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Let's see, I started working for my father as a helper in construction during the summers when I was about 14, our neighbor ran a snowplowing and landscaping business and hired us whenever we wanted a few extra bucks. My first full time job was working as a laborer at a warehouse after I graduated HS in '71. I went to school nights and worked my way into engineering, never unemployed until I was laid off in the 90's. That was the most frightening period of my life, jobs were scarce in my field and my kids were just teens, still paying a mortgage, no insurance, I did a lot of odd jobs and went back to school. But we survived. I finally landed a good job as an engineering staff member for a university, it's been rewarding and thankfully steady and I've been here ever since. I'll be retiring next year, I will have been in the workforce over 52 years, and FT for over 47 years.
First job: 14, working an old fashioned soda fountain. I did not know how to count change -- so my customers go back some interesting combinations of money.
I am still working and when I FINALLY get to leave the work place, I will have worked for 50 years -- that's a terrible waste of a life
Really? Fifty years and it has added nothing to your life? I'm sure you exaggerate.
Almost all of us in my generation (born in 1944) had jobs of one sort or another when we were in high school, and frequently before that too. Perhaps the children of the upper classes didn't, but I don't think I knew anyone in the upper classes. The responses so far in this thread confirm that.
That practice, which is no longer nearly as common, was a good thing; in addition to the character building it was a way to learn about the world. I feel sorry for kids who missed out on the experience.
First job: 14, working an old fashioned soda fountain. I did not know how to count change -- so my customers go back some interesting combinations of money.
I am still working and when I FINALLY get to leave the work place, I will have worked for 50 years -- that's a terrible waste of a life
Quote:
Originally Posted by snowtired14
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Really? Fifty years and it has added nothing to your life? I'm sure you exaggerate.
I don't understand how someone can be 14 years old and not know how to make change, but that's a peripheral issue. Snowtired, I don't know if Red On The Noodle is exaggerating, but one thing I have learned in seven years of reading this Retirement Forum is that, tragically, some people have jobs that they absolutely loathe and which give them no satisfaction whatsoever. Many posters have written that they feel life only begins at retirement. If they really mean that, I find it sad beyond words. Granted, it is a difficult concept to digest.
Some posters filled in the middle, so here's mine too, in an order that comes to mind:
Bakery clerk
Dish washer
Table busser
Vet assistant-one summer, no pay
McDonald's server
College nursing dept admin. assist.
College admissions office assist.
Nursing assistant, hospital
Nursing assistant, nursing home
High school English teacher
Naval officer-intelligence, law enforcement
Crisis center phone counselor
Counselor/psychotherapist
Home health/hospice social worker
Dialysis social worker
electrician's apprentice, fear of heights, uh uh
Flower delivery contractor for holidays
Pet sitter, own business
Retail grocery clerk, part-time
Now: I'm not working for anyone but myself OR not at all!
First job: 18 years old, shoving carts of boots in and out of a vulcanizing oven. I lasted one day. I got a job as a government clerk a few weeks after that, and stayed there for a couple of years until I decided to go to community college.
Last job: currently working in IT at 70 years old, leaving in a few months but I'll continue working part time as a counselor after that. Bouts of college, graduate school, and unemployment in between -- total years in the work force 42. My first social security check was deposited five days ago.
I started working off the books when I was about 12 doing odd jobs for a church lady. I got my working papers as soon as I was 14 and have Social Security earnings from that time. I worked in a lumberyard, at a gas station pumping gas, was an apprentice plumber and a busboy in a restaurant while in high school. I was the only one of all my friends with money. Joined the Navy at 18 and got a job upon discharge at 24. My career worked out well and I made some good money, but started to get really tired of working a few years ago. Just got RIF'd and am happily retired at age 58.
I started at 16, senior year in high school working at a bank. I got the job through taking an ROP class in banking. 40 years later, I retired as an engineer.
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