As in under 18, legally employed and paying taxes and all that.
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I fought criminals in hand-to-hand combat and lived in the sewers. We all survived on pizza and had deadly weapons and training. Also banged a reporter.
Once I was 13 and I got my work permit, I changed busses after school and went to my dad’s computer store after work. Learned how to build PCs back when Intel’s 286 recently came out.
With computers these days a kid would be lucky to get a retail job at a Best Buy.
14, grocery store stocker. My boss still works there, pretty awkward when I see him. He’s been having the same day for 26 years and I’ve been off adventuring. He’s only about 5 years older than me, seemed like a lot at the time.
Got a job at 16 selling games in the mall at Software Etc. I loved that job.
Started a web dev side hustle with some friends, back around 98 or so. We were dumb and didn’t charge enough, but we were still making 3x what fast food roles were paying at the time so we thought we were smart.
worked at Dunkin donuts making coffee and whatnot for people when I was 16. kinda insane to be as young as I am and able to say “I made the federal minimum wage of $7.25 at my first job” but it paid enough to cover (almost) all the weed I could smoke so I was happy 😁
I started working as a cook at 14
I walked to the restaurant close to my house, told the first person I saw “I want a job, but I don’t want to work with people”. They stuck me in the kitchen and taught me everything. Did that for 14 years.
Lived in a place just rural enough to not have any businesses other than a tiny supermarket, and just urban enough to not really have many orchards, much less farms. Typical shitty planning that required everyone to have a vehicle to get anywhere important. So before I got a car it was pretty much shovelling snow in the winter and mowing lawns in the summer.
I worked at an amusement park running a few different rides. Paid alright for the late 90s, but could work outrageous hours if you wanted. Physical and simple work in the hot midwestern humidity. Met a boy with the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen, and the rest is history.
awwwww ❤️
I was a teenager back in the 80’s.
My very first job was a paper route and I absolutely hated it.
Second job was at a nursery/garden center, that also had a pool center. This job I didn’t mind so much. I learned a lot about landscaping and plants in general. I actually became knowledgeable enough that at the age of 17 I designed several landscapes, even one large job that was the HQ for a Japanese car company. Fast forward 20 years and my wife and I buy a house and my wife has always dreamed of having a yard with tons of landscaping. So I dusted off my skills and built multiple beds across our property. Today we have a yard that is mostly very mature beds which bloom continuously throughout the growing season.
Lied about my age to work in a grocery store, which was funny as they gave me keys to an Audi stick-shift and told me to do donut runs every morning. I didn’t even have a license. I did learn fast and mastered a stick, as well as saw my manager fuck my classmates.
under 18 (OP)
saw my manager fuck my classmates
Hah, that’s awesome. How many times did you stall the car trying to get out of the parking lot?
Exactly once, while the owner was watching on my first day. But before he could say anything I zipped off and discovered just how fast an imported Audi can be.
I had a paper route. I hated it. They kept assigning me random houses that were several miles outside my zone.
My paper route is part of my origin story. There was a house with an absurdly steep driveway and no steps. Iced over one day, physically couldnt get up it. Tried for about 10 minutes getting run ups and kept sliding back down in the road and getting scraped up. Ended up leaving it on the car. Got back to the shop an hour later and they’d already phoned to complain and got a refund and I got a bollocking.
Unbridled hatred.
I counted stuff. Worked in a paper products warehouse doing daily inventory counts. It was kind of awesome since I got to walk around, BS with some friends that had other jobs in the warehouse, and developed boss-level skills with the number pad that I still apply today. After working the summer there, I was pretty glad my first couple applications in food service got rejected.
Lifeguard at 16
It’s kinda odd, because in a lot of ways it’s still the most serious job I’ve ever had.
Also the least paying job I ever had. But when it was slow I was basically getting paid to do homework or do laps, and you were so bored you’d actually do it. $60 paychecks felt like such a luxury for something that fit nicely between school and sports.
Idk adjusted for inflation I was making $20/hour lifeguarding in 1999. I’ve worked for less since. And worked a lot harder for it.
This was for minimum wage in 2004 at 5.15/hr and 6.15/hr if we were teaching lessons.
How often did you actually have to step in?
Had to jump in and put a kid back on a wall during a lesson, closest I had to doing an actual save. Also had to call 911 once, but it was for someone out of the pool. This was over a three year period, but it was a pretty small pool.
But doing lessons there were countless times where you’re righting kids floundering or helping people back to the wall, but you’re already in the water and it was very hands on. Or you’re a second guard and sitting on the wall observing the lesson/keeping an eye on the rest of the pool. The lowest level of swimmers especially, you’re probably having to make a few assists a class.
Surprisingly never had to do anything at a birthday party, but they were the worst simply because you’d just get a lot of wildcards you don’t know and there’d be a lot to watch. The vast majority of our time was spent watching over regulars so it was pretty relaxed with regards to having to feel out the swimming ability new faces all the time.
