What was your first employment (real job) ?

[saddlebum]

pulling orders and loading trucks at l.d.jones food distributors

 

[nofearfactor]

My father had an auto body/mechanic shop, a used car lot, a couple of Green Lite auto parts stores, and later an AC-Delco parts warehouse. It wasnt a choice to work at our house it was required, every kid in the house had a job to do for my dad. I started out cleaning up in the shop when I was just a little kid every day after school and most weekends, moved up to paint mixer and prep/make ready for my dad the main painter, worked in the warehouse when needed, graduated to the parts store but not on the counter- they usually stuck me in the back mixing paint, when I got my drivers license I did deliveries for the stores and the warehouse, finally got to work on the counter as a salesman when I was in highschool. That was a big deal to me back then. I was able to buy into my own small business while still in highschool, bought my own new Blazer and built a couple of hot rods, bought some land up in the mountains in northern CA next door to land that my grampa bought in the 1930s that I still own today. Im glad my father instilled in us work ethic early on and to be independant, have been self employed ever since.

 

[ChuckC]

Hey that sounds just like me except in my case it was my dad I worked with.
Lots of framing, roofing, and concrete work.

Granddad was a carpenter / remodeler. I was roofing, painting, whatever from 8 - 16yo.
First full time, out of school job. Sold paint, carpet, tile, and wallpaper at Benjamin Moore.

Sounds like me too. My dad was a carpenter as well as all my uncles. The only thing I was certain of when I got out of high school was I did NOT want to be a carpenter.Never say never, for the last thirty five years I've been in residential construction of some form or other.

 

[Grendel]

My first real job was working at the MerCruiser plant in Stillwater during the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. ****ing 5am start times and 13 hour days sucked.

Of course, now I work anywhere between 8 and 18 hours long days, but don't usually have to start until 7am at the earliest.

 

[DeeJay]

US Navy. Graduated college in December, started OCS in January.

 

[ratski]

My parents owned a small neighborhood grocery store.

Worked it 6 days a week in the summer and every Saturday during school.

I did the inventory, price setting and was the cashier.

I still remember the guys at the wholesaler looking at me kinda funny as I placed my cigarette orders when I was 13!!

Dave

 

[mightymouse]

Sold auto parts at A&R Auto Supply, now long since gone.

 

[stick4]

First was a summer job making onion rings at Sonic. 15 yrs old. 50 cents an hour.

 

[IndVet]

Driving a forklift (on-the-job training) for a small business that made coleslaw for local restaurants in Colorado Springs when I was 19.

I was driving around filling out applications. Stopped at this place at random. Was being interviewed by the owner when his (hot as hell) daughter ran in the office and told him he needed to come with her and see to an incident in the back. He asked me to wait, so I did. About 20 minutes later he came back and asked if I wanted to learn how to drive a forklift. After seeing his daughter I said yes. Seems his current guy let the forklift roll off the dock onto the train tracks after a delivery, so he fired him on the spot.

Never had much luck with the daughter, she had a steady boyfriend. However her older sister (about 10 years older than me) pursued me aggressively and was successful in her hunt. Ended up costing me my job when she announced she was leaving her husband and kid (who I knew nothing about, thought she was single) to be with me. I mostly dated older women for the rest of my single days after that.

Learned a lot in that job, on and off the clock.

 

[Lurker66]

Graduated in May 1984, Worked for Natl. Thermal Insulation. Unloading trucks at the refinery in Tulsa. $5 a hour. Quit in September 84 and joined Army.