What was your first job?

[LonnyMacD]

Man, I've had a lot of jobs

First paying job? (chores didn't pay at my house, they just got done...)

Cleaning horse stalls and dog kennels for a neighbor on Sunday afternoons. After church I would make the 2-3 mile walk to their house, clean the stalls, rake the corral, clean the dog kennels (hunting dogs) and then whatever other odd jobs were around, then walk home. $20 for 4 hours work, which was a FORTUNE in 1983. I grew up very rural, they were a "neighbor" because there weren't any other houses between theirs and ours. Sometimes they would be there with a list of chores, sometimes there would be a $20 pinned to the garage door, sometimes they would forget altogether, and just pay me double the next week.

First W2 job? Washing dishes at a Chinese restaurant. Cooks hated me from day one, I found out later because of the previous dishwasher, but I don't know what he did. They used to hide burning sterno cans from the pupu platters under plates - when the water from the sprayer hits it, it's like napalm. I preferred cleaning horse stalls. Quit to go to a movie, got a different dish washing job the next weekend.

Hardest job? Shovel guy on an asphalt crew. Those guys who look like they are leaning on their shovels are working harder in any one day than most Americans work in a year, make sure you slow down and give them a lot of space. I've had a lot of worse jobs (hard does not equal bad), but this one sticks with me. Harder than bucking hay bales, building decks, bending aluminum, building fence. OK, stringing barb wire around angry longhorns might have been harder, but the adrenaline from trying not to get killed kept you going.

Best job? Teaching skiing. I've done it off and on since '85, even full time when I took a year off college. Pays nothing, but sharing something I deeply love, that will last people a life time, is incredibly rewarding. I went back to it for a few years in my 40's, but grew tired of giving up my weekends for somebody else's kids, when mine were wanting to ski too.

Funnest? Had to be parking lot attendant at a drag strip. Hanging out in the sun with your friends, seeing cool cars, getting shin bruises because a weirdly high percentage of people would use your legs as a stop point, rather than watch your hands. The drag strip I worked at had a "feature" where the way to the upper parking lot actually crossed the turn around at the end of the drag strip, so you would stand at the end of the strip, if it looked like no drag cars were coming you motioned as many customer cars across the strip as possible, and when you saw the tree light up you made them stop and watched the drag cars come directly at you. In hindsight its hard to believe that was the actual process.

That's more than you asked, but I've had a lot of jobs and a lot of coffee this morning...

When you first said “drag strip” something completely different came to mind. I’d do either job. . . .

 

[cyure]

When you first said “drag strip” something completely different came to mind. I’d do either job. . . .

Same!

 

[J Alynn]

Man, I've had a lot of jobs

First paying job? (chores didn't pay at my house, they just got done...)

Cleaning horse stalls and dog kennels for a neighbor on Sunday afternoons. After church I would make the 2-3 mile walk to their house, clean the stalls, rake the corral, clean the dog kennels (hunting dogs) and then whatever other odd jobs were around, then walk home. $20 for 4 hours work, which was a FORTUNE in 1983. I grew up very rural, they were a "neighbor" because there weren't any other houses between theirs and ours. Sometimes they would be there with a list of chores, sometimes there would be a $20 pinned to the garage door, sometimes they would forget altogether, and just pay me double the next week.

First W2 job? Washing dishes at a Chinese restaurant. Cooks hated me from day one, I found out later because of the previous dishwasher, but I don't know what he did. They used to hide burning sterno cans from the pupu platters under plates - when the water from the sprayer hits it, it's like napalm. I preferred cleaning horse stalls. Quit to go to a movie, got a different dish washing job the next weekend.

Hardest job? Shovel guy on an asphalt crew. Those guys who look like they are leaning on their shovels are working harder in any one day than most Americans work in a year, make sure you slow down and give them a lot of space. I've had a lot of worse jobs (hard does not equal bad), but this one sticks with me. Harder than bucking hay bales, building decks, bending aluminum, building fence. OK, stringing barb wire around angry longhorns might have been harder, but the adrenaline from trying not to get killed kept you going.

Best job? Teaching skiing. I've done it off and on since '85, even full time when I took a year off college. Pays nothing, but sharing something I deeply love, that will last people a life time, is incredibly rewarding. I went back to it for a few years in my 40's, but grew tired of giving up my weekends for somebody else's kids, when mine were wanting to ski too.

Funnest? Had to be parking lot attendant at a drag strip. Hanging out in the sun with your friends, seeing cool cars, getting shin bruises because a weirdly high percentage of people would use your legs as a stop point, rather than watch your hands. The drag strip I worked at had a "feature" where the way to the upper parking lot actually crossed the turn around at the end of the drag strip, so you would stand at the end of the strip, if it looked like no drag cars were coming you motioned as many customer cars across the strip as possible, and when you saw the tree light up you made them stop and watched the drag cars come directly at you. In hindsight its hard to believe that was the actual process.

That's more than you asked, but I've had a lot of jobs and a lot of coffee this morning...

Interesting resume

 

[dreamweaver]

Interesting resume

Very pragmatic.

 

[J Alynn]

Very pragmatic.

It wasn’t intended to be that but I’m laughing at your comment. I found it very interesting-I worked at a campground which was great but not terribly exciting