Your very first paying job

[DaysFanJean]

I was fifteen (barely) and I worked at Walgreen's in the soda fountain. I waited tables, the counter and washed dishes and flirted with the guys. It was so fun. I made 33 1/3 cents an hour. That was in the summer between freshman and sophomore in high school.

(I had to correct that as fifteen didn't seem right, but working at that job was allowed at fourteen even.)

[King]

I was 16. I worked at the stadium with my brother - baseball games and concerts. At the stands. It was fun!

[Ms. Walsh]

When I was 17, I worked at Target. It was pretty crappy. Working in retail sucks. I started off as a cashier, and they had this thing where you had to ask every guest (they called the customers "guests"...really annoying) if they wanted to apply for a Target Visa, and they'd get 10% off their purchase. Of course, I hated doing it b/c it was basically asking people to open another credit card and go into more debt. So I had the lowest quota of visas. They also graded you on your speed. You'd either get a Green or a Red.

So they moved me to guest services, which was even worse. Target's return policy is really stupid. People would yell at you on a regular basis. I got yelled at by this lady b/c she gave me two checks, and by accident I mixed them up, and she kept swearing at me and calling me names. I was so embarrassed, I started crying. I actually fixed all of it, but she was still a !@#$%^&*] to me. I thought that I was going to get fired.

I asked to be moved to clothing. That's where I did the best. I loved working in the clothing sections.

I quit when I went to college, but I might return to the one near my college in the fall only if I could work in clothing though.

[SteveFrame]

I know that you guys are going to say that all of us older guys or gals say we all starting working early but in my case I did.

I got my first job at the age of 9. I worked as a busboy for a truck stop near where we lived. I started out working on Friday nights only, then added more nights.

I worked for them until I was 17, and by that time I was doing it all - waiter, cashier, cook, dishwasher, whatever there was to do.

[bellcurve]

Working as a bagboy/cashier at a grocery store. Infested with mice and roaches. Eeeeek!

But everyone knew how much of a queen I was and refused to deal with that kind of stuff(at least the mice, the roaches I could handle).

Good times. Weird, but good times.

[Dona_Michaela]

I was 15, and my first job was working at Dairy Queen. I didn't like it very much so I only worked there for about three weeks.

[Sweet_VeeVee24]

My first job was working a hospital in the Sports Medicine department. I was in my senior year of high school. It was cool because I got to see so many football players and baseball players.. I even had to wheel a few down to the MRI area.....ooooh wee

[Kay]

When I was 15, I worked as a cashier at a Winn-Dixie in a poor neighborhood in metro Atlanta. I only worked there to pay for stuff my folks couldn't afford. It sucked b/c all these dirty old men used to hit on me all the time and tell me I looked like I should be working at some strip club. Also, alot of the customers would haggle with me at the register over the prices! I would be like, "I just ring this stuff up--I don't price any of it back there". We had to wear these crappy red smocks and a white shirt under it. But the smock was from such crappy material, that it would bleed all over every white shirt I had. It was a really dumpy store. I just hated how I used to get hit on all the damn time by these gross dudes!

[bellcurve]

I remember once this guy asked me "if I ever get lost." And I was like, "No, I don't believe I do." Later on, I thought about that and realized exactly what he was asking me. Hehehe. I wasn't out back then, but still living in a glass closet.

Remember the coupon clippers? Those were the best.(NOT! LOL!)

I remember swiping soap magazines from the front and reading them during my breaks. Or even taking one of them home. LOL. Funny stuff.

I did good work there, and took a lot of [!@#$%^&*].

[Ms. Walsh]

One time, I was working back in the fitting room at Target, and this old guy came up to me about the price of a pair of boxers that were on clearance...they were like a Santa Claus suit. And he told me that I could sit on his lap if I wanted to. I was like, "Umm...NO!" It was disgusting!!

During slow periods I used to read the soap mags. There was this one cashier, Ed, who loved Days, but he watched ATWT too, and we used to talk about it and the Golden Girls all the time together. I "stole" them by taking them into the break room too. Nobody cared though.

I did some pretty bad stuff there...i should have gotten fired. I stole a bunch of food from the front-register area, like bottles of soda and candy. I would price stuff down and then buy it. I also had a boyfriend who worked in the backroom unloading stuff, and I would go back there and used to do you-know-what. There were no security cameras in the bathrooms and fitting rooms, so we did it in the bathroom in the backroom (b/c nobody went there), the candy closet up front (b/c the camera in it broke and everyone went in there to make cell phone calls or to eat the candy), and in the men's fitting room.

Like I said, I should have gotten fired.

[DaysFanJean]

I actually saw Mick Jagger waiting for his limo in front of a terminal at the Boston (forgot the name Logan?) airport. What a thrill. My daughter-in-law was nearly knocking the window out of the shuttle to wave at him. I love Boston and the Cape. Only been there once but decided that is where I'd love to live the rest of my life.

[Actor87]

16. Grocery store. "Courtesy clerK" a.k.a. bag boy. HELL!!

[Kay]

This one time this old dude asked me how I was doing, and I said "fine". He was like, " I can SEE that! But, how ya doing?!?" I was like, OMG! And another time, this guy told me he'd run across a field of wild dogs w/ pork chop drawers (underwear) on to get to me! I don't know where they come up with this [!@#$%^&*]! If they hadn't been customers I would've told them to f*** off.

I remember coupon clippers, but the worst were food stamps and check writers. I was fairly new when this lady made me cry 'cause she said I didn't know how to count-- but with food stamps, only the food items aren't taxed and if there's a balance after they pay w/ food stamps, that balance gets taxed, so I had it right but I gave that !@#$%^&*] too much change back 'cause she flustered me.

We used to take so much crap that one of the other cashiers BLEW UP at a customer who was giving her s**t --during the busiest time of day! I mean, she cursed this lady out GOOD (screaming, jumping up and down, arms flailing). All the customers in the store were like, 'they need to fire her ass'. Needless to say she didn't get fired, though the customer tried. I'm telling you, though, customers will take you to the brink. Customers love to reduce your entire being to your dumb job-- there's more to me than ringing up groceries or answering phones. If they're having a bad day, that's their f**king problem. I always remember that now when I'm the customer.

[Bree]

My first job was a clerk/cashier at a local video store chain. I started the September I graduated high school. I was 17. I stayed there for two years, and decided to leave because they hired a new manager who really shouldn't have gotten the job. Also, I was always sheduled it seemed for every weekend night.

The job wasn't that bad, except we had a bigass porno movie room and we'd get a lot of perverts who would go back there and sometimes, we'd have to kick them out. Several times I had to chase dirty old men out of there so I could close up the store. I would tell them "if you're not going to rent anything, you need to leave." That was the policy when it came to XXX movies.

One employee stole the John Wayne Bobbit tape. He was fired shortly after that, and we never did get that movie back. Out of all the ones to steal, why that one?

[WTGH]

How much is the employee discount at Target?

---I helped out a cousin of mine in the summer of 2004. He was in the A/C business and I'd drive out with him to the customer's house help him take off the old A/C unit (nearly got electrocuted twice), clean up the hole where the new unit would go and things like that. More often than not I would have to crawl into tiny holes to unload the unit and carry it away (those things are heavy!).

I didn't have an official salary, but would get about $50 for every job he did (sometimes we had 6 jobs a week!).

Work was dirty, exahustive and pretty butch but I liked it.

He was a bit shady though, he'd charge the customer for a top-of-the line A/C unit but install the crappiest, most disposable one available.