[floridaorange]

How old were you and what work did you do?

I was 13 yrs old, my Uncle hired me to paint his horse farm fence - took me all summer long and I was paid a measly $100.

The next summer I worked on my grandfathers farm all summer, I was 14. The hours were 5am - 3pm. It was a great experience and taught me a lot about what hard work was like.

[HappynHealthy]

My first at 11 or 12 was cutting lawns, our neighbor had a Cub Cadet riding mower - used it for their lawn and my parents and others. It ran a bit sluggish so fiddling with the carb and throttle, took them all apart, put it all back together and had this dumb spring left over. It ran GREAT after that!. A few years later i realized it had been the spring for the plastic governor paddle LOL. There started my need for speed!

[Lady Jane]

My first "paying" job when I was ten, was to collect rocks on the Air Force Base golf course. We would get $0.25 a bucket.

My real paying job was tending bar starting when I was sixteen at a local pub after school and week-ends to help pay for my college tuition. Minimum wage but the tips were really good. Being the only child of two Senior Officers, I didn't have to earn money but I was encourage to do so and learn some very valuable life lessons. Working in a Pub, you learn a lot about human nature.

[JustinHEMI]

Paperboy 10-15.

Is that even a thing anymore?

Slung two bags over my shoulder, walked about a 4 mile route.

Kept me very fit.


As a teen starting to drive, my paltry "salary" wasn't cutting it so like a lot of 15 year olds, I jumped to fast food.

[other_evolved]

I was 13 and worked at a dairy delivery service in Toms River, NJ. I washed the refrigerated delivery trucks. Paid $10/hr back in 1997 (cash) and I worked 6 hours a day 4 days a week during the summer.

[ricardofors68]

Dairy/pig farm, I think I was 11 or 12. No pay. I thought I was the man. Learnt a lor about responsibilities, accountability. Worked every day on summers, weekends the rest of the year. Did that until I turned 14 because we moved.

[ASAP]

Officially, I think I was 16 and worked the frier at Chickfila lol... it wasn't a bad job it just got quite busy often... the company did seem to care about its employees tho and it food, but again this was many many years ago.

[erickonphoenix]

13 yo picking up trash at the local rennfest. $25/day ($50/wknd) in 1978 went a long way. By the way that detail was hard to get. My pops had connections to get me in so I was probably the first "nepobaby" in the trash trade.

[dreamingat30fps]

My father had his own business so I "worked" with him probably since I was around 13 or 14. I remember in high school, maybe 16 or 17, I wanted a "real" job and applied at a movie theater near my house since I was really into movies and filmmaking, never got hired though. In high school it was around the time napster was popular. Me and my friend had a CD ripping hustle at school. We would walk around at lunch time with a "catalog" of songs they could choose from and get them ripped on a CD for a few bucks.

Other than that I didn't have any "real" jobs until I went off to college. I did a lot of freelance during college, but I think my first job was part time at Clear Channel. It was fun because I worked under the promotions department, which are the guys that would go out to businesses and concerts and stuff and setup a tent for the stations. I managed their websites and went to the events to take photos and videos.

[M_Six]

Aside from the usual teen stuff of cutting lawns and paper delivery...

Some of my first "jobs" were very short lived. I tried working at a flower and tree nursery, but that beat me to death in one day. Same with a car wash in the winter. Nearly got frostbite on my toes. My first real job at 16 was at a butcher shop. Mostly cleaning stuff. That lasted most of a summer. BBQ season ended and I got laid off, but then rehired a month or two later. I left that job to work at a gas station, which was far easier.

[StunnedMonkey]

Originally Posted by JustinHEMI

Paperboy 10-15.

Is that even a thing anymore?

Slung two bags over my shoulder, walked about a 4 mile route.

Kept me very fit.


As a teen starting to drive, my paltry "salary" wasn't cutting it so like a lot of 15 year olds, I jumped to fast food.

Seems like newspapers (where they still exist) are delivered by adults in vehicles these days.

I was also a paperboy, early 1970's maybe age 12-13. Walked a ~60 paper route with one of those canvas bags over my shoulder. Some days it was easy, some days (Sunday) not so much. Back then we even had to do our own collections, go house to house and collect the subscription $$. Can you imagine such a thing today?

[DocL]

First was a paper route @ 11 like so many here. Then a caddy at local private golf club where I could make $12+tip per round. I'd carry two bags, twice a day, and come home with close to $100 at 13 yrs old. I then moved on to valet parking when I got my license and did that through high school and summers in college. I was making good money for a kid with no expenses.

[JustinHEMI]

Originally Posted by StunnedMonkey

Seems like newspapers (where they still exist) are delivered by adults in vehicles these days.

I was also a paperboy, early 1970's maybe age 12-13. Walked a ~60 paper route with one of those canvas bags over my shoulder. Some days it was easy, some days (Sunday) not so much. Back then we even had to do our own collections, go house to house and collect the subscription $$. Can you imagine such a thing today?

Oh yes. I remember collection day, and the shenanigans people would pull to rip me out of my 3 bucks!

[Kowalski2011]

When I was 14 I worked the summer trimming Christmas trees. With a razor sharp 3 foot machete in each hand, baseball knee guards and steel toe work boots, down the rows we went. Definitely helpful to get into a rhythm as you swing each arm left then right then left as you circled the tree. I only cut myself once - 5 stitches. $1.85 an hour. I bought a 10-speed bike with my earnings that summer.

My other gig was delivering newspapers. 85 customers on my route. Canvas bag wrapped around my butterfly handlebars. Man, Sundays were a bitch. Then there was 'collect' when I accepted payment for the previous month. Can you believe some cheap a-holes trying to stiff the paperboy for a measly couple of bucks?!

[///MPhatic]

I think I was a bit late to that game, honestly.

Bus boy at The Pasta House Co. when I was 17, circa 1987. $2.01 + tips

[Kowalski2011]

The county fair is every summer in August. My friends and I would show up when the carnival arrived and take a job helping to assemble the rides. 12-13-14 years old. Earned some spending money plus, since we knew the carneys, free passes to the rides. Yes we rode those rocko-planes and 'the bullet' over and over never worrying about safety or that we actually helped put these things together.

[floridaorange]

Originally Posted by ASAP

Officially, I think I was 16 and worked the frier at Chickfila lol... it wasn't a bad job it just got quite busy often... the company did seem to care about its employees tho and it food, but again this was many many years ago.

I worked at ChickfilA when I was 16 too - it was in a mall - was a lot of fun considering I was making chicken sandwiches - the managers were brothers and super funny. So we just laughed a lot and made the best of it.

[3.0L]

Originally Posted by Kowalski2011

When I was 14 I worked the summer trimming Christmas trees. With a razor sharp 3 foot machete in each hand, baseball knee guards and steel toe work boots, down the rows we went. Definitely helpful to get into a rhythm as you swing each arm left then right then left as you circled the tree. I only cut myself once - 5 stitches. $1.85 an hour. I bought a 10-speed bike with my earnings that summer.

My other gig was delivering newspapers. 85 customers on my route. Canvas bag wrapped around my butterfly handlebars. Man, Sundays were a bitch. Then there was 'collect' when I accepted payment for the previous month. Can you believe some cheap a-holes trying to stiff the paperboy for a measly couple of bucks?!

First job was selling newspapers on a street corner. Eleven years old. Job sucked; maybe made 5 cents per evening.

Second job was a paper route. Made about $20.00 a month, if some a-hole didn't skip out on me. And I remember one dude who did. He was a letter carrier for the post office. Mofo owed me $3.42.

So years later, after I was married and shortly after I got home from Vietnam and separated from the Army, guess who walks into my dad's TV store? The letter carrier. He plopped a table radio on the counter, presenting it for repair. I kept a straight face while writing up the repair order. He didn't recognize me.

I repaired the radio a few days later, then took the invoice to my dad and explained what that cheap SOB had done to me years before. Dad said, "Add $10.00 to the bill." So I did, and then called the SOB. He groaned slightly when he picked up the radio, paid the bill and left. Dad observed the transaction from his office. After the SOB was out of sight, dad opened the cash drawer, modified the bill and then handed me 10 bucks. LOL! Getting even never felt so good!

[JP10]

Cleanup in a local butcher shop at 13. Just imagine blood tons of blood on everything, especially the kill room. The blood was the easy stuff to get off, lard was much more time consuming. Only place I could get hired that early. Then a gas station at 15 or 16 with landscaping on the side. Farm at 17 driving an hour each way to work 12+ hrs a day. Fun stuff..

[kscarrol]

Was cutting neighbors yards at 10 but first real job I was 14 working at Gray Tool Company in Houston. They were an oil service company that was bought by a rival years ago. Basically a gopher to start, pulling parts to fill orders, building wooden storage bins etc. Quickly learned how to drive a fork lift and that was a blast for a 14year old. Worked there for three summers with my last summer in their nuclear inspection department doing quality control as parts were made for plants.

[Watching The World Burn]

Glorified busser at 14 or so I believe at a nearby resort, set up conferences in the table format they wanted, A/V equip in the room, set up the snack / coffee stations and then broke everything down again for them when they left (which sometimes was 11pm or so which I hated because I never knew how long I'd be working at night).

But I thought the cash tips were the bomb, get a little packet of cash as tips the next day. Plus, occasionally the conference would leave some good promo gear behind and I'd scoop it up - as a kid I thought it was pretty good.

Plus as a bonus, since I was an employee of the resort I got free golfing and skiing, so that was a win.

[Tommy-G]

First real job was Blockbuster Video in NJ. My best friend and I got hired together and had to help set up the store as it was brand new. Then would come the Friday & Saturday night crowds when we all wanted to work b/c the school cuties would all come in. Never did work out for me but it was fun!