What was your first paid job?

Graces7 · 22-11-2014 4:17pm #1

Mine was, and this is in the mid-fifties, potato picking in the UK.. we had sacking bag/aprons and each had a patch to gather and would follow after the tractor, collect the potatoes then carry them to the trailer and pour them in.
Muddy mucky potatoes! Bare hands!

We felt very grown up sitting by the hedge with the me eating our snacks as they drank cold tea from medicine bottles..

Cold and sometimes wet but we got ten shillings a day. The farmer would only employ girl as he said boys fought.

artanevilla · 22-11-2014 4:37pm

Worked in the stock room of a large department store in Dublin putting hangers and security tags on clothes.

Laura Palmer · 22-11-2014 4:42pm

Tesco - shelf-stacking!

Well Quinnsworth...

/old

OneArt · 22-11-2014 4:56pm

Working for the Lord of the Manner. The usual servant duties really; scraping the beds, making the cheese, securing the ceiling cozy...

We got paid in beer and had a half-day every month to go to the Pineapple Fete.

One eyed Jack · 22-11-2014 4:57pm

Strawberry picking when I was about 10, best job ever!

Well, for the first couple of hours anyway as I was told it was 15p a basket and the fields seemed to stretch on for miiiiiiles (from a ten year olds perspective!). I was down on my hands and knees in the drills - "Two for me, one for the basket, two for me, one for the basket"...

That kinda thing catches up with you, and by lunchtime I had made several trips to the portaloo!

The farmer had a shop nearby too so I was in and out for ice creams the whole time and asked them to take it out of my wages (I could've ended up owing them more than I was paid by the end of the week if I hadn't gotten sick!

).

wandatowell · 22-11-2014 4:59pm

Worked in the local Supervalu. Great place to working for a kid. Met people there 10 years ago that I'm still friendly with now.

Fakman87 · 22-11-2014 5:01pm

Worked in a family run shop. Never again...

HeidiHeidi · 22-11-2014 5:03pm

Paper round when I was 12, so I could buy myself a pair of Levis (mother's rules - if I buy it, I pick it, if you want premium brands, you buy it).

Paid the princely sum of a fiver a week

SEPT 23 1989 · 22-11-2014 5:05pm

Lounge boy

KERSPLAT! · 22-11-2014 5:05pm

Lounge boy in the local pub. £20 a night!

DoozerT6 · 22-11-2014 5:09pm

All-round slave in a small hotel, duties included anything and everything I was told to do, all for the princely sum of £1 an hour.

Jawgap · 22-11-2014 5:12pm

Helping the local milkman, then I graduated to teaboy in a furniture factory!

seventeen sheep · 22-11-2014 5:12pm

Waitressing at weddings in a local hotel. I quit after a couple of nights ... Crap money, crap hours, and I hated the work. I was only fifteen. It's funny because I worked far worse jobs in far worse places for years after that, and never considered quitting ... I guess when I was fifteen I just didn't need money for anything really. Simpler times!

Zanablue · 22-11-2014 5:15pm

When I was 13 I had a load of babysitting jobs and the money was used to buy clothes. My mother used to take her cut every week aswell.

padd b1975 · 22-11-2014 5:47pm

Apprentice plumber.

IR£79 per week.

IvyTheTerrible · 22-11-2014 5:52pm

Another strawberry picker here! Did that for 2 summers when I was 12 and 13. It was hard work and slave wages but it was great craic too. Nice to have some money of my own too.

Glebee · 22-11-2014 5:53pm

Gun runner

Buona Fortuna · 22-11-2014 5:56pm

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Lounge boy

KERSPLAT! wrote: »

Lounge boy in the local pub. £20 a night!

DoozerT6 wrote: »

All-round slave in a small hotel, duties included anything and everything I was told to do, all for the princely sum of £1 an hour.

Are these some sort of euphamisms?

ArnoldJRimmer · 22-11-2014 5:59pm

Local supermarket which also did farm supplies. So stacking shelves and lugging big bags of cattle feed onto the back of tractors as a gangly 15 year old. 50 pounds a week, a tenner of which went to my mother, and most of the rest into a savings account my dad opened for me.

losthorizon · 22-11-2014 6:00pm

Spun yarn in a wool factory.

Second job was doing research for an oil company in Russia.

Turtyturd · 22-11-2014 6:01pm

Started out as a groundskeeper in a local football/pitch a putt complex. Was left on my own most of the time so it was handy. As the summer went on it transitioned into a job behind the bar which was even better as on most week nights the bar had about 10 people in it and most of the night could be spent playing pool.

LenaClaire · 22-11-2014 6:05pm

I was a child model when I was 2-4. After that, started babysitting when I was 12.

crockholm · 22-11-2014 6:05pm

Graces7 wrote: »

Mine was, and this is in the mid-fifties, potato picking in the UK.. we had sacking bag/aprons and each had a patch to gather and would follow after the tractor, collect the potatoes then carry them to the trailer and pour them in.
Muddy mucky potatoes! Bare hands!

We felt very grown up sitting by the hedge with the me eating our snacks as they drank cold tea from medicine bottles..

Cold and sometimes wet but we got ten shillings a day. The farmer would only employ girl as he said boys fought.

All too similar, except picking stones out of an Airport field and dumping them into the back of a trailer.

One time they poisoned a load of Crows,so they got tossed into the trailer too.
I was about 13 years old,got 1£ per hour and bought a "Public Enemy" tape as a treat after.Graduated on to lounge boy and petrol pumper after-it felt like I was shooting for the stars:rolleyes:

anncoates · 22-11-2014 6:06pm

Paper round in the early 80s delivering the Evening Herald and Evening Press.

I assume kids don't do that anymore and get a few quid for emailing e-zines instead.

downonthefarm · 22-11-2014 6:09pm

Worked in a Chinese restaurant.
Bought Sega mega drive with first wage
Hood times

Frosty McSnowballs · 22-11-2014 6:09pm

Another lounge boy here

Got £12.75 a night plus whatever tips or coppers I didn't Hoover up at the end of the night. Great craic, except for the the time one of the gay regulars got me a job with him in Specsavers and told my manager that iv quit to go work with him.

'Twas all news to me! And no, I didn't go and work in Specsavers.

HeidiHeidi · 22-11-2014 6:10pm

anncoates wrote: »

Paper round in the early 80s delivering the Evening Herald and Evening Press.

I assume kids don't do that anymore and get a few quid for emailing e-zines instead.

Are you sure you're not me?

My niece recently had to bring a story into school about the history of the neighbourhood - her choice of story was me and her mother (my younger sister who took over the paper round from me) doing the paper round.

Bit depressing being considered ancient neighbourhood history :eek::eek::eek:

anncoates · 22-11-2014 6:13pm

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Paid the princely sum of a fiver a week

Think I got about 3.

We were lucky though as we also went round with the guy that owned the round on a Friday night to collect the money so got little tips as well.

hfallada · 22-11-2014 6:18pm

Most young people only get their first job in 1st/2nd year of college due to recession. My first job was in a Supermarket. I was literally the only one who could be trusted with the till on the weekend. So its not fun scanning €4000 worth of food in 6 hours. Literally I was burnt out at the end of the shift. We had to do everything in the supermarktet. My list of duties was 40 things in my contract( which I got after working there for 5 weeks). Everyone hated it and didnt last more than about a month at most. The owner was shocked when I quit.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 22-11-2014 6:35pm

My first was also my last - 42 years later.

eire-kp · 22-11-2014 6:52pm

Driving an excavator..getting 100 euro a day to sit and listen to the radio all summer when your 14 wasn't bad!

What was your first paid job?

Comments