First Jobs

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  • BRISTOL86BRISTOL86 Frets: 1920
    edited January 2019
    I had two part time jobs as soon as I turned 16, while I did my A Levels.

    Saturdays in the Sony Centre which was great as it paid commission on top of hourly wage, and Sundays in Debenhams.

    First full time job was office admin in a law firm, which I very quickly got bored of.
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  • fretmeisterfretmeister Frets: 23955
    Assembling dashboards that would later end up in Lotus Elans.

    It was surprisingly good fun - even though it was many years before min wage so the pay was £3 per hour from 6am to 2pm, then time and a half from 2pm to 6pm.

    Time and a half on Saturday and double time on Sunday if you had worked the Saturday.

    I did 6 weeks without a day off so I could buy a Gibson Explorer.
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  • KKJaleKKJale Frets: 982
    Aged about 16, I worked in the kitchen of a weird restaurant selling Swedish-style open sandwiches. Long, long, boiling hot shifts consisting mostly of food prep and washing up. It made my clothes pong terribly.

    I worked for six weeks and blew most of it on a Viking 10-speed with double-butted Reynolds 531. 
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  • MrBumpMrBump Frets: 1244
    So many... formative years were spent in the arse-end of nowhere (East Anglia), so there was loads of casual employment - drove an antique tractor around a nursery when I was ~16 or so, worked in an apple packing factory - did rose patching (if you don't know, it's the worse, most painful job ever...), strawberry picking.  Squeegeed blood off the floor in a meat processing factory.

    No minimum wage back in the late 1980's,  rates would either be piecework, or £1 an hour or something.

    When I was at college I graduated to collecting shopping trolleys at Safeway.

    I've a pretty good job now, but at the back of my head there's always the voice that says "this could end at any time, and you'll be back on the land..."  I think that keeps me grounded and stops me being all "city-like".
    Mark de Manbey

    Trading feedback:  http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/72424/
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  • I worked at John Menzies while at school. Crap wages, but quite fun & free access to jazz mags- nice. 

    I moved from there to Lifeguard work- which was great. Good wages, free gym membership & totally laid back atmosphere. I miss that job. 
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  • gubblegubble Frets: 1737
    A Computer Shop (where i previously did my work experience) Worked the entire of my summer holidays after doing my GCSEs and then continued on saturdays and during school holidays.

    I learnt an awful lot there and really enjoyed it. I saved enough money to buy a Fender  Telecaster and a Marshall VS100 amp.

    Very happy days.
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  • ronnybronnyb Frets: 1742
    LuttiS said:
    p90fool said:
    On the end of a machine, packing 500 envelopes in a box every 40 seconds, for 12 hours with no break. 

    I had to go like crazy for five minutes or so to get enough seconds ahead to be able to light a cigarette or bite a sandwich. 
    That was one of my summer jobs... except i got a 5 min break every 4 hrs or something like that.. tough stuff! :)
    And pay mill owner for the privilege of going to work.
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  • Hick81Hick81 Frets: 122
    Delivering free papers when I was 13 (1994). I got paid £0.01 per paper and had to deliver 1000 with 2 days to get it done by. I don’t think I’ve had a job as hard since. 
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  • usedtobeusedtobe Frets: 3841
    Local, 6 man decorating firm. Owner took the piss, big time, regarding pay. 
     so if you fancy a reissue of a guitar they never made in a colour they never used then it probably isn't too overpriced.

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  • Jimbro66Jimbro66 Frets: 2419
    During my last couple of years of school before going off to polytechnic I had a p/t job building cabin cruisers at weekends, holidays and occasional evenings. They were great guys working at the marina and we had plenty of laughs.

    The upside was learning a lot about boatbuilding but the not so good side was using electric sanders on fibreglass hulls with no PPE provided back then :(

    I can't remember what the pay was but it bought me some very nice  things.
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  • furtherfurther Frets: 88
    1965 first job was in a clothes shop,£3.18/10 ,didn't last long.
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  • 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
    ဈǝᴉʇsɐoʇǝsǝǝɥɔဪቌ
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  • I did a paper round as a kid, probably the best job I ever had! The money was crap, but I got to wander around on my own, early in the morning. I never cared how bad the weather was, I just really enjoyed it.
    My wife asked me to stop singing Wonderwall.
    I said maybe.....
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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    Working as a general dogsbody in a restaurant kitchen for £3/hr doing anything up to 18 hour shifts.

    Worst job I've ever had by far. Best thing about it is that everything else I've ever done has seemed easy by comparison.
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  • strtdvstrtdv Frets: 2356
    Working in a mechanics. Started off sweeping floors, ended up able to change the clutch on a tractor.

    Also did some sheep farming in my time.
    Robot Lords of Tokyo, SMILE TASTE KITTENS!
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  • sev112sev112 Frets: 2739
    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 
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  • Waitrose part timer in the freezers when I was at school, then while at uni I worked in a Next clothes shop as a temp. That was tougher than expected, hot, sweaty, mad shoppers and really tiring while also being unrewarding. Shelf stacking was busy, but also quite soothing. Quite enjoyed it, in a way. 

    Bit of bar work, then healthcare assistant which was rewarding and honestly makes other jobs feel easy, even when the going gets really tough. That was unbelievably stressful, and I still sometimes feel quite broken and re-run scenarios through my head.

    Did some photography and now I'm an administrator in the conservation industry - and doing well, in terms of learning skills and applying skills from university. 
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  • thermionicthermionic Frets: 9499
    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!
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  • boogiemanboogieman Frets: 12314
    Saturday boy in an ironmongers (think of the two Ronnie four candles sketch). 10 bob a day (50p). 
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  • RaymondLinRaymondLin Frets: 11812
    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.
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