Category: Personal What was your first job?
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At 13 I started working at a Popcorn stand in Vallco Mall.
Yours?
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Noah Kagan wrote What was your first job? on September 22nd, 2008 and there are 58 comments. There will be one more after you add yours, though. Read more posts by Noah Kagan.
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58 Responses to “What was your first job?”
September 22nd, 2008
12:15 pm
Telefundraising for the Parents Against Drugs Association, which I’m pretty sure was a scam. I only lasted a few weeks (which was common), but I learned a lot about selling and myself (and yeah, selling myself).
September 22nd, 2008
12:16 pm
adam,
nice. did you ever drugs after that?
September 22nd, 2008
12:23 pm
That would have shown them! Nope, I’m clean. I wonder if I have them to thank?
September 22nd, 2008
12:26 pm
Hi Noah!
I hear you relo’d to Texas, and I sort of relo’ d to Florida. Weird.
Anyhow, my first job was at 13 making sandwiches at a small Deli across from the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz. I worked my ass off for pennies.
My first “grown up” job was making calls for my Mom, who also is a headhunter. Thankfully I chose the later as my career.
Cheers
Christie
September 22nd, 2008
12:30 pm
christie,
those were the good ol days when making $5.15 / hr seemed like a lot:)
September 22nd, 2008
12:32 pm
I started my own egg business with my best friend and neighbour, bought 45 chickens and sold their eggs to our local community… I was 9 years old.
September 22nd, 2008
12:32 pm
At the age of 14, I was a chat moderator for the Children TV in Israel and I would answer the celebrities’ e-mails. It was a cool job.
September 22nd, 2008
12:33 pm
luke,
did you make good $ from doing that?
September 22nd, 2008
12:35 pm
dan, how did you get that gig? sounds awesome! who’s famous in israel
September 22nd, 2008
12:38 pm
probably a paper route…
September 22nd, 2008
12:38 pm
kareem,
awww. nice!
September 22nd, 2008
12:40 pm
I got it through my sister who was participating in a show (she got that through my parents’ friends). Basically I was there to accompany her (she was 10) and I was just annoying as hell asking the IT guy a million questions. Turns out he liked my curiosity so he suggested I join the moderation team. For a 1
September 22nd, 2008
12:41 pm
Age 13 also, delivering San Mateo Times and San Fran Chronicle in San Mateo and Burlingame.
Got the know the area really well riding our bmx bikes.
September 22nd, 2008
12:42 pm
its funny how many first jobs were paper routes. papers are thrown out by speeding drivers in my neighborhood.
September 22nd, 2008
12:42 pm
I got it through my sister who was participating in a show (she got that through my parents’ friends). Basically I was there to accompany her (she was 10) and I was just annoying as hell asking the IT guy a million questions. Turns out he liked my curiosity so he suggested I join the moderation team.
Who’s famous now or 1
September 22nd, 2008
1:01 pm
Barnes and Noble baby!
September 22nd, 2008
1:02 pm
dishwasher at sizzler
September 22nd, 2008
1:05 pm
boris,
ha i totally remember that!
September 22nd, 2008
1:06 pm
cameron,
that’s my great-aunt’s favorite place in the world. she wants me to have them cater my wedding (if i ever get married):)
nice to hear from you.
September 22nd, 2008
4:54 pm
I was a lowly deck attendant. A what? Yes, I watched the baby pool bc it was cheaper to get good 15 year old kids who could swim well to pull 2 and 3 year olds out of 5 inches of water than it was to pay a lifeguard.
I was rolling in it though at 6.25/hr. After school started in the fall i got a bump to 6.50.
First jobs…amazing.
September 22nd, 2008
5:11 pm
Wrote a book on computer programming at 15
September 22nd, 2008
5:35 pm
I was a docent for elementary school student at the de Young museum
September 22nd, 2008
6:22 pm
I was 16, busser/steward at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park.
It was pretty awesome, I wish I had stayed longer.
September 22nd, 2008
7:49 pm
At 13 I went every evening in the summer around my neighborhood pushing my lawnmower to houses that need their grass cut. Within two weeks I had a client list and yards to cut all summer. I had pocket money for the rest of the year from that job.
My first job where I had to fill out forms was officially hired was next year as an assistant 1st grader/kindergarten teacher during the summer. I learned that Janitors hate glitter and yell at assistant teachers who let their kids make messy projects that use glitter.
September 22nd, 2008
7:51 pm
Pee-wee baseball coach, softball scorekeeper, and groundskeeper, for the Del Norte County Parks & Recreation Department, at age 13. Unofficial (undocumented, shhh!!!) work as a garden hand for parents’ friends before that.
September 22nd, 2008
8:44 pm
I worked at a golf course washing golf carts, getting hit by golf balls in the “range picker,” and emptying trash cans full of wasps and stale beer. The pay sucked, but I was in it for the free golf.
Other jobs included AT&T customer service, and taking calls for every “blue screen” commercial you can imagine: Bowflex, Nads Hair Removal Gel, Billy Bass, Egg Wave - you name it.
September 22nd, 2008
11:44 pm
The first job that paid me was as a crowd coordinator for road shows.
September 23rd, 2008
2:13 am
trevor. awesome:)
maneesh, mr stanford. nice transcript booster
joe, your treat next time (the first time) we go out to eat:)
September 23rd, 2008
2:22 am
eva,
hard core. did you have to beat up people?
manning,
ooh. i did that too but i think at the same time. a nice few bucks plus free nachos. woot!
ben,
cute. would have loved to see you as a a teacher and lawn-mowerer…
deisy,
i’ve heard great things about disneyland, you can always reapply;)
September 23rd, 2008
4:52 am
Now that Mike said he worked for the Rec Dept, I remembered that I was a basketball ref on saturday mornings for several years in middle school and early high school.
I tossed a family friend’s hot headed third grade boy out of a basketball game, I repetedly was yelled at by overzealous parents, and was constantly reduced to inches by yelling adults. What a great way to start a saturday…
Ah those were the days.
September 23rd, 2008
5:47 am
Dissecting human eyeballs at U of T. It was for glaucoma research and I even got to design an apparatus that they built. ewwww.
September 23rd, 2008
6:50 am
At 13 or 14, I was an assistant at religious school.
September 23rd, 2008
8:06 am
I coached girls field hockey at the local school… The best job for an 18 year old student.
September 23rd, 2008
8:59 am
working at SEARS in the women’s biz suit dept. yeah, you didn’t know they had that either huh?
it was fun! i helped female middle aged to later aged women pick you clothes. call me lil V’ stylist!
vanae
September 23rd, 2008
9:16 am
Computer technician at a mall store in my hometown in Israel at 14.
September 23rd, 2008
9:37 am
I was a sales assistant for The Body Shop. They had just launched the mens collection of products and needed a guy to pitch the product.
This was a great gig as I was constantly surrounded by women who wanted to talk to me for a change!!
September 23rd, 2008
9:38 am
BTW I was 16 at the time.
September 23rd, 2008
9:46 am
vanae,
my brother’s first job was sears.
elissa,
you know i heart you but that job is disgusting.
September 23rd, 2008
9:50 am
piaras,
i worked in bed sheets and linens at macy’s. i met a lot of moms:)
September 23rd, 2008
10:02 am
Data Entry and IT at a tech company, age 14. $15 per hour (I was really proud of that at the time!)
September 23rd, 2008
10:35 am
andrew,
this is a lot of money for me now:)
September 23rd, 2008
11:25 am
Lol - Noah. Considering I work at my own startup and don’t get paid much, I guess it’s a lot of money for me now too.
September 23rd, 2008
11:26 am
andrew, join the club:)
September 23rd, 2008
7:10 pm
16. built computers for a school district at a local computer parts retailer. during the summer. texas. non-airconditioned warehouse. there was one week when we had to use these toxic plastic cleaners to scrub old monitors, and load them on a palette for reselling. it was bitch work and i thought i was going to be configuring high-end computers for clients. ended up quitting a few weeks in.
September 23rd, 2008
7:10 pm
@ $7/hr
September 24th, 2008
9:49 am
I worked at a stock brokerage after my 1st year at Cal. Unpaid, meaning I paid to learn =P
September 24th, 2008
10:30 am
Age 13 - McDonalds working the cash register. Started at $3.75/h left making $3.85/h.
Yeah, I am that old!
W
September 24th, 2008
11:26 am
the first time someone ever paid me to do something, my best friend and I painted the Babcock Inn in Cardiff, NY. It was a “rough” (unsanded) wood exterior. The paint brush kept snagging on the wood grain. For some reason, it made my teeth clench like they do when someone drags chalk over a chalkboard. I think I made $3.35 an hour which was minimum wage at the time.
around the same time, actually that fall, I would pick drops on weekends. drops are apples that fall from trees in an apple orchard. drops are used to make apple sauce. down where they fall, the grass is long and wet with the morning dew. you got paid per “bushel”. A bushel was a large 4′ by 4′ by 4′ box I believe. it was also cold in the fall in upstate ny. at best, I filled 2 bushels per day, and this would earn me maybe $16.
September 24th, 2008
7:36 pm
In the 5th grade I’d sit in the back of my school bus and sell basketball cards to kids. I could average between $20-30 a day after I had resupplied. This was when Michael Jordan was at his peek and about to retire. Some weeks I’d make $300 if I got a good MJ card and my Beckett price guide could convince people to pay a 15% premium on the prices listed for my immediate supply.
I learned a hard lesson though after trying to buy an entire case of the most expensive type of cards. A) Kids can’t afford them and B) If you don’t get lucky, that $300 investment is makes for some really fancy coasters.
September 28th, 2008
12:42 pm
volunteered at the jewish community center in granada hills, ca when I was 15, then worked at a movie theater, ah yes the glory days.
October 2nd, 2008
7:48 am
worked as a baby sitter when I was 13. Since that time I like children
October 2nd, 2008
9:53 pm
Mowing lawns as a kid.
After that I worked for the school district doing computer setup, network administration, and hardware repair.
October 7th, 2008
3:56 pm
Pimping out Lawns in the 503.
October 11th, 2008
10:38 am
Mine was distributing flyers etc. I was 12 at that time…..
October 13th, 2008
2:27 am
Since 11 I helped my dad in his office. He used to pay me some money I used to love my first job!
October 17th, 2008
7:39 am
Fixing arcade machines at Tee Off mini golf in Denton, TX. I was paid in cash because I was only 15 and couldn’t legally work. It was awesome for taxes. =)
October 18th, 2008
11:40 pm
When I was twelve, I had my first paper route on Long Island.
Two years before that, I was self-employed shoveling snow (home driveways and sidewalks) around town.
November 2nd, 2008
12:58 am
haha cool i remember vallco! that place has changed some. my first job was at the target on stevens creek
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