# What Was Your First Real Job? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 4, 2014, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319 "2014-04-04T05:03:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [April 4, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/41 "2014-04-04T15:41:12Z")
In high school, ski and binding technician at Ski Barn in the Antelope Valley. I got paid in store credit. After my skiing injury, store clerk and then store magician at Magic Mountain. After my car wreck, cashier at Kmart. Then I got a data job with a contractor at Edwards AFB. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/42 "2014-04-04T16:26:01Z")
During high school in the late '60s, worked as a cashier at a drugstore. Made ninety something cents an hour. ---
**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:** [April 4, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/43 "2014-04-04T16:30:24Z")
Oh – I got $2.50/hour in store credit at Ski Barn. I think I made $3.15/hour at Magic Mountain. Three-something at Kmart, and took a pay cut to minimum wage to get the job at Edwards. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/44 "2014-04-04T16:31:46Z")
I made minimum wage cutting underbrush and small trees from the roadway in East Tennessee. I was 16 in 1968. I Think the minimum was $1.25/hr then. This was during the summer and during school I worked 20 hours a week for the same wage as an assistant janitor for the high school. I worked after hours and during lunch and study hall. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/45 "2014-04-04T17:04:29Z")
I worked in an architect’s office, on the top floor of a NYC skyscraper. I was the office “gopher” and messenger and operator of the blueprint machine. This was back in the 60s, and I got paid something like $1.50/hr. It was enough to pay for a room at the Y. This was when the PanAm Building had a heliport on the roof, and I was right next to it. It seemed that the blades could hit my building. Cool. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/46 "2014-04-04T17:15:51Z")
I was a cashier in a grocery store. This was 1992 and I was 17, I can’t remember what I made but I’m betting it was about minimum wage. After about a year of being a cashier I got “promoted” to the bulk foods department where I had to lift 30-50 pound boxes of candy to fill the bins on the store floor. Let me tell you, I had biceps to die for. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/47 "2014-04-04T18:50:21Z")
Lab assistant in a biology research lab at the Illiinois Institute of Technology. It was a work-study position. Cleaned lots of test tubes and petri dishes filled with substances of dubious origin. Working the autoclaves was kind of cool, though. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/48 "2014-04-04T18:59:10Z")
Assistant Janitor at an elementary school when I was 15. I made under minimum wage, since the scholl system was allowed to do that for “underage” workers. Mopping floors and lilfting cafeteria garbage cans for 3-4 hours per day got me ripped pretty quick, though. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/49 "2014-04-04T19:00:30Z")
Delivering newspapers for about $50/week when I was 11. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/50 "2014-04-04T19:09:54Z")
Summer of 1989- 16 yrs old. Busboy & janitor at a Chili’s restaurant in SW Houston. $3.50 hr for the janitor part, $2.01 + 1% of the total restaurant tip-out for the busboy part. I think I made about 2x the money on tips than I did in a paycheck that summer- the usual haul was about $20 per day for 3-4 hours of actual busboy work, which followed about 3 hours of janitorial stuff every morning. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/51 "2014-04-04T19:11:03Z")
If we’re counting things like newspaper delivery…I worked on a dairy farm for two summers when I was 13-14, I traveled with my grandmother working at county fairs for 3 summers, had a rural paper route (technically it was my mother that was employed by them, but we did it together since it involved driving). ---
**Author:** ![slightly\_askew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@slightly\_askew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slightly_askew)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/52 "2014-04-04T19:14:34Z")
Worked for a catering company on weekends starting at about age 13. Served a lot of stuffed chicken breast at a lot of weddings, plus the occasional class reunion or bar mitzvah. Usually came home reeking of beer and cigarettes. This would have been 1986 or so. I made $3.35 an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/53 "2014-04-04T19:22:18Z")
First as a carpet cleaner assistant, then at a car wash (cue music); $1.75/hr, zero tips. ETA: Prior to that I had a paper route, but I sucked at money management. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/54 "2014-04-04T19:26:34Z")
I interviewed business owners over the telephone, and earned minimum wage. ---
**Author:** ![gwendee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/55 "2014-04-04T19:30:40Z")
I worked at a garden nursery watering plants, moving stock around and deadheading geraniums. The pay was $3.45 an hour or so. That job was seasonal and I only stayed one season. After that I worked at a deli in a convenience store for the same or not very much more pay, but many more hours. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/56 "2014-04-04T19:33:35Z")
My parents had a grocery in a small town that I helped out at from the time I was in elementary school. By some point, I was running the place solo when my dad would leave to play golf, so I guess that counts as a real job. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/57 "2014-04-04T19:34:52Z")
Age 14, running the candy counter at a college bookstore. I made minimum wage (looks like it would have been $2.50/hr.). I remember getting in trouble for eating too much candy. I also threw my back out lifting candy jars. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/58 "2014-04-04T19:34:55Z")
Age 16 (or thereabout), worked after school (and sometimes before school) and summers for a combination egg wholesaler/feed store. I don’t remember the wage. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2014, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/59 "2014-04-04T20:12:47Z")
Clerk in a hobby/crafts shop. It was 1973 to 1974, and I earned one dollar per hour. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319/60 "2014-04-05T00:39:55Z")
I worked as a library page (shelving books, etc.) when I was 14 and got paid 65 cents an hour. When I turned 16 I got a raise to 85 cents an hour and was permitted to work after 6 PM. Why, yes, I am that old. My first full-time jobs were summer jobs doing general office work. My first full-time permanent job was teaching. I made almost $5000 a year! Wow! And my husband made even more! We were rich! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-real-job/685319.md?page=4)