Tell us the story of how you got your first job (employees, credit)

[DragonflyMom]

Ugh. I got a job as a local poultry processing plant to make some money until my fiancé finished college in about 90 days, when we were getting married. My future mother in law already worked there, so she told me to tell the hiring person I was afraid of knives so they would place me in one of the easier, less dangerous jobs.

I was hired to work at a large conveyor table over a vat of icy water, in which floated thousands of pieces of chicken giblets. Necks, livers, hearts, gizzards. My job, along with about 8 other ladies, was to pick one of each piece as they came up out of the water and across the conveyor, wrap the pieces in a paper egg-roll style, and then stick the resulting pack of gizzards in the back end of a chicken. The chickens were passing by slowly overhead, hanging on hooks by their feet. Thousands of chickens slowly passing by, all day. Just reach up and put the pack in a chicken. Don't let a chicken get by without one. The giblets were very cold from the icy water, so about 10 minutes into the day, my hands were numb. It was a little like the famous Lucy and Ethel at the chocolate factory episode, but with raw chicken. Luckily for me the other ladies were old veterans at the job, so they could roll fast enough to build up a little pile of extra packs, so when I missed one, another lady would quickly grab a spare pack and stick it in.

It took me about an hour on the first day to have the "I'm smarter than this" epiphany. At the end of the first day my feet were killing me, the white coat I had to wear smelled like raw chicken and my hands ached. On the second day My rednecky foreman start coming on to me, I guess because I was the only 19 year old in a factory full of older ladies. On the third day, i told the foreman I was quitting and he said "aw, baby...don't quit. I'll give you something easier to do". My reply was "I already know this is the easiest job in the building" and I left. My net paycheck after taxes was $54.00, which I used to buy some of the new Corelle dishes that had just been invented, and which I still have.

[maggie2101]

My first job was at a music distribution company in Los Angeles. My mom worked there and I worked doing filing during the summer...I was 14. When I graduated from high school I went to work at another music company where my mother worked. She was in accounting and I ended up as an inventory clerk. Within 6 months I was in the buying office. I got free concert tickets and backstage passes to every band that played in LA. It was a wild and crazy time.

[midtown mile girl]

Originally Posted by midtown mile girl

I had two jobs after I graduated college. I worked for a temp service and worked at Rich's dept store. Then I got my first permament job at a bank working as a teller, and they forced me to give up my store job "because it made the bank look bad".

Got the dept store job by going in and applying in person and the temp service had advertised in the paper. (this was 1991).
The bank job I mailed in a resume and cover letter after the bank ran an ad in the paper.

[blazetrigger]

I got my first job by luck. I moved out to PA from NYC to attend college in 2003 and there was a Burger King that was a few minutes away from my brother's apartment so I went inside, filled out an application,got interviewed and got the job within 2 weeks of moving. stayed for about 4 months until let go.A few months after my departure, the location closed down.

[oldtrader]

I started high school at 13 years old. I was 6'2" tall, and looked to be about 20 years old, already getting a high forehead. The 3rd day of school a teacher got me aside, and asked if I wanted a job in a gas station 20 hours a week. Boy did I. He sent me to see a friend who owned one, and I went to work the next day after school which was my 14th birthday.

[Meemur]

Towards the end of my junior year in high school, I was spending a lot of time at the public library. I had a lot of research to do because I had an honors class and wrote a lot of papers but I also had a crush on one of the library pages who was a senior at another school. Before the library closed, I helped gather up the books on the tables and returned them to the cart to be put away.

The head librarian was impressed with my efforts and asked if I wanted to be a page that summer. I had never considered it, but I talked it over with my parents and they agreed that I could work mornings (I also had stuff to do at home for the family business).

That was my first paying job away from home.

Sadly, my crush went off to college that summer. ):

[revelated]

1996. Graduated high school. At my request, mother enrolled me into community college to get an Associates degree in IT. Went to the school, filled out the paperwork, took the entrance exams, signed up for courses, picked electives.

One day I was in the living room talking to my mother, father came down and stopped halfway on the stairs and said, "you've got a choice. You can get a job by the end of the month and live here rent free, or you can go to college and I will put you out on the street." Mother said nothing in defense.

I found an ad in the Union Tribune for a web development job in Mission Valley, HomeSelect (now defunct/folded into REALTOR.com). $8/hour. Interviewed and though I didn't blow them away at the interview, got the job mostly because back then it wasn't nearly as easy to find people who really knew how to develop web pages. Stayed at that job for a year before I left, they took so much advantage of me as a kid it was silly. Unpaid overtime, verbal abuse, hostile environment....the pay was the only good thing about it, since at the time I believe minimum wage was around $6/hour.

[mdand3boys]

At age 13 I was mowing yards in the neighborhood and then got a paper route at age 15. Neighbor down the street called me over one day while I was mowing his neighbor's yard and asked me if I wanted a job at the home office of the company he was an accountant at. Said he liked my work ethic. The day I turned 16, they hired me as a part-time mail room employee, after school. $4.25 an hour in 1978, plus I kept my paper route and mowing jobs. Made about $300 a week back then.

[ovi8]

First company post-college - I had held a summer position before my last semester and they offered a full-time position for me to come back to - IT for a small pharma company. I only stayed for 3 short months when a much larger/prestigious IT employer called me from a resume they had on file through school (hey that actually worked). I jumped at the chance, as it was also a 33% raise. Been here for 14 years now, but sad to report the increases have flattened out so I'm well underpaid. The real way of moving up is to move on.

[Girl]

OP, do you mean first job EVER, or first professional job?

If you mean first job ever, I worked for JC Penney's in the women's clothing department when I was 16. My sister applied at the same time. We were tested on our math skills (to make sure we could make change quickly and correctly) before being offered the job. I worked 2 nights a week after school and every other Saturday. I stayed for about a year before leaving to work in a bookstore at the same mall. I worked for that bookstore until I left for college.

My first professional job was relatively easy. I had interned with Immigration & Naturalization Service in DC during my college summers, and was immediately offered a full-time job when I graduated. My only regret is not STAYING with INS because I'd be retired right now had I stayed and made a career of it. My sister, who also interned at INS during college summers, DID stay with the government and is now a high level GSer with another agency, with only 3-4 years to go before she becomes eligible at age 50 for retirement (should she decide to retire (she won't)).