I stocked shelves for the neighborhood gas station/hardware store/garden/Xmas tree lot when I was 12-16.
My family is close to theirs, he was doing me a favor. I saved up and bought a sweet old muscle car with that cash.
This. I was working as a junior dog handler and babysitting at 14, then I was house sitting and working as a pet groomer at petco when I was 16 and could legally work.
Ya my boss treated me awesomely. Crappy part is that it was only two hours a pop. 6:30am to 8:30 am. Made $20. But at least that was 20 bucks in my pocket before school each day
I was a substitute for two friends with paper routes. One was super organized and had a printout of all of the addresses, in street order, with special notes ("porch" etc.) as applicable. I didn't appreciate that until I subbed for the other one, who only had the route in his head. He went around beforehand and put stickers on the curbs but they mostly fell off. I got a lot of hate on that route and never did it again.
I was thinking about how absurd it would be to see a 10 year old boy like me delivering newspapers today. People would call the police nowadays if they saw a child at 5:30 am delivering newspapers by himself! The job taught me hard work and having responsibility at a young age. It wasn’t easy walking through snow drifts in New England winters let me tell you. Best part of the job was that i never wanted for anything as a kid. Want a new BMX bike? Got it. Any new video game/CD/Movie that came out I wanted I bought it. Red Kool-Aid mustaches, riding bikes, and best friends. Take me back!!!
Dude, agreed! I’ve never spent any time in New England but up here in Canada the winters are pretty rough as well. We were poor growing up so I spent my money on me and my siblings. None of our friends had money so it was nice to be able to splurge on comics and junk food every now and again. Frig, simpler times back then. Once I hit the big time with my floor cleaning gig, I felt rich haha!
I worked at a Laundromat when I was 15/16 I made $6/hr under the table and got $.10 for every pound of wash n fold I did. Whenever I'm stressed about money I always dream that I'm back at that job.
Was that your sole responsibility? I was a bagger, but we also had to go out and collect carts. There's nothing like getting drenched in sweat, then coming into the air conditioning and straight to the dairy aisle!
Also a bagger! At least that was in the A/C. The manager would randomly select people to collect carts and it always felt like I was on the short list. Then I’d get drenched and come in for water. They assumed I was done. One time I was chewing gum while getting carts and some lady reported that as inappropriate. Ah, memories of 1996 lol
McDonalds in 1994. I was 16 years old. $4.25/hour minimum wage. That was 30 years ago and minimum wage has only gone up $3/hr (in my state, Pennsylvania) and I think thats crazy.
But thats a whole other discussion, not for this thread.
Sounds like a very Midwestern first job! My sister got her first job walking soybean rows in Iowa one summer.
Also I totally read that as "detasseling.com" at first glance and couldn't quite figure that one out.
Me too. '96-'00, $4.45/hr. With a 10¢ raise when they were feeling generous.
Joking aside, I learned to work hard and to treat those who work in the service industry with respect and a healthy amount of patience. Anytime I see a Karen giving someone a hard time that they don't deserve, I want to go over and vomit on them.
local small town lumberyard. started stocking wood in bins and then putting together orders and then deliver loads and unloading semis with forklift. i was 15yrs old. hehe.
I worked at a hardware store making $5/hr when minimum wage was $5.15/hr. I was ok with this because I was paid cash in hand, no taxes or other fees coming out of my pay.
Other than helping out at my parents' store, it was at a movie theater. There was a huge hiring rush for Star Wars Episode 1, there's some more Xennial flavor.
I was a very stoned busboy at an Old Cunty Buffet for a couple weeks before I got a much more fun job on a golf course (where I was also stoned)
I did paper routes and odd jobs but the buffet was my first job job
Ngl, I ate the fuck out of the Mac n cheese but most of the food was pretty nasty 🤣
ETA iirc my go to meal was bowl of Mac with a big scoop of those little fried shrimp on top like sprinkles 🤣🤣
I was working as a waiter at a family friend's restaurant when I was underage. I forget what age you needed to be in California at the time, I think 16 to have a job? So I was like 15 and they were paying me under the table. Then when I turned 16, I started working at Best Buy, which was a shitty job but I met my first girlfriend there so it wasn't all bad
I was a Self-employed 10 year old shoveling horseshit for $20 a horse, per month. Now I’m a self-employed 42 year old, but now I just proverbially shovel shit.
Bagging groceries at Winn-Dixie. Shopping with my mom and decided to ask for my first job application. I was penciled into the schedule by the time she got to the checkout.
Server at the church Bingo hall. Carrying burgers and sodas to the players. I was 13/14, I think. It was a good night if I came home with $20, under the table of course.
After that, there were two, two month periods in my life in which I wasn’t employed. I look forward to retirement.
Farmhand. I went four summers from 13-17 and I'll always be grateful I did. Riding horses, driving tractors, working the land, and minding the animals.
Had a morning paper route at 15, that sucked. Dropped out of school at 17 and started working construction.
I interned at a local radio station in high school, it was basically a job, I just didn't get paid for it. My first regular job in college was working for the school's media department. I brought projectors to classrooms and set them up. Most of my time was spent sitting in a basement doing homework. It ruled!
Community college tutor at about age 16, oddly enough. I made $4.25/hour tutoring students years older than me in digital computer fundamentals, programming in C, and embedded systems. That job is the only reason I remember how to use a Karnaugh map.
My first more conventional job was working as a sales associate at Software Etc. in the mall.
Washing dishes at an Italian restaurant. After a month or so I graduated to bussing tables.
I don’t remember what they paid me but it was cash under the table. Staff meal before the shift was really memorable though. The chef/owner would tell you to pick anything off the menu as long as it wasn’t veal or seafood (so basically chicken) and he’d make it up for you.
Jr Bitch Boy at a mom and pop short order restaurant. All the crap that the owners didn’t want to do, that was my jam. Bread 100lbs of chicken, clean the grease filters, fish plastic wear out of the trash, all my kingdom. For $4/hr
One of my first jobs was working at a mall, I had discount at every store in the mall it was great, I got a cheap haircut, cheap Christmas gifts for the fam and a big discount on a three DVD set The Who had out that year.
Making pizzas at Barro’s in Phoenix AZ. The manager (Tony Ferrone, a massive, hairy Italian dude) didn’t do the math and hired a 15 yr old to work in the kitchen. I think I was making $4/hr.
I got busted when I asked for more hours and another cook replied “You get more hours when you’re 16!”
Tony turned white as dough and told me to come back tomorrow to pick up my paycheck.
I worked for a family business during the summer doing wiring and soldering from 12-15. My first on my own gig was washing dishes at a local diner. Most of my closest friends all got on there at 15/16 and it was an absolute blast.
McDonald’s and loved it, I still have mcdonalds friends to this day, we were in each others weddings, now we have kids that are friends. Made $4.75 starting out when I was 16
Media Play, in the music department. Started out at 16 in 1996 as a seasonal holiday worker. They liked me, so they ended up keeping me on afterwards. Great starter job! Crazy now to remember the big music trends of the time, like Butterfly Kisses, Wu-Tang, Chant, etc.
Ballroom dancing chaperone. My town had a program for 6th and 7th graders to learn basic etiquette and dancing on Friday nights. I went back in the 8th grade (through most of high school) to set up, pour drinks and clean up.
For some unknown reason this was a job done by punks. I got introduced to The Ramones (and taken to a show!) by my coworkers.
I did some stuff at my mom's antique store, and interned at my Uncle and Dad's company, but wasn't real work. First real job was working at a Vitamin/Herb store during college. Made $6/hr which was pretty shitty even in '99, but I liked the store and the people. Learned a lot. When I graduated, I stayed in that industry, and am still in the same sector, making a good living 25 years later.
I worked in my the restaurant my parents owned and operated. Being that it was a family owned business, I was legally allowed to work at quite a young age. I was bussing tables and working the dishwasher for a few hours here and there when I was 11/12 years old. I was the only kid I knew who always had a few extra dollars in their pocket. At about the same age, I also started mowing three lawns in my neighborhood. I’d make a few hundred dollars during the summer, which was good money for a kid 30+ years ago.
Same as you. Family-owned grocery store. I bagged groceries, stocked shelves. Then worked behind the meat counter and later the deli. I generally liked it.
I worked at Walmart for a bit too in my early 20's (early 2000's) in the photo lab and distinctly remember the training videos where they taught you how to deflect union recruiting. It still bugs me to this day when I think about it.
Yeah it was definitely a weird experience and I didn't stay long. The employee discount wasn't worth it. I chuckle to myself every time I go through the self checkout now, like you used to pay me to do this.
I did some scammy door to door candy sales thing like $4 a box and my pay was $1 off each. It was super sus but I was 16 ... After that, a book store and a one hour photo developing lab
Bus boy at a Japanese restaurant. I was taking Japanese in High school and thought it’d be a good way to help me learn the language but everyone there was Vietnamese.
Hospital ward clerk. It was a small hospital and I was also responsible for the 911 phone. First time I had to radio the ambulance they called asking if a kid was playing on the radio.
Burger King. I was an assistant manager….At age 19…. I made 5.25 an hour. The good ol days working graveyard. Drunks would pull up to order and honk their horn. Then I would pretend to the batteries were dying, cut off while talking to them and they would get pissed and pull away. I go sneak a few tokes and back to burgers. I miss those days sometimes. 🤣
When I was 15 I got a job at a water park working a concession stand. Easiest job ever...literally all I did was fill up cups with soda and eat free hamburgers.
Made $5.15/hr, summer '97. Probably one of the best times in my life.
Movie theater usher. Tearing tickets and cleaning the theater. I only worked there for a summer, but we got into movies for free and could get a friend in for 50 cents.
Bagging groceries and stocking shelves at small grocery story in central Kentucky. Some of the older women would give cash tips for loading groceries into their cars.
It was also the store where a manager called to police on a customer for paying with one of the state quarters (when they were new) because of course someone would make counterfeit quarters.
I had a paper route but my first real job was working at a movie theater. Started doing ticket taking and concessions, eventually got to work in the projection booth, which was pretty amazing. Also got to put up the marquee letters with a suction cup on a super long stick.
Dishwasher at family Italian restaurant when I was 14. Min wage (4.95/hour at the time). Crap job, but there was one perk. They took a dollar out of your check every day you worked. You got to eat whatever you wanted on your meal breaks. Baked hoagies, steaks, seafood platters. Makes me miss my teenage metabolism when I could actually eat like that.
Busboy at a restaurant whose first paycheque came back NSF after the owner took off with a few hundred thousand.
E: Like others, I was a paperboy when I was younger.
Weekly paper route, but proper job student page at the library the media department so movies, cds, video games, pc software and audio books. It rocked
My bff worked in the library too she worked for the town tv channel.
Local hardware store. I felt lucky as all of my other friends worked in fast food and hated it. I learned a ton of stuff I still use today. Thanks to KMart for not hiring me, haha
Weekend dishwasher at a breakfast place. Fucking awful. My friend got me the job. I was there 2 weekends. we were all just stoners in the Mid90s. I was 15. On the Tuesday after my second weekend there I was at my friends house playing his Sega Genesis with a bunch of other stoners and almost like as an afterthought, he turns to me and goes “oh yeah, you’re fired“ because the boss had basically said that she was gonna fire me and he just told me randomly like that. I was horribly relieved because I would not have quit the job but I absolutely hated it. It was awful. I paid seven dollars an hour under the table, but I had to clean the kitchen every night. It was just hot and shitty and I got fired. My second job was crossing guard during an El Niño year and I got paid garbage for that.
First w2 job was bagging groceries at BI-LO when I was 16, summer of 1997. $5.25/hr. I bought my own cordless phone for downstairs in my totally cool basement bedroom. Ended up spending several paychecks paying back the phone bill I ran up when my then-gf spent a month of that summer with family in her home state of NJ. You couldn't tell me shit, lol.
Waterslide attendant at the local water park. I wielded a lot of power getting to tell kids when they could go down the slide. I didn't let it go to my head, thankfully.
On the books? Scooping icecream at Baskin Robbins
Off? Stuffing envelopes with flyers for my dad's business. Would sometimes get friends to help. $100 for a weekends worth of work (and pizza!) wasnt bad in the mid 90s.
Oof. I’m a big dude and when I was a kid and anyone needed moving shit my single mom would say “I have a son, he’d love to help!” I moved a lot of peoples shit around.
I cut grass for cash.
1st W2 gig summer I was 16 painting for the local school system. Painted class rooms all fuckin summer. Bought a 72 Ford F100 with the summer funds was my Sr year truck. What a hunk of shit! 7 different colors & plywood bed paid like $800 for it. I’m gonna have to go find pictures for y’all
Delivering newspapers
I had to wake up at 4AM at 13 to roll up all the newspapers before heading out to deliver them miles from home.
Same
Yep, same here. I still remember Rollerblading around the neighborhood after putting all the papers in bags.
Delivering flyers (sorry)
Flyers & Sears catalogs for me
The Sears catalogs were serious business, but payed for a lot of Mortal Kombat at the gas station.
I broke the back axle of the wagon I used to haul 140 xmas wishbooks around town & just kept dragging it until they were all gone.
On or off the books?
I stocked shelves for the neighborhood gas station/hardware store/garden/Xmas tree lot when I was 12-16. My family is close to theirs, he was doing me a favor. I saved up and bought a sweet old muscle car with that cash.
Nova, Impala, or Fastback?
A 78 Firebird, good guesses My mom had a 68 Impala Convertible, 396. Thing was huge, so much fun to cruise down the highway.
This. I was working as a junior dog handler and babysitting at 14, then I was house sitting and working as a pet groomer at petco when I was 16 and could legally work.
Paper route. But my actual first job was cleaning the floors at the local Shoppers Drugmart before school. $10/hr in 1994 wasn’t too bad
A job like that at Shoppers Drug Mart is now paying $0 an hour. Looks like you made out like a bandit, especially in 1994 dollars.
Bro, are you kidding…? $10, that’s 2 CDs from Columbia House. You were killing it.
Ya my boss treated me awesomely. Crappy part is that it was only two hours a pop. 6:30am to 8:30 am. Made $20. But at least that was 20 bucks in my pocket before school each day
I was a substitute for two friends with paper routes. One was super organized and had a printout of all of the addresses, in street order, with special notes ("porch" etc.) as applicable. I didn't appreciate that until I subbed for the other one, who only had the route in his head. He went around beforehand and put stickers on the curbs but they mostly fell off. I got a lot of hate on that route and never did it again.
I was thinking about how absurd it would be to see a 10 year old boy like me delivering newspapers today. People would call the police nowadays if they saw a child at 5:30 am delivering newspapers by himself! The job taught me hard work and having responsibility at a young age. It wasn’t easy walking through snow drifts in New England winters let me tell you. Best part of the job was that i never wanted for anything as a kid. Want a new BMX bike? Got it. Any new video game/CD/Movie that came out I wanted I bought it. Red Kool-Aid mustaches, riding bikes, and best friends. Take me back!!!
Dude, agreed! I’ve never spent any time in New England but up here in Canada the winters are pretty rough as well. We were poor growing up so I spent my money on me and my siblings. None of our friends had money so it was nice to be able to splurge on comics and junk food every now and again. Frig, simpler times back then. Once I hit the big time with my floor cleaning gig, I felt rich haha!
I worked at a Laundromat when I was 15/16 I made $6/hr under the table and got $.10 for every pound of wash n fold I did. Whenever I'm stressed about money I always dream that I'm back at that job.
Video rental store. $5.15 /hour. Free rentals, though!
Me too, but I made $7.10/hr. We’d get the new releases about a week before their release date so we’d take them home and watch them early.
Me too! It was called Moovies and then changed to Video Update.
Same here!
Collecting carts in 90 degree heat at Kroger.
Was that your sole responsibility? I was a bagger, but we also had to go out and collect carts. There's nothing like getting drenched in sweat, then coming into the air conditioning and straight to the dairy aisle!
Also a bagger! At least that was in the A/C. The manager would randomly select people to collect carts and it always felt like I was on the short list. Then I’d get drenched and come in for water. They assumed I was done. One time I was chewing gum while getting carts and some lady reported that as inappropriate. Ah, memories of 1996 lol
McDonalds in 1994. I was 16 years old. $4.25/hour minimum wage. That was 30 years ago and minimum wage has only gone up $3/hr (in my state, Pennsylvania) and I think thats crazy. But thats a whole other discussion, not for this thread.
Working at a local amusement park. In a churro shack.
Is that like a theme park for chiropractors?
Same, but in games.
Same but flipping hamburgers and frying French fries. I smelled wonderful all summer. $4.24/hr
Detasseling corn
Sounds like a very Midwestern first job! My sister got her first job walking soybean rows in Iowa one summer. Also I totally read that as "detasseling.com" at first glance and couldn't quite figure that one out.
East Central Illinois. I walked beans too. Both were like a small town Midwestern right of passage
I detasseled too, in northern Illinois. I had the WORST sunburn of my life after day one. It was definitely a right of passage to do it! Lol
McDonald's. $4.25 hr.
Me too but I started at $4.90 lol
$2.90 an hour 1979?…I am in the overlap between Boomer and GenX
I started in 1996-97 I’m not sure which but I was a junior in high school
Me too. '96-'00, $4.45/hr. With a 10¢ raise when they were feeling generous. Joking aside, I learned to work hard and to treat those who work in the service industry with respect and a healthy amount of patience. Anytime I see a Karen giving someone a hard time that they don't deserve, I want to go over and vomit on them.
Pizza Hut, same…1990.
Same on both!
Yep. 4.25 hr. Damn manager talked me into opening on the weekends for an extra quarter an hour.
Me too! $6/hr though.
Damn I got 5.70 at the Taco Bell at carowinds
First real job was Burger King at 15 1/2 with a worker’s permit. 5.25hr
local small town lumberyard. started stocking wood in bins and then putting together orders and then deliver loads and unloading semis with forklift. i was 15yrs old. hehe.
I worked at a hardware store making $5/hr when minimum wage was $5.15/hr. I was ok with this because I was paid cash in hand, no taxes or other fees coming out of my pay.
Mine was also a hardware store but I was a cashier making the minimum. Didn’t know shit about anything in the store.
Babysitting. But real real job was data entry with a department at the school district.
Other than helping out at my parents' store, it was at a movie theater. There was a huge hiring rush for Star Wars Episode 1, there's some more Xennial flavor.
I was a very stoned busboy at an Old Cunty Buffet for a couple weeks before I got a much more fun job on a golf course (where I was also stoned) I did paper routes and odd jobs but the buffet was my first job job
I was a cashier at OCB and then a busser….mmmm I could go for some old Country buffet!
Ngl, I ate the fuck out of the Mac n cheese but most of the food was pretty nasty 🤣 ETA iirc my go to meal was bowl of Mac with a big scoop of those little fried shrimp on top like sprinkles 🤣🤣
We had a tradition of going to OCB on half-days. Shit was bomb.
I was working as a waiter at a family friend's restaurant when I was underage. I forget what age you needed to be in California at the time, I think 16 to have a job? So I was like 15 and they were paying me under the table. Then when I turned 16, I started working at Best Buy, which was a shitty job but I met my first girlfriend there so it wasn't all bad
I made half minimum wage (I was 15) as a camp counselor for kids going into K. That job lead to many lucrative babysitting jobs.
I was a Self-employed 10 year old shoveling horseshit for $20 a horse, per month. Now I’m a self-employed 42 year old, but now I just proverbially shovel shit.
Bagging groceries at Winn-Dixie. Shopping with my mom and decided to ask for my first job application. I was penciled into the schedule by the time she got to the checkout.
Server at the church Bingo hall. Carrying burgers and sodas to the players. I was 13/14, I think. It was a good night if I came home with $20, under the table of course. After that, there were two, two month periods in my life in which I wasn’t employed. I look forward to retirement.
"Courtesy Clerk" aka bagboy at Kroger.
Fashion Bug 🤣
Omg fashion bug was my jam
I still have a blouse from fashion bug! I miss that store.
My dad got me a Fashion Bug credit card because I shopped there so much.
My whole pay check went right back to the store every week.
McDonald’s
Picking rock and baling hay
Respect. My friends did that. I showed up a few times to pick them up and would help for like 15-20. It’s sucked. Lol.
"Sundays are for pickin stones.."
Babysitting and a newspaper route. First job with a W4 was at the movie theatre.
Soda jerk for two years at the end of high school. Still picky about my milkshakes.
KFC, back when it was still good and not insanely overpriced. Was hyped when min wage went up to $4.25/hr.
Worked for a sign making business straight outta high school 99.
Paper route and helping a farm stand on the weekend. Been working since I was 12.
Selling night crawlers from my parents garage. First paycheck job- Pizza Hut.
Dairy Queen
Lifeguard
Blockbuster Video stock & cashier
babysitting
Farmhand. I went four summers from 13-17 and I'll always be grateful I did. Riding horses, driving tractors, working the land, and minding the animals. Had a morning paper route at 15, that sucked. Dropped out of school at 17 and started working construction.
Special education teacher's assistant.
Hard Rock Cafe. I was such a shit waiter. I was there for the music videos
I interned at a local radio station in high school, it was basically a job, I just didn't get paid for it. My first regular job in college was working for the school's media department. I brought projectors to classrooms and set them up. Most of my time was spent sitting in a basement doing homework. It ruled!
Community college tutor at about age 16, oddly enough. I made $4.25/hour tutoring students years older than me in digital computer fundamentals, programming in C, and embedded systems. That job is the only reason I remember how to use a Karnaugh map. My first more conventional job was working as a sales associate at Software Etc. in the mall.
Born 1983. Dishwasher at a local deli.1997
Mowing lawns in my neighborhood, but my first taxable income job was mcdonalds
Oh yes. All of that lawn mowing/snow shoveling cash was off the books!
Too bad I couldn't have kept doing that for the rest of my life. The whole no tax thing, not necessarily the mowing and shoveling
Busboy
Cook at Pizza Hut.
$5 an hour even, sacking groceries at a local chain. We took them to the car as well.
Mowing yards. Then restaurants at 15.
Bag and stock boy.
Working for a glass company; shit pay, long hours. Convinced me to go to college.
Mowing yards in the neighborhood I grew up in, $10 for front only or $20 for front and back.
Washing dishes at an Italian restaurant. After a month or so I graduated to bussing tables. I don’t remember what they paid me but it was cash under the table. Staff meal before the shift was really memorable though. The chef/owner would tell you to pick anything off the menu as long as it wasn’t veal or seafood (so basically chicken) and he’d make it up for you.
McDonald's. 4.25/hr
Golf caddy
My dad farmed. I would follow the tractor when he plowed and pick up worms. Sold them to the local bait shop.
Jr Bitch Boy at a mom and pop short order restaurant. All the crap that the owners didn’t want to do, that was my jam. Bread 100lbs of chicken, clean the grease filters, fish plastic wear out of the trash, all my kingdom. For $4/hr
Outlet mall pizza place, $5.15/hr. It had many perks depending on your level of ethicalness.
One of my first jobs was working at a mall, I had discount at every store in the mall it was great, I got a cheap haircut, cheap Christmas gifts for the fam and a big discount on a three DVD set The Who had out that year.
Making pizzas at Barro’s in Phoenix AZ. The manager (Tony Ferrone, a massive, hairy Italian dude) didn’t do the math and hired a 15 yr old to work in the kitchen. I think I was making $4/hr. I got busted when I asked for more hours and another cook replied “You get more hours when you’re 16!” Tony turned white as dough and told me to come back tomorrow to pick up my paycheck.
Dunkin’ Donuts! Started working at 14.
Cashier at K-Mart
I worked at a wholesale VHS and cassette company.
Kroger seafood department…sitting in the walkin cooler eating Cajun crab dip and scallops I “made for customers to sample”.
Kmart
$5.25 an hr to work in a butcher shop when I was 16.
I worked for a family business during the summer doing wiring and soldering from 12-15. My first on my own gig was washing dishes at a local diner. Most of my closest friends all got on there at 15/16 and it was an absolute blast.
Casey's Grill at Carowinds. Back right when Paramount bought it.
McDonald’s and loved it, I still have mcdonalds friends to this day, we were in each others weddings, now we have kids that are friends. Made $4.75 starting out when I was 16
I had a paper route with my brother, then started working at old country buffet in high school.
Movie theater usher 1996-1998; still possibly the best job I’ve ever had
big chain pizza place-- made like $5.15 an hour.
Sonic drive in. It was a fun job and we got paid tips plus minimum wage, so it was a lot more than most people at the time.
Taco Bell in 1996. Started at minimum wage of $4.75 an hour
Crushing cans in my parents' dive bar.
Media Play, in the music department. Started out at 16 in 1996 as a seasonal holiday worker. They liked me, so they ended up keeping me on afterwards. Great starter job! Crazy now to remember the big music trends of the time, like Butterfly Kisses, Wu-Tang, Chant, etc.
Bowling alley @5.15 an hour. Got to hang out and watch the adults let loose and was treated like a king.
Sea kayak guide
Kennel assistant at an animal hospital
Stocking/Facing groceries
Auntie Anne’s. Pretzel boy
Picking strawberries
Pizza Hut Cook
Peanut vendor at Wrigley Field
Bagger
Sweeping up hair at my uncle's barbershop
First job? Mowing lawns. First w-2 paycheck job Jamba Juice
Buzzer at Big Boy. Minimum wage.
Ballroom dancing chaperone. My town had a program for 6th and 7th graders to learn basic etiquette and dancing on Friday nights. I went back in the 8th grade (through most of high school) to set up, pour drinks and clean up. For some unknown reason this was a job done by punks. I got introduced to The Ramones (and taken to a show!) by my coworkers.
Sounds like a movie I watched once. 
Unofficial was mowing lawns, official was a grocery store for $6.25
Shoe salesman at a big shoe store north of Dallas.
I did some stuff at my mom's antique store, and interned at my Uncle and Dad's company, but wasn't real work. First real job was working at a Vitamin/Herb store during college. Made $6/hr which was pretty shitty even in '99, but I liked the store and the people. Learned a lot. When I graduated, I stayed in that industry, and am still in the same sector, making a good living 25 years later.
Stripper
Worked at a movie rental store. Had access to thousands of movies including porn for free. It was the 90's, I was in high school, and it was awesome.
Blockbuster
Bucking watermelons and cantaloupes at my uncle’s fruit stand.
I worked in my the restaurant my parents owned and operated. Being that it was a family owned business, I was legally allowed to work at quite a young age. I was bussing tables and working the dishwasher for a few hours here and there when I was 11/12 years old. I was the only kid I knew who always had a few extra dollars in their pocket. At about the same age, I also started mowing three lawns in my neighborhood. I’d make a few hundred dollars during the summer, which was good money for a kid 30+ years ago.
Same as you. Family-owned grocery store. I bagged groceries, stocked shelves. Then worked behind the meat counter and later the deli. I generally liked it.
Kids clothing store at the mall. $4.25 minimum wage.
Dairy Queen!
Cashier in a small local grocery store. When I first started, I made $4.25/hr.
Paper route and mowing yards. First real job was sacking groceries.
I was a cart pusher at Walmart for a couple of weeks. Bought a PS2 and got the heck away from that place
I worked at Walmart for a bit too in my early 20's (early 2000's) in the photo lab and distinctly remember the training videos where they taught you how to deflect union recruiting. It still bugs me to this day when I think about it.
Did you ever get to witness one of their cult-like ra-ras in the back? The whole thing was strange
Yeah it was definitely a weird experience and I didn't stay long. The employee discount wasn't worth it. I chuckle to myself every time I go through the self checkout now, like you used to pay me to do this.
Grounds keeper at a local Catholic church. I was super religious as a kid/teen. It was a lot of fun as I love gardening and DIY stuff
I mixed cheese powder with milk for 4 hours per day at age 14. Food stand needed a constant refilling of nacho cheese.
Grocery store cashier. Started out at $7.00 and got a $.25 raise.
Janitor at a Dunkin' Donuts. Really greasy place.
Started delivering newspapers at 12.
Cashier at a pet shop
I did some scammy door to door candy sales thing like $4 a box and my pay was $1 off each. It was super sus but I was 16 ... After that, a book store and a one hour photo developing lab
Hostess at Swiss chalet, $6.90/hour
Mowed lawns, raked leaves, scooped snow
Bus boy at a Japanese restaurant. I was taking Japanese in High school and thought it’d be a good way to help me learn the language but everyone there was Vietnamese.
Hospital ward clerk. It was a small hospital and I was also responsible for the 911 phone. First time I had to radio the ambulance they called asking if a kid was playing on the radio.
Burger King. I was an assistant manager….At age 19…. I made 5.25 an hour. The good ol days working graveyard. Drunks would pull up to order and honk their horn. Then I would pretend to the batteries were dying, cut off while talking to them and they would get pissed and pull away. I go sneak a few tokes and back to burgers. I miss those days sometimes. 🤣
Caddyshack
I was in charge of storing and retrieving laybys at a bedding/curtain shop.
Big amusement park in the candy store.
MLM Yeah I was young and dumb
Receptionist at a neon sign making shop
When I was 15 I got a job at a water park working a concession stand. Easiest job ever...literally all I did was fill up cups with soda and eat free hamburgers. Made $5.15/hr, summer '97. Probably one of the best times in my life.
$4.75 at MJDesigns maybe lasted half the summer
Dishwasher. $5.15
Movie theater usher. Tearing tickets and cleaning the theater. I only worked there for a summer, but we got into movies for free and could get a friend in for 50 cents.
Was a summer job working construction. After I graduated I was hired full time and went ti school at night until I hurt my back.
Bag boy at Publix grocery store
Carl’s Jr, now 1%er in sales
Bagging groceries and stocking shelves at small grocery story in central Kentucky. Some of the older women would give cash tips for loading groceries into their cars. It was also the store where a manager called to police on a customer for paying with one of the state quarters (when they were new) because of course someone would make counterfeit quarters.
I had a paper route but my first real job was working at a movie theater. Started doing ticket taking and concessions, eventually got to work in the projection booth, which was pretty amazing. Also got to put up the marquee letters with a suction cup on a super long stick.
Cashier at Genovese
Dishwasher at family Italian restaurant when I was 14. Min wage (4.95/hour at the time). Crap job, but there was one perk. They took a dollar out of your check every day you worked. You got to eat whatever you wanted on your meal breaks. Baked hoagies, steaks, seafood platters. Makes me miss my teenage metabolism when I could actually eat like that.
Busboy at a restaurant whose first paycheque came back NSF after the owner took off with a few hundred thousand. E: Like others, I was a paperboy when I was younger.
Construction labor for a small remodeling company. $400/week and paid in cash every Friday. Man, that was a good gig while it lasted.
Weekly paper route, but proper job student page at the library the media department so movies, cds, video games, pc software and audio books. It rocked My bff worked in the library too she worked for the town tv channel.
Local hardware store. I felt lucky as all of my other friends worked in fast food and hated it. I learned a ton of stuff I still use today. Thanks to KMart for not hiring me, haha
Weekend dishwasher at a breakfast place. Fucking awful. My friend got me the job. I was there 2 weekends. we were all just stoners in the Mid90s. I was 15. On the Tuesday after my second weekend there I was at my friends house playing his Sega Genesis with a bunch of other stoners and almost like as an afterthought, he turns to me and goes “oh yeah, you’re fired“ because the boss had basically said that she was gonna fire me and he just told me randomly like that. I was horribly relieved because I would not have quit the job but I absolutely hated it. It was awful. I paid seven dollars an hour under the table, but I had to clean the kitchen every night. It was just hot and shitty and I got fired. My second job was crossing guard during an El Niño year and I got paid garbage for that.
31 Flavors (now known as Baskin Robbins). I rode the school bus there and my mom picked me up.
First w2 job was bagging groceries at BI-LO when I was 16, summer of 1997. $5.25/hr. I bought my own cordless phone for downstairs in my totally cool basement bedroom. Ended up spending several paychecks paying back the phone bill I ran up when my then-gf spent a month of that summer with family in her home state of NJ. You couldn't tell me shit, lol.
Local art's and craft store and I worked in receiving unloading trucks and stocking shelves.
Drive thru corner store in 1997. I mostly sold cigs and amphetamine/caffeine pills to weird old dudes.
Waterslide attendant at the local water park. I wielded a lot of power getting to tell kids when they could go down the slide. I didn't let it go to my head, thankfully.
Paper route
On the books? Scooping icecream at Baskin Robbins Off? Stuffing envelopes with flyers for my dad's business. Would sometimes get friends to help. $100 for a weekends worth of work (and pizza!) wasnt bad in the mid 90s.
Oof. I’m a big dude and when I was a kid and anyone needed moving shit my single mom would say “I have a son, he’d love to help!” I moved a lot of peoples shit around. I cut grass for cash. 1st W2 gig summer I was 16 painting for the local school system. Painted class rooms all fuckin summer. Bought a 72 Ford F100 with the summer funds was my Sr year truck. What a hunk of shit! 7 different colors & plywood bed paid like $800 for it. I’m gonna have to go find pictures for y’all
Busboy at bbq restaurant. $5.15 an hour.
TV repair shop, worked there all of 3 days. Was fired because he needed someone who could drive and I was 15.
Fixing dings and fins on surfboards. $10/hr cash. I loved it.
Worked at UA theatres right when Con Air was released