Your first real job - what was it?

[Steph]

Windsurfing instructor during summer.

Otherwise, in printing as an helper/goffer for the operating team of a huge offset press. Lots of $$$ for a 15 yrs kid. That is when I bought my first guitar.

 

[Daniel]

First job with a regular paycheck was in a movie theater when I was thirteen. I quit that two days before I left for college. The job had perks and during the week things were slow so you could do schoolwork between show times. They wouldn't let you get in more than 30-35 hours a week so I did other stuff when it came along. One I liked was running the local dive shop when the owner was out of town on trips, he paid me in gear.

 

[tiboy]

My first real job after paperboy was working for the town's sewer department during the summer. I was 13.

 

[docbennett]

Working in Group Homes for the Developmentally Disabled while in graduate school.

The location was the South Bronx....in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

The trick was to get from your car to the building without getting attacked by the locals. Or without having bottles thrown at you from the elevated subway platform nearby (the same D train that ran right past Yankee stadium and still does).

Once inside the building, the group homes were located on the 12th and 13th floors of the large tenement building. The trick, once inside, was never to walk from one floor to the other without an escort. You'd never know what you might find in the stairwells. Dead bodies...folks passed out with needles still in their arms....and worst of all.....local gangs who'd think nothing of killing you right there in the stairway.

Best part of that job was that everything I've done since then is great just by comparison.

 

[Mike Duncan]

I worked at my Dad's office...sorta. I worked as a civilian for the US Military Delegation to NATO. My bosses were a bunch of Senior Chiefs and Sergeants. Work started around 0800. By 1000 it was coffee break time in NATO cafe. By noon it was two hour lunch time (beer included). Around 1500 it was lite snack time and by 1630 it was time to go home. I commuted into work everyday with a Royal Navy Commander who was an absolute blast! I was a 19 year old snot and he was a late 40s snot and we argued over every world situation possible! He was hilarious!

I had more fun at NATO than you could imagine! I'd take a shuttle into Brussels to go see my extreme hottie girlfriend who worked at the US embassy - so much fun.

When I completed my time at NATO, the three star General have me an award. The senior enlisted guys and gals had just finished plying me with beverages...I was so drunk when I received that award. I tried so hard to look like I was fine.

I miss those days.

 

[MykeWright]

I had a job as a paperboy for 3 years from age 13. I started an apprenticeship with British Telecom a few weeks before my 16th birthday. My pay didn't go up much and my hourly rate went down. My paperboy job DID pay particularly well, I was taking home £20-25 a week for about 12 hours work. I went to around £40 a week for 37.5 hours work......this was 1982!

 

[Albrecht Smuten]

Webdesigner in porn industry, age 20. I wasn't doing much, took a week-off whenever I felt like it.... it took them a year and half to find out and fire me.

 

[Blackbird]

TCBY.
Some nice fringe benefits there for a 16 year-old kid. Thank goodness for youthful metabolism.

 

[John Beef]

Actor/janitor for two summers at the Haunted Fun House at 25th and Atlantic at the resort strip in Virginia Beach. I would jump out of the dark and scream at people for a living. It was designed so I could work multiple stations as multiple characters and be the only actor back there on the day shift.

But since I worked days and our bread and butter was nights, say if it was a rainy or otherwise slow day, I would always get to wash the windows or clean the toilets or clean out behind the video game machines in the game room.

Overall, it was nice. I'd work noon to 6 PM, then go hang with my friends all night every night and sleep in every morning.

One thing that was cool was the history of the building. It started off as a movie theater in the 1950s, an old school giant theater with a balcony. There was a snack bar that we couldn't sell anything from because the owner didn't want to pay the fees for a food license. Above where the popcorn machine was, was this air intake. The building was designed so the climate control would intake the popcorn scented air from above machine and blow it out to the lobby so people would get hungry while waiting to buy tickets.

Later it was converted into a place that had punk rock shows in the 1980s every weekend, all ages shows. Some big names played there, Fugazi and Gwar for example. My brother used to go see five bands for five bucks every Friday, but I was too young for my parents to let me go. The city didn't like the punk rock element being so close to their lucrative tourist trap area, and it didn't help that the corrupt cops kept beating up punks for no reason after shows. So they passed all these laws requiring live music venues to have all these things specifically that the club didn't have, like a dedicated parking lot (virtually impossible in a tourist area like that) so the club shut down. After that it became the Haunted Fun House for 10 or 12 years.

The building was since condemned and half demolished, turned into some national chain tourist beach merchandise shop. Where't the culture? Where are all the good stories with something like that?

Oh, name drop alert! Zach Knighton who is the lead male actor on the ABC sitcom Happy Endings opposite Elisha Cuthbert (yum!) was also an actor there during my tenure.

 

[docbennett]

Actor/janitor for two summers at the Haunted Fun House at 25th and Atlantic at the resort strip in Virginia Beach. I would jump out of the dark and scream at people for a living. It was designed so I could work multiple stations as multiple characters and be the only actor back there on the day shift.

But since I worked days and our bread and butter was nights, say if it was a rainy or otherwise slow day, I would always get to wash the windows or clean the toilets or clean out behind the video game machines in the game room.

Overall, it was nice. I'd work noon to 6 PM, then go hang with my friends all night every night and sleep in every morning.

One thing that was cool was the history of the building. It started off as a movie theater in the 1950s, an old school giant theater with a balcony. There was a snack bar that we couldn't sell anything from because the owner didn't want to pay the fees for a food license. Above where the popcorn machine was, was this air intake. The building was designed so the climate control would intake the popcorn scented air from above machine and blow it out to the lobby so people would get hungry while waiting to buy tickets.

Later it was converted into a place that had punk rock shows in the 1980s every weekend, all ages shows. Some big names played there, Fugazi and Gwar for example. My brother used to go see five bands for five bucks every Friday, but I was too young for my parents to let me go. The city didn't like the punk rock element being so close to their lucrative tourist trap area, and it didn't help that the corrupt cops kept beating up punks for no reason after shows. So they passed all these laws requiring live music venues to have all these things specifically that the club didn't have, like a dedicated parking lot (virtually impossible in a tourist area like that) so the club shut down. After that it became the Haunted Fun House for 10 or 12 years.

The building was since condemned and half demolished, turned into some national chain tourist beach merchandise shop. Where't the culture? Where are all the good stories with something like that?

Oh, name drop alert! Zach Knighton who is the lead male actor on the ABC sitcom Happy Endings opposite Elisha Cuthbert (yum!) was also an actor there during my tenure.

We had the same type of attraction in Long Branch NJ. "The Haunted Mansion" would scare the crap out of me...espeically when those actors would jump out in the pitch black and startle you to death. Also hated the feeling when you walked through the darkened room and "felt" the rats at your feet with the special effects they used. Slightly different than the Disney feature by the same name.

 

[docbennett]

Webdesigner in porn industry, age 20. I wasn't doing much, took a week-off whenever I felt like it.... it took them a year and half to find out and fire me.

That's some job. :adore:

Most web designers are allowed to sample the company's wares, so as to make their design more accurate.

So????? :dontknow:

 

[22Top]

I got a job working at a local music store when I was 13. I believe that my official title was "Head String Changer/Monkey Boy". I changed and tuned, and changed and tuned, and changed and tuned. Started out just on Saturdays, and then worked some weeknights too. I helped with the stocking, and unboxing, in between coffee runs hahaha. It was a great job! Really fueled my desire to play, and to improve, as the owner would sit down before close on Saturdays and rock out for a bit usually, playing some classic solos note for note.

It's a neat story when it comes up! Worth a lot more than the bit of money I made, and promptly spent at the store. I did get a Crybaby as a christmas bonus one year!

 

[Albrecht Smuten]

That's some job. :adore:

Most web designers are allowed to sample the company's wares, so as to make their design more accurate.

So????? :dontknow:

Well, I could download whatever I wanted, though I never got to any filming session (or... ahem... any kind of afterparty). And I got access to some pretty cheap drugs

 

[Hubertee]

My first job was of supervisor in a factory where my duty is to supervise the staff and maintain the daily task