What was your first "paying" job???

[Butterfly0328]

I just thought it would be fun to find out what everybodys first legal "paying" job was. Babysitting doesn't count.. I will go first. At the age of 14 my first job was a motel maid at a Best Western motel...I worked there during the summer to earn money for my Drill Team uniform.

Scary thing is that during one of my breaks a friend of mine from high school and myself had left the "break room/laundry room" where a few other older ladies were also taking their breaks and had gone to the motel office for a soda. We had passed a man on the way, and when we returned noticed the door was closed; which it never was. I opened the door to find the man we had passed holding the older ladies at gun point and they were all naked. Had my friend and I waited even 30 seconds longer we would have been in there also and God only knows what would have happened. I eventually had to go to court in order to identify the guy. Thank God I wanted that soda...

[662happyLPN]

I loved all of your posts! My first job was as Sonic Drive-In making $5.15/hr plus tips. It was the best job to me back then because I was making minimum wage and on a weekend night I could go home with almost $100 dollars in tips. I loved it!

[iPink, BSN, RN]

Thanks OP, for letting walk down memory lane.

My first "real" paycheck was at age 14. I worked in the day care center of a local gym. The position required the attendant to be 16, but the manager allowed me to work there because I looked more like 18 (I was tall for my age). I got $6/hr and free membership. I knew things weren't going to last long when I was no longer allowed to keep the $2-3 tips I would get from the parents.

[nursel56]

When I was 16 I got my first job working for a wallet company embossing gold leaf initials on purchased items. Behind the counter in a department store.

[belgarion]

I was a "wheatie" on my uncle's harvest crew. We started out in late May in the Texas panhandle and wound up just south of the Canadian border. I was thirteen when I left and fourteen when I got home. By the time the summer was over I could drive a combine nearly as well as the adults and back a wheat truck up to the elevator dead center on the first try. We worked seven days a week when the weather was good and sometimes we were still cutting after midnight. I think I came home with about $1500 for the summer which probably broke down to maybe fifty cents an hour. Gee, I miss those days.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Was as a vet tech at an animal hospital. It was the late '70s and I got to help with everything including lab and surgery.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Library aide. I would shelf books, and help with check out's etc..

Second job, CNA in a SNF, then a hospital. and to help out with school, took a job as a votive maker in a candle factory, I would alternate between those and gift wrap. That was the coolest job.

During LPN school, I did the factory and Home health together. I had no life.

Afterwards I worked in a SNF and Hospital as an LPN and SN.

After I graduated RN school I worked the SNF until I got a FT job on a hospital floor.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

Subway when I was 15. I loved their sandwiches and I didn't really have anyone buying food for me or taking care of me, so I decided I would get a job there so I could eat their sandwiches for free. The manager told me they don't hire 15 year olds but I went there every day until he gave in and hired me. Looking back there has never been a job that I really wanted that I didn't get. lol

My first paycheck I rented 3 hotel rooms conjoining and threw a party.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

I also worked at Kinder Care in the infant room - and loooved it!! Got paid $3.80 an hour. I always said I would go back to that job if I could afford it.. At least the babies loved and appreciated what I did for them.:)

I worked at Kinder care too!

My second job was a waitress at Denny's on night shift when I was 15 also. My boyfriend though made me quit that job. When I was 16 I got a job at McDonalds and it was one of the funnest jobs I had. Then I had a short stint at walmart (NEVER AGAIN but it paid well) and then did daycare for about 5 years. Worked in home daycare, Kinder Care and ChildTime. After that I became an at home mom until I moved to CO. All my kids were in School and I was pregnant and I couldn't stand being at home with nothing to do so I got a job in the Credit Bureau with GMAC. Very very interesting job and learned how to de-escalate situations pretty well. Had to tell them to behave or I would put another (90+) on their credit report

[Isabelle49]

Sales clerk in a bakery at age 15.

[alove1]

Blueberry farm at age 14. Our job was to pick the "squishy" blueberries off the conveyor belt. :)

[Poi Dog]

I worked in my Grandpa's office and made $6 filing the occasional paper or answering the phone. Six dollars an hour was a lot of dough for a poor high school student.

[Butterfly0328]

Thanks OP, for letting walk down memory lane.

My first "real" paycheck was at age 14. I worked in the day care center of a local gym. The position required the attendant to be 16, but the manager allowed me to work there because I looked more like 18 (I was tall for my age). I got $6/hr and free membership. I knew things weren't going to last long when I was no longer allowed to keep the $2-3 tips I would get from the parents.

You are so welcomed. I am finding it interesting that many of us loved the most basic of jobs. Maybe it's because the level of responsibility was so much lighter than nursing. Now granted, I am not yet a nurse but having spent nearly 23 years at my current job I can still appreciate the simplicity of that first job.

I am also finding it interesting that even though there is such a mixture of first paying jobs, our journey in life is leading us all to the same destination.