First Jobs

sev112

thermionic said:

Worked for a summer at the local council’s finance department, doing the crap jobs everybody else didn’t want to do. Worked in a pub during university holidays.

Can’t complain about my first proper job - research in the same physics department as Professor Peter Higgs!

Boso !

goldtop

17yo dogsbody at a professional photography D&P shop; mostly fumbling around in the dark. Developing and printing for weddings and advertising, for the most part. Dull.

But it was the '70s, and every photographer had a 'glamour' sideline, which spiced things up - once I'd worked out where the manageress hid the proofs. Made up for the lousy pay and chemical hazards.

Paul_C

hywelg said:

Corona pop wagon, Saturday lad. Less than a pound a day. Worked up to wagon driver for £2.50 a day whilst at Uni. 

Context. Beer 11p a pint. 

I helped our local Corona bloke for a while - pluses were free pop (and the occasional beer) and crisps now and again, minuses were you had to keep your distance from his wandering hands . . . #metoo

The next job (at a petrol station) I had a gun pointed at me, so the Corona job wasn't as bad as you might think.

Iamnobody

sev112 said:

During my A levels I did Saturday afternoons cleaning the butchers shop, fridge and back of shop for £1.75 / hour.
it was not worth it, you could never get them smell out no matter how long you spent in the bath before you went out in the evening 

You’re lucky I did the same job in the late nineties for £1.50/hr. That was casual though.

Scrubbing the block with the wire brush?

My first proper contract was with...

Morrison’s Butchers. My job title was ‘Student Meat Packer’.

Foster

I did my time! 3 years of it! In WHSmiths! /garyoldmanaswosshisfaceinharrypotter

Phil_aka_Pip

RaymondLin said:

Did strawberry and raspberry pickings for a day.  You get paid for amount you pick.  Which as a kid won’t cant do it fast, not worth while, it would’ve been way below minimal wage had i paid by the hours.

Through an agency:-

did 1 day in a factory putting nuts on bolts.

did 1 day checking new plastic container off the moulding machine ready for butter.

first proper job with contract was after my degree as an junior architect.

I take it you had 2/3 of your brain cells removed first? Seems to be a prerequisite for contemporary architecture  

RaymondLin

Phil_aka_Pip said:

RaymondLin said:

Did strawberry and raspberry pickings for a day.  You get paid for amount you pick.  Which as a kid won’t cant do it fast, not worth while, it would’ve been way below minimal wage had i paid by the hours.

Through an agency:-

did 1 day in a factory putting nuts on bolts.

did 1 day checking new plastic container off the moulding machine ready for butter.

first proper job with contract was after my degree as an junior architect.

I take it you had 2/3 of your brain cells removed first? Seems to be a prerequisite for contemporary architecture  

Haha, I actually liked the practice of it but the degree I didn’t like the theory behind some of the designs the lecturers were looking for.  Or should I say, some of the flowery language that they expect you to use.  I should’ve done a Bsc in architecture from somewhere like Bath instead of BA.

Tone71

Morning paperound aside my first Saturday job was breaking up wooden crates for a glazing shop, me and a mate armed with a hammer and crowbar each.......£8 for the day

Teetonetal

Superdrug, working in the stock room two nights a week, which led to weekend work. £2.85 an hour

Roland

Rocket scientist. 

That’s the honest truth. I did it for six months before I went to university. It was real research, with a couple of significant discoveries. I still suffer from the time I gassed myself with ozone.

jonnyburgo

Lettuce Farm Labourer in the 6 week school holidays, back breaking but £45 a week in 1985 for a 13yo wasnt too shabby I tell yer.

robgilmo

Drug dealer, selling soft drugs to yuppie students, then started to import cocaine, before long I had a small protection racket in 4 major cities  around the country, 7 fishing boats importing 15 tons a week across the channel, a transport network from North Africa to the French coast with 6 trucks, a freight train and two Ex WW2 German fast attack E boats coming across the Alboran Sea from Tanger four times a day making coastal drops somewhere south of Granada, I did have three but one is impounded.

Blaendulais

Sperm donor.  1983.   15 quid a shot 3 times a week.  I was a consumate professional.   

TTBZ

A summer job in a factory filling foam moulds then removing them after they'd set, for 10 hours a day. Whilst being forced to listen to Radio 1 all day. Everything about that job was awful. I lasted 2 days then went and got a job stacking shelves at Tesco which was much better.

Iamnobody

Blaendulais said:

Sperm donor.  1983.   15 quid a shot 3 times a week.  I was a consumate professional.   

Morning dad...

Axe_meister

Loads of jobs whilst at uni. Working in a warehouse of a timber merchant, working at a DIY store, butcher assistant, the worst was working at a fruit and veg packing plant. I have never smelt anything worst than a railway truck full of rotting water melon that we had to clear out. But they were paying very good money (5 Deutch Marks an hour in 1988), cash in hand.

TheBlueWolf

First part time job was a shelf stacker at Safeway. I hated it.

Got a better job driving a forklift a few years later

RedRabbit

Frozen food distributor working as an order picker. Started at 16 as an evening job while at school. Generally did 3 or 4 nights a week, 6pm til midnight in -20°C warehouse. 

Didn't quit fully until I'd finished uni and moved to Lancaster. Money was okay, boss was a dick - overall not too bad.

Did make me realise that I never wanted to work nights full time though. The days where I was scheduled to go in I'd just spend the day being annoyed about the fact I had to go into work.

CloudNine

Blaendulais said:

Sperm donor.  1983.   15 quid a shot 3 times a week.  I was a consumate professional.   

There's usually at least one wanker posting on any thread round here, but not often we have one with actual professional credentials.

My first job was working on a fish stall in a market on a weekend. Brutal in every way, gutting fish, skinning/gutting rabbits, terrible terrible work. The smell of a rabbit when you remove it's innards is not easily forgotten. Used to earn enough to buy a 1/4 oz of weed that would last the week. Not like I was going out anywhere smelling like I probably did, so was better off staying indoors getting smashed.

Nunogilberto

PolarityMan said:

First summer I worked I had 3 jobs, worked at Electornic Boutique on sat, 3 evening doing data entry for hsbc in the week and 4 early mornign shifts at the granary motorway services..this was when i was 17

Grabbing bastard