What was your first job & how much did you make?

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Mr. Lennon

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2004
3,492
1
81
In and Out

I was making $8 bucks an hour. It was pretty good money for a 16 year old. It was easily the worst job I ever had though. You think those people are all happy and shit...behind closed doors they were easily the most depressing/negative people I have ever met in my life. Then there were the people who drank the kool-aid hardcore. They would brag about graduating from In and Out "college." LOL
 

RockinZ28

Platinum Member
Mar 5, 2008
2,173
49
101
Warehouse worker at a hardware store. Think $7.00/hr. Just remember it was .25 over min wage.

What a difference a decade makes. Gas was about 1/7 of min wage/hr per gal. Now its 1/2.
 

Aquaman

Lifer
Dec 17, 1999
25,054
13
0
Job 1986 7-11 $7.20/hour

first real job after college........ 1990 A/P clerk at a small beverage company $24K per year.

Cheers,
Aquaman
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
67,936
12,384
126
www.anyf.ca
Janitorial helper at my high school, though it was more of a moving job, as we were also moving all the stuff to the newly constructed building.

It was actually a decently fun job TBH. Getting to see my new school before everyone else and knowing the building was kinda cool too at the time, and seeing things progress did have some form of satisfaction and at the end it was crazy to look at all those desks and chairs and other items and say "we moved all that!". I did that job the summers after as well, minus all the moving, was very laid back.

I was getting minimum wage, which was 7.15 at the time, but it was enough for me to build myself a new computer every year, and save the rest for college. I only worked in the summer while I was in school and college, and had enough money.

So I worked that for a few summers, and then my 2nd job was a server tech for a couple summers until I graduated. Then my permanent job, I went to work at helpdesk for the same company, and now I'm a server tech, go figure. I'd have to say things worked out pretty nicely for me.
 

hofan41

Senior member
Jan 5, 2006
225
0
0
student ambassador which was really just a glorified telemarketing position trying to get parents to donate. made minimum wage.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
37,852
8,314
136
I was usher at a movie theater. I lasted one day. Next time I came to work my boss asserted that he asked me to come in on an earlier day. He was a complete asshole.
 

Born2bwire

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2005
9,840
6
71
First job was working at a clerk at my dad's trading firm. I think he took me on for a full summer when I was 16 or so. First real job was being an intern at a government lab between high school and college.
 

marvdmartian

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2002
5,553
19
81
Grocery store stockboy/bagger. Made $2.50/hour. Minimum wage was $2.90/hour, but NY state had some funky law that said if an employer hired more than X number of underage (<18) workers, they could pay Y percentage of them at the lower wage.

In the case of that store, it was 4 employees. So I had to wait until 4 people were hired after me, before I went up to minimum wage. By the time I quit (when I joined the navy), minimum wage was up to $3.10/hour, and I was making a nickel more than that.
 

duragezic

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
11,234
4
81
Started at an industrial supply distributor the month after I turned 16.

I did shipping & receiving, deliveries, inventory, various computer stuff and data entry, create purchase orders, etc.

Started at $5.25 and went up to $6.25 in about a year and $7.25 about a year later till I left around age 19. This was 2001-2004.

Pretty awesome job, really. Good people to work with too.
 
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stargazr

Diamond Member
Jun 13, 2010
3,884
3,251
136
Auto body helper the summer of 1977. My first real full time job was tool & diemaker apprentice.
 

DarkWarrior2

Senior member
Oct 9, 1999
485
0
76
Restocked clothing from fitting rooms at Macy's. $6/hour.

I did odd jobs before that for a few bucks here and there - things like running errands for home-bound elderly folks and packing bags at a grocery store for tips.
 

Bignate603

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
13,897
1
0
Taught swim lessons and did life guarding while in highschool for $7 an hour. After a few years doing it I got up to $12 an hour. Not bad for a highschool job at all.
 

Leros

Lifer
Jul 11, 2004
21,867
7
81
Drove a truck for a factory. $6.50/hr

First real job after college. Software developer. $80k/year
 

MagnusTheBrewer

IN MEMORIAM
Jun 19, 2004
24,135
1,594
126
Had a double newspaper route at 12. I pulled in the princely sum of $240 a month. It took me 2 1/2 hours a day, every day and 3 1/2 hours on Sunday. Works out to $3.25 an hour and I had to keep my own books and cover the cheap bastards who 'forgot' to pay their subscription.
 

Paladin3

Diamond Member
Mar 5, 2004
4,933
877
126
When I was around 10, a friend and I would pick up the trash in our local movie theater parking lot in exchange for a free ticket each.

When I was around 12 I would catch mackerel from the Venture (CA) Pier and sell them to Asian families for $0.50 a fish.

We'd also collect aluminum cans from the dumpsters for more pocket money.

When I was 16 I got my first job in the games department of a theme park for $3.65/hr.

I also had a paying gig running the photo lab in college and doing prep work for the newspaper, but don't remember how much, somewhere in the $4/hr range.

My first newspaper job was shooting photos freelance at age 20. I got paid $6 for the first photo and $4 for any additional shots, plus a tiny mileage reimbursement per assignment. My first shoot was of a college softball pitcher. Two images were published and my first check, including mileage, was for $12. The real fringe benefits from that job were the free Tri-X film and AA batteries. When I was eventually hired on staff full-time it was for $6/hr.
 

sigmanova

Member
Sep 30, 2010
113
1
81
IT intern for an international shipping/logistics company @ $6.75 an hour. i think i was 20 years old; yeah i didn't work til college.
 

foghorn67

Lifer
Jan 3, 2006
11,885
53
91
First job was delivering papers for $18 per week. First real job was at a bakery for around $3.50 per hour.
How old were you?

Anyway. Mowed my neighbor's lawn for 10 bucks each time. And I had allergies. I was 14.
First job where I reported tax was at a discount store, lol. Long boring hours of being a checker. It was okay for gas money during HS. Did this when I was 17. Lasted about a year until I went on to the next job.
 
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pcgeek11

Lifer
Jun 12, 2005
21,513
4,607
136
~ Mid 1960's. Pumping gas washing windshields and checking oil. Made about 50 cents and hour...
 
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