# What was your first job? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 5, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165 "2016-07-05T22:25:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/41 "2016-07-06T22:06:46Z")
My father worked for IBM so I won one of their scholarships and at that time, that meant a summer job was available. I was a telephone operator for the plant. “IBM Ourtown, may I help you?” “Is this IBM?” “Yes.” “Is this Ourtown?” “Yes…” Pretty funny since now I have a severe phobia about the phone. It didn’t come from that job though. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2016, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/42 "2016-07-06T22:21:09Z")
Receptionist at the garment factory that was famous for making Elvis’s Hawaiian shirts in _Blue Hawaii_. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/43 "2016-07-07T00:07:08Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Delivering the morning newspaper for about $7 a week. The Hartford Courant, America’s oldest continuously published newspaper. Hey man, that was my second job! Delivered the Courant in the morning and the New London Day in the afternoon. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/44 "2016-07-07T00:18:03Z")
> [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](#): > > Hey man, that was my second job! Delivered the Courant in the morning and the New London Day in the afternoon. Cool! By 6:30 AM on Mon-Sat, and by 8:30 AM on Sundays. I didn’t mind snow or ice or rain. But wind - I hated the wind days! You were more industrious than I was. I could have delivered the old Hartford Times in the afternoons, but, naah. I made that $7 stretch through the whole week. Oh, and I will always remember the largest headlines I ever saw. My eyes went wide when on August 8, 1974 I saw this (yes I am old enough): **Nixon Resigns** [http://www.courant.com/courant-250/moments-in-history/hc-day-in-history-august-20140728-001-photo.html](http://www.courant.com/courant-250/moments-in-history/hc-day-in-history-august-20140728-001-photo.html) ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/45 "2016-07-07T02:37:17Z")
Working at the local cinema at age 16. I had gotten my license and my mother’s old Honda Accord. Parents said I had to pay my own gas and insurance. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/46 "2016-07-07T04:00:58Z")
Peeling tulip bulbs. Age 12 ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/47 "2016-07-07T06:34:59Z")
Girl Friday. ---
**Author:** ![BlueLioness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@BlueLioness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueLioness)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/48 "2016-07-07T07:20:40Z")
Telemarketer. Getting cussed out wasn’t worth the commissions. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/49 "2016-07-07T09:27:38Z")
Stuffing envelopes for newsletters and statements at the credit union my mom worked for at age fourteen. The pay was $25.00 per quarter. ---
**Author:** ![Gladys\_Overnow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Gladys\_Overnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gladys_Overnow)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/50 "2016-07-07T09:31:40Z")
Ticket taker at the town pool ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/51 "2016-07-07T13:10:52Z")
Not counting mowing lawns for scratch money… Wendy’s. I did it because they were the only ones who would hire at 14, and I wanted a job. The store was only about a mile away from where I lived (and half of that was my neighborhood) so I was able to ride my bike to work. Also, my parents eventually got me an electric scooter, so I would ride that work too and just park it where the dumpsters were. Don’t remember my pay or anything, but I do remember always having WAY more money than my friends. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/52 "2016-07-07T13:39:23Z")
Are we talking first, official legal paycheck-earning gig, or are we talking about the first regular thing that anyone paid me for? In the first case, it was when I was a busboy/janitor at a Chili’s in the summer of 1989 at 16, almost 17 years old. In the second, it was probably a few years earlier- I had a regular gig mowing lawns for a couple of people from the summer before high school up through when I graduated and went to college, but it was one of those unofficial pay the teenager cash things. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/53 "2016-07-07T13:43:24Z")
Ski and binding technician when I was in high school. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165/54 "2016-07-07T13:46:22Z")
Little League umpire, which will surprise no one who’s been on this board a long time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-job/759165.md?page=2)