifteen.

Interesting points about politicians - I read George Thomas' autobiography. He lamented at one point that he was talking to the first generation of Labour MPs to have benefited from the introduction of the Welfare State (that he had helped introduce) and how they fundamentally couldn't understand the driving force behind his and his peers' concerns because they had never experienced that kind of abject death-inducing poverty. That was in the 1970s... I can only think it has got much worse now.

Do you know, I'd never thought about it before? Like you, I work in a professional field, and worked my way though uni and school hols....mainly because my parents (who supported me throughout) thought I should pull my weight by contributing my holiday earnings towards the cost of holidays and uni.

I've worked:
behind the counter in a bakery (age 15) for 12 hour days;
behind a bar (frequently, on my gap year, in exchange for free drinks!); tutoring (other students and A level local schoolkids);
as a secretarial temp in LOADS of FTSE 100 companies (and it was always interesting how they treated me differently once they discovered I was midway though a Masters/PhD)
cold calling businesses selling advertising space in magazine
...
and probably loads more.

Most of them were very 'proper' jobs, and demanded a far higher degree of punctuality, general smartness and focus than my current role...

(can't remember which point I was answering now)

I wouldn't want my children to do the same though, and I don't get why people say that. It really disrupted my studies and working nights contributed to me getting depression. I hope that my children don't need to work until they leave education and that then they get a job with a living wage, whatever it is (I don't think cleaning etc are 'low class', they are vital, but these jobs ought to be paid to reflect that- working in cafes and things can be fun but cleaning out a really disgusting loo, no that isn't ever fun and it should be paid to reflect that it is hard and unpleasant work).

I have never worked as a cleaner but I have done the other 3. I also was a waitress and a grill cook.

Kids that don't try and find work until they leave education will find it very hard going IMO. It's important to have some kind of experience on CV when you are looking to start a career.

Nope haven't done any of the jobs in the OP. Nearest was a bit of waiting on I did at a hall place but that wasn't very long.

When I first arrived in the UK my visa restricted me to not furthering my career - I worked in a chain of City wine bars for about 18 months. 'twas the hardest I have ever worked in my life - apart from early motherhood which beat that hands-down. The flip side was that it was also loads of fun and the lock-ins after close were great. But then after 18 months or so it stopped being fantastic and was just shit money for hard work.

And then the terms of my visa changed and it was bye bye to bar work.

I've done lots of the same - cleaning, checkout girl, newspaper girl, factory work - all to earn extra cash whilst studying. I didn't mind it whilst at 6th form or in the summer Uni break but it definitely affected my grades when I had to work over Christmas before exams and during reading week when I should have been, well, reading!

I've never thought I was 'too good' for any job. In my holidays from Cambridge I worked in BHS Restaurant serving a seemingly never ending queue of old ladies and also in a pub, though I was a bit crap at the latter and only lasted 2 shifts!

When DS2 was tiny and we were broke I took a temp Xmas job working nights in Tescos, I may have been a qualified lawyer but in the absence of childcare it was the best job I could get. I surprised myself by actually quite enjoying it!

Most people I know did factory/supermarket work whilst at uni; I know very few who have done it other than as teenagers.

nah josephine not if your parents or aunts/uncle or family friend have a nice little professional practice you can swan into (with crap time keeping), or if (like many graduates from where my DH went to uni) your parents set you up with a practice of your very own right out of uni so you never have to work for anyone else, ever! - y'see CVs dont' matter so much from that sort of background! . (they didn't get why he worked, they thought he did it for fun, they asked him why he didn't like anything but beans on toast and told him he had an ignroant pallet - he adores good food but that was all he could affort)

Josephine - I didn't find it hard going at all. :). It's not necessary to have loads of experience before starting out in your career if you're young and just out of university.

I have worked in a cafe, lots of different shops and I am job hunting right now and the last application I completed was for a job in a shop.

IMO if you go, do something and get paid for it then it is a proper job. It doesn't matter if that something is scrubbing toilets, ringing up purchases on a till or producing a complicated report then it is a proper job.

I worked at a professional level prior to becoming a SAHM, although now I work as a carer in a residential home.

Prior to that I have done:

• bar work
• waitressing
• lasted two shifts as cleaning before I was sacked for being crap
• shelf stacking
• checkouts
• packing in a factory
• call centre

I would want my children to go through the same, making their own money from a young age. I'm a secondary teacher and the kids who work seem to have more about them, a sense of the world outside of school and their family. Some of the ones who don't work have a hideous sense of entitlement and no concept of the value of money.

I have (and still do) work behind a bar/waitressing. Iv worked in a shop too but not a supermarket. It's one of those things I assume everyone did to get through 6th form/college/uni...
I also have a nice career too, but I do love waitressing!

Not a lot.

Newsagent.
Childcare/nanny.
Small chemist.
Lots and lots of typing/admin related jobs. Pay parking fines office. Proofreader. Local 39, the "stationary engineers" union in San Francisco. A major dot.com etc, etc.

@bejeezus when I was a kid you couldn't work at 12. I was earning (a bit of) money from music from the age of about 15. I did a lot of busking. Weddings, also. Stuff like that. Could I have earned more cash working in C&A (the top payer where I lived)? Probably. But I would have had to commit to every Saturday, and at least one evening after school. I did music most of every weekend, and I studied hard at school, plus there was practice etc. if I had been forced to do the sort of jobs you seem so keen to make everyone do when a child, I probably wouldn't have got the results I got, gone to the uni I went to, and managed to get the career I have now. So I'm very glad there was no scheme forcing every single child to do 'approved' work.

Looooong list of jobs:
Newsround (first job, from 12)
Greengrocer's assistant (from 13-ish-15)
Assistant gardener
Busker
'Bottler' (collecting money for bigger busking acts)
Cleaner
Chambermaid
Farm worker (cattle)
Waitress
Barmaid
Auxiliary nurse (terminal care)
Market researcher
Selling double glazing
Care assistant (old folks homes/homecare)
Shop assistant
Karaoke singer/hostess
Nightclub security
Data entry clerk
Toilet attendant (swanky clubs)
Secretary
PA
Legal clerk
Receptionist at a police station
Massage therapist (doing short massages in nightclubs/bars)
Assistant martial arts teacher

Some of these many times over. I am not including my 'professional' jobs (as in jobs I have specifically trained for at college and university). Quite probably have left some out, too!