What was your first paid job?

Graces7

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

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

Laura Palmer

Tesco - shelf-stacking!

Well Quinnsworth...

/old

OneArt

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

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

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

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

HeidiHeidi

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

Lounge boy

KERSPLAT!

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

DoozerT6

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

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

seventeen sheep

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

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

Apprentice plumber.

IR£79 per week.

IvyTheTerrible

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

Gun runner

Buona Fortuna

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

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

Spun yarn in a wool factory.


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

Turtyturd

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

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

crockholm

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

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

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

Frosty McSnowballs

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

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

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

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

My first was also my last - 42 years later.

eire-kp

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

Fresh Pots

Another strawberry picker here. Hated it!

Andy-Pandy

In a computer game store called joystick when I was 15. My job mostly consisted of minding kids when there parents went shopping by holding street fighter competitions. It was a young teenagers dream job.

Galwayguy35

Working for a silage contractor during the summer holidays, long hours but it was great to have my own money.

JJJJNR

Commis chef, prep work all day.. hated it.

Beasty

Mid 70s petrol pump attendant on a Saturday morning. Then got a job as school cleaner - 2 hours every night after school at 55p an hour. In the summer holidays I worked on a farm.

stanley1

On the tote Shelbourne Park 67/68.

braddun

actor

theteal

The day I finished the junior cert I walked into the pub on the way home from the school and asked for a job. Started the following night at the princely rate of £2 per hour. It made that nights dolly mixture all the more sweet!

sadie06

Bag packing in Superquinn. We were sent on a training course for a day to learn how to do it! I found my first love while in that job at aged 16. He was a shelf stacker. Good memories.

kerry4sam

First was when I was 14 & babysitting; well, babysitting in terms of one being only 2-years my junior. Think it was more a case of ensuring the house wasn't burned down; that the kids stayed alive and something warm was almost ready when the parents came in from work though tbh as opposed to 'babysitting'!

Yup, all three ticked off, all tasks were done okay!
kerry4sam

Crumpets

McDonalds

RhubarbCrumble

Dunnes. Late 90's. £4.12 an hour.

Ruu

Picking schtones!

0byme75341jo28

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Lounge boy

Wtf is a lounge boy..

Lone Stone

Pat the veger around d5 in a van when i was like 10. An entire day for 8 euro stingy bastard.

The Strawman Argument

When: 90s
Age: 4-8
Where: My grandaunt's
Role: Telling my grandaunt about how I was going to be a priest and all the holy things I was doing to prepare for it. She couldn't stop herself from throwing money at me once she got thinking about having a priest in the family.

KERSPLAT!

Ruu wrote: »

Picking schtones!

I did that for a while summer before, used to just get stoned all the time. Great craic firing rocks into a dumper while off your head

happywithlife

Babysitting here too - easy gig as it was an only boy about 7/8 and he was in bed for most of it. Never forget the night the fuse box tripped - parents were impressed I was able to locate it (they had a biiiigggg house! - it was in the "games room")
Then progressed onto hotel work - loved it. Got a live in job in a place in Kerry for the sumner after my leaving and worked split shifts mainly.

Merrion

Night time counter staff in a Chinese take-away.
Bank holiday weekends were very messy - drunks and fights and so much casual racism :-(

mondeoman2

1989- Lounge boy sun-thur €5 per night & Fri Sat €7 great craic