What was your first job and how much was your starting wage??
MoveCloseDeleteAdmin

The ClubHouse: Archives: What was your first job and how much was your starting wage??
 SubtopicMsgs  Last Updated
Archive through April 25, 2002 25   05/01 07:50am

Sia

Thursday, April 25, 2002 - 08:27 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
At 14 (needed a work-permit) I worked at a restaurant washing dishes (yes, by HAND!! Plates, glasses, silverware, and pots/pans!!), peeling potatoes (5-gallon buckets at a time!, preparing all the veggies for the salad bar, and cooking the pudding (in a DOUBLE-BOILER) for $1-something per hour. The owners of the tiny Mom-and-Pop eatery where I worked fooled me into accepting the title of "Pudding Queen," lavishing praise upon me for my smooth, delicious, perfect, never-scorched pudding. It wasn't until some time later that I realized that I COULD have made LOUSY pudding and they STILL would have heaped glory on me because it was a hot, difficult, tedious job and their daughter had had enough of being Pudding Queen!! I babysat for $1/hour, too, but don't remember which came first, that or the restaurant job. My next job was as a waitress, and I did that a short time and vowed never to do it again; I am a decent tipper as a result of my time waitressing.

Schoolmarm

Friday, April 26, 2002 - 05:14 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Babysitting for 50 cents an hour, and giving piano lessons for 1.50 a half hour were two of my first "jobs".

My first "regular" job was as a cook's assistant at 4-H camp. I chopped veggies, washed dishes, made cookies and other food, served the meals and snacks, cleaned the dining room, etc. etc. It paid $85 per week along with room and board. It was fun! We worked from 6:30 am to about 1:30 pm and then from about 4 pm to 7pm with the time off to spend hiking in the woods, canoing or swimming in the lake!

However, at 200-300 dishes per meal, I have now decided that I have washed enough dishes for a lifetime! Potato salad for 300, anyone?

Jenhavins

Friday, April 26, 2002 - 06:57 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I was not allowed to work while I was in High School, so when I got to college, I worked at Al's Formal Wear measuring men for Tuxedos for weddings, prom, formals, etc. I made $5.00 an hour back in 1983 and 20% commission on tuxedo sales including all accessories. Did this for about 2 years until I got a job on campus for an economist.

I LOVED THAT JOB!!!!!!!!

Teatime

Friday, April 26, 2002 - 12:28 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
(sigh...)I wish I could've measured men for tuxedos...

I worked for one of the local potato farmers.
I sat on top of piles of fresh potatoes in the back of trucks to kick them down to the conveyor belts to be sized and sorted. Between loads of potatoes, I painted the farmer's name and phone # on the sides of all his trucks for him. (I was 12. Gee, I wonder how good those trucks looked when I got done? LOL) I was paid cash under the table, can't remember how much, but I did get to punch a time clock with all the adults who were bagging and sorting. So it felt like a real job. I sound like an orphan here, but I promise my folks knew what I was doing - same thing all my friends were!

Neko

Friday, April 26, 2002 - 03:52 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
LoL

I still havn't had a REAL job yet!

I've babysat for $5/h but I stopped doing after a bad experience with the parent of the child.
And I was a Casual worker at Cleve's for a day.$5.80/h I think.neko

Babyruth

Friday, April 26, 2002 - 05:52 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
McDonalds, earning 2.35 an hour (I think...or maybe it was 1.85?) in 1974. Made shakes for 2 weeks and hated it. Quit and got a job at the Veterinary clinic, cleaning out cages and helping out with the animals for the same amount of money, and I was in heaven!

Gadzooks

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 12:28 am EditMoveDeleteIP
My first job ever was a couple of months after graduating from college in 1988. I was hired as an office clerk for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and I replaced someone for 3 months. I had a television on my desk and no boss. Spent all my days watching soaps and live feeds from the news department. It was the easiest job I ever had. I remember getting $9.20/hr and taking 2 hour lunchs.

Juju2bigdog

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 08:50 am EditMoveDeleteIP
$9.20 an HOUR at your first ever job? In 1988? And you just watched television all the time? What kind of dreamworld is that? Sigh.

Aussiedeb

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 - 06:21 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
My first job was when I was 14 in Sydney. My mom was/is a chef and she worked for a hotel that did wedding receptions. I worked with her in the kitchen doing dishes, I got paid $5.00 US dollars per hour back in 1980.. in Australia at the time there were no junior wages in the hotel trade so I got the same as an adult.. To think I blew it on all clothes etc.. was so excited when I was the first of my friends to have a boom box, am/fm radio and one cassette deck lol..

To think at the moment Im working part time in the deli/bakery of the grocery store only earning 6.15/hr all these years later..bit sad really.. but hey Im in college now at least..

I have done the full circle, but at least at my job now, they cant believe how fast I do the dishes..I am like you work with my mom for 4 years and try to be slow..hahahaha...no way..

I was in the Air Force for 7 years..guess that was one of my real jobs lol..

Christina

Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 07:50 am EditMoveDeleteIP
My first job was in a gas station, 3.15 an hour. In the middle of the small town I live in. It was a social time. haha I was 14. I was so dedicated too. My boss was very firm and had high expectations, I feel she helped to make me the hard worker I am. Then I worked in a hospital with the developmentally challenged........22 years later, I am still there. Although we are on STRIKE now. ughhhhhhhh 7 weeks!

Kitty

Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 12:27 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Not counting babysitting for 50 cents an hour, my first real job was working at a resort hotel in a National Park in the Rockies. I did everything from washing dishes, to cleaning rooms, to driving the garbage to the dump. My wage was $1.10 per hour and I had to pay room and board out of that! I did that for two summers (without a raise) in order to pay for University. I also had to pay my train fare from the east coast to the Western Rockies... needless to say, I didn't make much money those two summers... but I sure had the time of my life!!!

Nancy

Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 12:54 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
not counting babysitting my first real job was the day I turned 16 i got a part-time job after school working the same place my mom worked..(Appleseed's clothing store)..(in the mailorder side)...did a lot of filing/opening up up returned merchandise--etc..for minimum wage(1.65 i think at that time or around there anyway..)--i've been fortunate(or maybe to much in a rut) to have had only 3 full-time jobs in my lifetime..appleseed from 18-21...gorton's (the fish people) in gloucester for 16 yrs..and now this one for almost 6 years...(plus a part-time job for 10 years at a music theater during my gorton's tenure..

Mygetaway

Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 02:44 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Wow Lance, you reminded me of another job I had! After babysitting, and before my Hospital job, I picked raspberries for a summer. Gosh that was awful, but I think we got .75 cents a flat. I did well enough that they asked me back to be a "checker" the next summer, but then I started the other job..{LOL}. Wow, what memeories..

Warlordak

Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 05:11 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
16, A CHAMBER MAID IN A ROAD SIDE MOTEL THAT TURNED OUT TO BE A HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION AND
I WAS ONLY PAID $1.35 PER HOUR. BUT THE TIPS
WERE GREAT!!!!

Squaredsc

Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 06:59 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
i was 18 i think and had to dress in a winnie the pooh suite and walk around sears for 2 hours and was paid $20.00. that suit was hot a he** and i wanted to kick those kids, they kept kicking me, pulling me, everything. thank goodness it was a 1 day job. 1

Christina

Friday, May 03, 2002 - 05:11 am EditMoveDeleteIP
The STRIKE is pretty well over.woo hooo. I work for the Ontario Government. OPSEU. We have been on strike for almost 8 weeks. Its over, we settled. Its business as usual again!!! woo hooo, I am so happy. Now my clients can have a life again. They are no longer hostages. What a relief. Thanks for the vent!!

Grooch

Friday, May 03, 2002 - 06:55 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Congratulations, Christina! :)

Dahli

Friday, May 03, 2002 - 09:20 am EditMoveDeleteIP
YIKES Gadzooks! and folks wonder why the CBC is in trouble!! LOL

Jbean

Saturday, May 04, 2002 - 07:24 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
i worked at burger king, and made a whopping $4.25 per hour. only worked there for 6 months...hated it.

Gadzooks

Sunday, May 05, 2002 - 09:39 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I hear ya Dahli....the stuff that goes on inside the CBC would freak you out. Those are the cushiest jobs around....however, there are major clicks and office politics. It's not a good place for a friendly person to work. That's why I left after a year and took a job at Hyundai Canada. I loved it there too, but they closed the plant after 5 years and I was out of a job again. Then found a job at Beaulieu Canada...2nd biggest carpet manufacturer in the world...thought I had it made...good pay...benefits...great friends...then they merged with another company after my fourth year and transfered my job to the other place. I was so pissed that I took the severance package and quit. Now I'm looking for another job.....but pickings are slim. It's hard when you start with a great job....you always compare it to the other jobs you get.

Dahli

Tuesday, May 07, 2002 - 01:36 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Oh my heck Gadzooks - what a drag!! The same stuff happened to me for years in the travel industry and it is not getting any better... speaking of the CBC though, years back when my partner and I were running TV ads for our business - the CBC charged like ten times as much for the same amount of time as CTV cuz they had to pay like 8 people to do the job of 2!
Ah them unions - gotta love em ;-))

ps are you bilingual?? just curious if that helps in the job search..