Wonderwoman402 is offline Wonderwoman402 Post #1  June 16,2011, 8:40pm
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How old were you when you got your first job, and what was it?

I was just 2 months past my 16th birthday, and the job was at a submarine sandwich chain. For 3 years before that, I babysat several weekends a month, year-round.

My 16 year old daughter just got her driver's license and her first job, at a restaurant. Actually, that's not true... she had a job the past 2 summers selling concessions at a community center/ballpark where her dad lives. But her new job won't be seasonal, and she got it all on her own (her dad pulled strings for the ballpark one).

My 19 year old son still has not had his first paying job, and makes almost no effort to even look despite my encouragement. His best friend, at age 22, just got his first paying job. He graduated college 6 months ago and it took him that long to find a job. I think his lack of any prior job experience hurt him.

I recently was in the position to review resumes/applications of college students for an intern position, and was most impressed with the students who had some work experience under their belt already.

I've been talking with friends with teenage kids, and most of them are frustrated that their kids don't want to get jobs. One friend, has a kid who just graduated high school and has not had a job yet, and is now having a hard time finding any job. Another friend, however, extolled the virtues of not working until later and concentrating on school, sports, etc. while in high school and college.

So how old were you (and for the 'older' posters, how old were your kids) when you got your first job? Do you think getting a job while in high school helped or hurt you? Or if you waited until after college for your first job, do you think that helped or hurt you?
 
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1Horselady is offline 1Horselady Post #2  June 16,2011, 9:18pm
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Mine's easy. My sister owned a pet store. I was 13 at the time. I was supposed to be tending sick animals that had just arrived in the store. I had a question about 1 in particuler, and since the puppy wouldn't stay in anything, I picked said SICK puppy and proceeded to carry him out to the front of the store. Luckily, there were no customers there, but I wish you could have seen her face! :-O She ordered me to the back, and then she explained why you DON'T DO THAT, then she fired me. (hired and fired all in 1 day!) That's alright, I didn't have any illusions of working for her longterm anyway.


Suzie, besides learning you don't take sick animals out to the front of stores, it's also not advisable to work for relatives!
Last edited by 1Horselady; June 16,2011 at 9:21pm.
 
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junetest is offline junetest Post #3  June 16,2011, 11:27pm
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I was a dishwasher at 17. It was TERRIBLE.
 
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my5cents is offline my5cents Post #4  June 16,2011, 11:29pm
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I babysat from a young age and through college, but my 1st real job where I paid taxes was at 19 at an ice cream shop for the summer. I primarily worked during the summers during college except my senior year in college where I worked part-time. I also did two internships while in college and having that experience landed me a job in the field that I studied upon graduating. So I would say that those internships helped more than my retail jobs in college.

Having had to hire for positions within companies, all I can say is that it's best for college aged students to either volunteer (consistently) or find an internship within their field. This will put them on equal footing with most college students graduating. If a person has "0" work experience through the time they graduate from college, it will make it that much harder for them to get a job (unless they can network like crazy) especially in this economy. I know some students who have had 0 job experience and they haven't found a job for more than 2 years upon graduating. Eeeks, right? Job experience, skills, responsibility, accountability, and references all help in securing a job upon graduating.
 
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Ingytravel is online now Ingytravel Post #5  June 17,2011, 8:14am
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My first 'real' job...paycheck/taxes..etc....Was at 16yrs old and at the Gap in a mall that had just opened near our home..Ahhh...folding clothes all day, helping customers, and using the cash register...cha..ching!..LOL...

Boring...but gave me gas and fun money!!! Drove each day in my 'new to me' , used bright yellow Ford Fiesta...Of course it was a stick shift...it was always great to learn to drive on these...so that now at 42...I truly appreciate an automatic transmission....HAHA...
 
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Odira is offline Odira Post #6  June 17,2011, 8:40am
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16 working on an assembly line in a factory that made those cross-stitch kits. Worked the second shift and held that job full time until I finished high school.

From my own experience, the best way to motivate kids to get jobs is to not give them any money. Profound, I know
 
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Shewhowearsskirts is offline Shewhowearsskirts Post #7  June 17,2011, 9:19am
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My first job was at 18 as an aide to a politician... when I was hired, she was running for Commissioner of Education, then one day she called me at her office and told me to tell anyone who called for her that she was in the hospital (she wasn't). Next day I read in the paper that she had changed her campaign to some other position in the State House... Needless to say I learned that politicians can turn on a dime... They can also squeeze them because she never paid me for my last month of work!
 
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Buck is offline Buck Post #8  June 17,2011, 12:27pm
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Besides cutting grass and shoveling snow, I washed dishes in a Howard Johnson's. I'm not sure, but I think that was the first summer out of high school, earning beer money for the fall quarter Turns out I should have worked a lot more OT. LOL
 
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Angelkrista is offline Angelkrista Post #9  June 17,2011, 1:01pm
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I started working at 14. First job the government knew about was at 16.
*Had been babysitting since 11, if that counts.

My 2nd job right now is at a family owned restaurant and I take my nearly 6 year old there from time to time to "work". He already takes his responsibilities seriously as a little host and gets tipped quite well (nothing like seeing such a young boy wearing his button down and tie saying "enjoy your meal").

Good work ethics start young. I'm a firm believer in gettin em to work!
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tinaroonie is offline tinaroonie Post #10  June 17,2011, 4:49pm
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Like others, my first jobs were babysitting jobs. I did some of that through high school. The summer of after my 11th grade year, I spent a month with a friend of mine, just the two of us at her house, while her parents were in Europe, and I did get a job being a day camp counselor at a local country club. But it was only a month, and the woman that hired me, was upset, because apparently she didn't realize I was leaving after only a month. Oh well.

My first real job after college was working for a company that sold movie rights to television stations in Europe. I only lasted a month though, the company was small, they felt I wasn't pulling my weight. No, I wasn't a sales person. No biggie, not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life anyway.
 
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