My first job.

What was your first paying gig as a teen? What impact do you think it had on how you see work now? What's your dream job? How close are you to it or are you doing it now??

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Permalink Reply by CurvyDivaJC on February 13, 2009 at 2:54pm

My first "real" tax paying job was a cashier at Kroger (grocery store). I was 15 years old. I got fired after a month. They didn't even tell me. I went to check my schedule one day and I wasn't on it. I went to the manager and asked why wasn't I on the schedule. He told me I was let go...I was not "grocery store material". What the f%$k is grocery store material? You need to know how to count cash, take WIC and food stamps, and run the item along the machine. Maybe I was not the perkiest cashier. Of course I was 15 so I didn't care. After that I worked for Wendy's from 16 to 19 (through college stint #1) Then from 19 to 29 I was an optician. I loved it but it was not what I wanted to do forever and I was in school so I quit. Now I am a financial aid counselor at a local university. I am still in school to get my degree in Public Relations. Working at the university I get a huge discount. My dream job is to be in community relations for a major sports team. I am close. I got about a year in a half to go. So close! I have had my odd jobs when I needed extra money and had to get a second job. My fav 2nd job was working at a porn store. Everyone should try to work a sleezy job...it keeps you humble.

Permalink Reply by Kemet on February 13, 2009 at 3:16pm

Well, I did have a paper route with my brother before my teens (It was actually his, I was just tagging along). Then there was the selling of household cleaning products door to door. They both kinda sucked & are probably why I wont do sales to this day! In high school I started working @ The Sandburg Theater in Chicago's Gold Coast. T'was quite the experiance... It made me a serious film snob..lol. I spent all of that $3.35/hour (minimum wage @ the time) on my raggedy-assed 74 Buick Regal I inherited from my brother when he went off to college. Worked with all kinds of folk @ that place. I got my then Ace-Boon a job there with me & he in turn got his boy a job. We were thick as thieves! Had a ball! Coming to work was like hanging out. After we closed up the joint on the weekends, we were right around the corner from Rush Street, so it was all good! We kicked it hard! My last perm job was like that; I guess thats why I stayed there untill I got laid off instead of moving on. In IT you cant stay @ 1 place too long especially if the technology you work with is falling behind the curve.

From working on the Gold Coast it seemed like all those folk had loot, but didnt really do anything. They just walked up & down the street with their lil sissy dogs yap'g. The life of Riley... That where I started to see all the cars & things you only saw on TV in real life. It was quite the sight. Oh yeah.. I got pulled over by the po-po on a weekly basis & I still fuk'g hate them to this day! They were acting as 'border-patrol' between 'us & dem'. I used to park a few block away which was approaching The infamous Cabrini Greens Homes. The would be on my ass before I could park the car! Asking all kinda dumb-ass cop questions which made you ask your-self were the both mentally retarded & racist! The wite folk I worked with would be all aghast @ my sordid tales of woe. lol

How has it affected my current work outlook? I'll answer that when I get a job!!! lol This contract work is for the birds!!!

My dream job would have to be being a musician, but that gig wiff da Jonas Brothers fell through, so Im still bailing dem PC's... ;-)

Permalink Reply by Rosenda on February 13, 2009 at 3:32pm

My first job, technically, was at Fayva Shoes when I was 16. After working one day, I came down with the flu BAD.
When I called in, the boss did not believe me and insulted me over the phone, yelling at me "SURE you're sick. I'M sick too." Even after my mom told him I really was sick, he didn't believe me. He told me then on the phone, "I'll call you when I need you."

He never called and two weeks later I got a paycheck for one day.
After that, my first REAL job was a year later, a Sunday only job at Fedco Discount Dept Store, which they paid time 1/2 rate. I worked in Housewares, basically they had floor models of kitchen appliances and dishes, etc etc on the shelves, the customer picked what they wanted and we retrieved it from the MASSIVE warehouse in back.

Sometimes they needed extra baggers at the main cash registers, so I did that too sometimes. One day they had me at the front door to fill in for the door counter. Literally you sit there with a metal clicker to note exactly how many people come in.

There were some hilarious people who worked there. My boss Alice Ihara, this older Japanese lady, she was very funny practical and businesslike. She told me "ROSENDA, i like you. You're smart. Here's some advice, DON'T mess with boys until you graduate college. They will cause you NOTHING but trouble. I know." And this other warehouse dude, I forget his name, who was REALLY into the science of meteorology.

That was so long ago, I worked there three years, that I don't think it had any impact on how I see work now; probably had more personal impact, cause I liked that I got along with most everybody, and I loved the fact I saw all kinds of different people every day I was there which is always fun and interesting to me. I still like that. I remember running into an older handsome cousin of mine there a few times, and also SCATMAN CROTHERS and his sidekick shopping there too.

Milliner. I want to be a custom hat designer and maker and travel all over the world to do it too. And make some beautiful hats for men and women. I am plan to take my first beginning course in two weeks.

Permalink Reply by Rhinos Have More Fun on February 14, 2009 at 10:27am

My first job ever was working as a stockboy at Bullock's Wilshire. I only lasted about 3-4 weeks before they moved me out. Next came McDonald's--who STILL owes me a paycheck!!! (not that I'm planning to collect it 25 years later) I worked there for about 6 months.

After graduation, I started working for Peninsula Aviation, a small flight school at Torrance Airport. At first I drove around with some guy in a truck, fueling airplanes, but they moved me inside a week later when they realized I couldn't drive a stickshift. So I would restock the candy and soda machines, clean the floors of the classroom and the hangars, clean and sanitize the bathrooms.... I was absolutely miserable working there. Having spiky hair and being the only Black person there invited all sorts of strange looks from the redneck employees and students. So one day when I went in, the director told me that I'd probably be much happier working at a record store.

And after landing an usher's gig at the movie theatre for a very brief time, I managed to start my VERY LONG, love/hate relationship with Tower Records. Practically from the time the DelAmo store opened, I worked there for two years straight. I was very sick and tired of the way I saw a co-worker getting away with not doing any work, while I would become overwhelmed with responsibilities. Actually the shittiest part was that I saw him being rewarded for not doing a damn thing. He would receive all sorts of promotional records, tapes and concert tickets from the labels; he'd get regular invitations to record release parties while I would spend my weekends and nights pulling the slack that he made by not working. I spent MANY nights working past midnight, just to save up enough to buy a car, or put gas in it...or buy a giant sack of 420, or... LoL. Even after an ugly on-the-spot resignation, I found myself returning to that company for years. I'd work an inventory here and there, put in some Christmas help or summer help, etc. One time they hadn't even processed my paperwork, but they still had me working! So on the day after my birthday, when I showed up two hours late and hung-over, of course I was fired on the spot. Yes, I laughed in dude's face because I didn't NEED the job for survival at that time. I had finally gotten my degree and I had already been subbing.

Yeah, I'm not even going to lie, I'll always miss Tower Records and their insane business hours: 9am until MIDNIGHT??? Wow! I've been wasted out of my mind on both sides of that cash register. As a stoner employee, I always found that the sound of hair-singeing guitars and jupiterian rhythms would complement my steady tetrahydrocannabinol levels; the plethora of visual images made gazing for dollars a bearable sport--whether it was in the wall of video monitors, the chrome tile ceilings, the fancy neon fixtures, any of the eight hundred thousand pictures on album covers... But old habits die hard--even when I wasn't working for them, it was the most fun place to be if I was buzzed and needed to find some music. And man--don't get me started on the OCD that I had developed for arranging CD's. This stack is so sloppy!! What were they thinking? This CD doesn't belong here--it's a different genre!! HELLO, BEKTEMBA! You're not even getting paid to do this!!! You hated doing it when you worked here, so it's time to give it a rest...

Permalink Reply by Boombats on February 14, 2009 at 12:21pm

My First Job: working in a library.

I was fired for READING ON THE JOB. No shit.

I could regularly be found in the abnormal psychology section, reading Masters & Johnson and any other books about human sexuality and deviance.

Permalink Reply by lyfenlyn on February 16, 2009 at 10:02am

My very first paying job my mom got me at my new school before I started going there. It was summer and she got me a job as a janitor. She loved humiliating me, so naturally she would get me doing some shit like that. I can realate to Kurt Cobain wholehartedly on this note. The supervisor told dirty jokes all day long, and was an obnoxious middle aged white man. It was the most humilating experience ever . I got paid $3.35 an hour and worked buffing floors and cleaning out restrooms for the summer school kids. I got off work at 3pm.

After that it was telemarketing when I was 16. My mom didn't say anything to me for months other than 'get a job'. Mom whats on TV --get a job, mom can I go to Lisa's? get a job. Mom sign my report card 'get a job'. It was obnoxious. The busses stopped running in town at 7. I asked her how I was supposed to go to school and work if the busses stop. She told me to get a job and she'd pick me up. I got a telemarketing job and got off at 10pm. She picked me up the first day. Then the second day she told me to find a ride cause she was asleep. I lived miles from downtown, and it was a long dark wooded area you had to go through to get to where I lived. The green river killer was killin up folks then too and all over the news. I went to a friends house after work and crashed there. I skipped school the next day, and went to my house and packed a bag of stuff and went to work and crashed on peoples couches. My guidance councelor pulled me out of class after about 4 days cause my mom didn't know where I was. I told him what happened and he couldnt believe my mom. The telemarketing turned out to be a scam and they skipped town. They paid us but we were out of work. I spent my check at Jay Jacobs.

After that it was hard to get work at all. I was in school and got a little financial aide in college, but it wasn't enough. I couldn't even get hired at a fast food place! It sucked. I started recycling old clothes from people I knew, old jeans and jackets and making them into punk shit and people bought them. That's how I survived. A club opened in town (Bellingham Washington) and I got a job there spinning records with my best friend and working the door. It was fun till they went out of business too.

I moved to Seattle and it was a nightmare trying to get work. I found out about temp agencies and that was the ONLY way I could get a job. I did know a dude that worked at a record store that I applied to like 20 times. But because dude was the manager I got hired. That was a fun job. I got commendations for catching shoplifters. Then the boss accuses me of letting 'my friends' take movies out without paying to rent them? I wasn't doing any such thing. Cause as we all know some shit comes up missing they are looking @ you! I was working an office job in the day and the record store at night till closing @ 11.

My ultimate job would be a designer. The idea person. Actress would be cool.

Planning on going to design school this year so I am working 8am till midnight to get er done.

Permalink Reply by Compound Egret on February 16, 2009 at 1:19pm

One of my first jobs was prepping houses for an under the table house painter. It was good and bad. Cash payments were good, "we don't get paid until the job is done" was bad. There were also some hefty debates about payment. 5X12 is 60 and not 50. It amazed me how someone could go around and around about 10 bucks that was legitimately earned, especially when he didn't have to kick back anything for SSI, workers comp, and was even using a borrowed truck! That job and various other ones at places like Sears, Burger King, and working security jobs taught me that there is no shame in doing them. If I have to, I'll be back.

The only negative side of these jobs really has to do with my attitude at the time. My attitude was basically "I'm working, leave me alone." I should have thought more about what I really wanted to do as opposed to just thinking success would hit me on the head like a coconut. I should have also started saving money.

My ideal job would be something in the financial field with fiduciary responsibility. Meaning my recommendation to you should be in your best interest, not mine.

I could also see myself selling big ticket items like medical equipment, real estate, etc.

Things are pretty uncertain now. I am leaning towards the medical technologist fields, but have a lot more thinking and research to do.

Permalink Reply by Rosenda on February 16, 2009 at 2:17pm

LMBAO at Temba's story. Damn, dude, I didn't know you were a RIR too! (Retail Industry Refugee).

I worked retail dept store sales jobs for about 10 years, from 1979 through the last one, which ended in 1991. I actually took a break towards the end, when one of the last two retail jobs was also my first non sales job and my very first office job.

Now that I think of it......I have a hate and fear of sales jobs now. I could not stand selling anything. I mean, I never sold anything I thougth was cool or interesting (except for that one year I sold Ultima II cosmetics, and filled in for the Christian Dior, Elizabeth Arden, Shiseido, and Fashion Fair ladies when they were off or on break) and I was also very very shy then.

When it comes to selling cold like that, I STILL have a deathly fear and dislike of the very idea of it. All I want to do is design and create beautiful hats, not have to troll around selling them. But I have a fear that I MUST learn how to do this if I ever want to suceed at it in the future.

I have to say, depending on if the store was upscale or downscale, you really have fun people watching.
Bullocks Century City is where I worked part time in my last year of college and full time 2 years afterwards.

It was kinda fun with my coworkers. This cool very very classy brother named Ruben worked there, he'd left Gumps to work in luggage at BCC and this other nice brother whose name I forgot was was a backup R&B singer on the side, Mary Lou Peters this old school lady who'd been there 25 years. She was AWESOME and HILARIOUS. Those old ladies in dept stores were super cool and smart and hardworking and very good service. Edith Frangos was hilarious and told it like it is....she gave me a lot of very good advice in life.

And I remember the nice white dude in luggage whom I think worked because one of the stipulations of his trust fund was he had to work fulltime to receive a certain amount from the trust fund after the age of 21. He had us up to his family's place for this super nice catered full bar part waaaaay the hell up in the Palisades, down the street from that country club.

So sweet and funny, I can't believe he invited all 5 of us up there and went to all that trouble to entertain us.
And I still can't believe Ruben hired a cab to pick me up from the Westside and bring us all back home on his own dime.
He was such a real gentleman and a true inspiration. I mean real classic manners and intelligence and sense of humor and very well dressed.

I wonder what happened to all these SUPER nice people that really meant a lot to me at the time.
See, that store and two others I worked at, they have been gone at least 10-15 years now. The corporations that owned them closed them (Bullocks, Broadway) or merged them (Robinsons, May Company) and a lot of these people had worked only in retail and in nothing else. so I wonder how the changes affected them. Where did they go?

I did have some very funny experiences at various stores. Saw a bunch of celebrities at The Broadway Beverly Center the year I was working there selling cosmetics (1990-1991), Fab from Milli Vanilli, Corey Feldman (security had to take him out for causing a scene and two days later he was indicted on heroin posession), Ice T, Jane Child, (boy, was she TINY), Morrissey (he had all these teenage girls chasing him and giggling and he actually stopped and signed ALL their autograph books and smiled).

And you do learn some funny things about who buys what. A cosmetic lines best customers at that store were the Japanese college students, they bought 20-25 of everything, had a list of exactly what they wanted, and spent a lot of money very fast. Also professional drag queens. They also know exactly what they want, buy a lot in quantity, and you get a lot of VERY valuable customer feedback. They will tell you what foundations make you itch, which ones are too greasy, which lines carry the best colors for black and latino skin tones, which give you the most and best product for the money spent, etc etc. The ladies from the Plaza club were AWESOME about that, and they were huge fans and buyers of Fashion Fair and Shiseido.

In 84 some the Olympic teams were staying at nearby hotels to BCC, and one day I got to meet the swim team from Mozambique and their manager.

It was very funny how we had to communicate. One dude spoke fluently in the native local dialect and a little basic French, one dude spoke fluent French, one dude spoke French and the local dialect and Spanish. NONE of them spoke English. I know a little bit of basic Spanish. So each of them had to tell the first guy what they wanted to buy, the first guy told the second guy, the second guy told the third guy, and the third guy told me in Spanish. That was the only way we could get them the socks and underwear and shirts and pants they were looking to buy. It was FUNNY.

Observation, you will always see some of the worst in human shopping behavior if you go to a sale at a so called "upscale" store. Damn if those ladies would curse each other out three ways from Sunday and sock each other in the head with their purses, just trying to rip the marked down evening gown out the hand of some other woman. Oh, and if you want to see a 4 year old cuss out a woman at the top of their lungs in front of a crowd, go to an upscale shop. Don't these women know how to discipline they kids? Mary Lou used to mutter under her nose "that kid needs to get their ass beat."

Permalink Reply by Rhinos Have More Fun on February 16, 2009 at 3:58pm

The economy is shot, so one never knows what one might resort to for a paycheck, so I hope that I never find myself working retail again.

I really hated dealing with the arrogance. I definitely prefer fried chicken to crow. Some people would practically throw a fit because this or that record store clerk couldn't identify some poorly-sung, random melody to a song a customer wanted to buy. It's almost like expecting every hire to hold a Masters degree in music history. Unless someone is a store manager, the pay is never much more than minimum wage. And to be frank, in the grand scheme of things, knowing exactly what a customer wants just isn't that damn important! If I had any idea what they wanted, I would try to find it for them, but most of the time I couldn't have cared less about knowing every fact about the hits of the day.

The exception was when I got to plug what I believed to be a very good work by a talented artist--that's where I almost always extended myself, just because it was a labor of love. I dropped my walls and let my "people skills" show. I connected their purchase to as many things as I could to keep a discussion flowing about relevant material.

However I must admit that I really got a kick out of meeting celebs when they'd shop at my job. The most memorable ones were Toni Braxton, Sherman Hemsley, Elton John, 1/2 of Kris Kross and Lisa Lopes (R.I.P.).

Permalink Reply by Rosenda on February 16, 2009 at 5:06pm

Tell me about it, Temba. These so called rich and priveliged people especially in that Beverly Hills/Century City area I worked in for 3 years straight, they'd want you to lay down and die for them and lick their shoes before you said the last rites. For nothing! I'm good at being polite but damn they'd get bitchy during the holiday season and during big sales like it was their lives on the line if you didn't let them barge in front of the other 15 people in line to buy the crappy (some of it) merchandise that had been marked up 400% to begin with (and no, I'm not exaggerating, because my first office job was in Robinson's buying office).

You know, I worked a LOT of those damn 12 hour sales (which ended up being a 14 hour workday) in just the regular old working class people stores JC Penney and May Company, and I NEVER saw anybody cutting up acting all kinds of stupid and rude during those sales. But go work the same time of year in the "upper class" store, and DAMN! it's drama almost all day long with those people.

There was this one dude who I swear was always wearing the exact same sweatshirt and pants and sneakers, all of them faded and worn out and holey, and his hair never looked combed, and he was in Bullocks on a regular basis buying stuff.

Ruben in Luggage actually went up to the dude out of curiosity and found a polite way of asking the man about his appearance. The man turned out to be extremely wealthy man who was one of the major producers in 20th Century Fox studios (which was right around the corner from Bullocks) and dude told Ruben that he DELIBERATELY dressed like a bum, so that he'd REALLY know who was being honest with him and who would truly respect his real self and personality and not just judge him on the Armani suits and 400$ shoes. Maaaan, I cracked the hell up when Ruben told me about the guy. And seriously, i don't blame him. Dude told him that he'd been burned and used by some many men and women in business and personal life when they knew he was a rich man, he found his own way to weed out the suckers.

The only thing I did not like about the cosmetics sales job at The Broadway (and it was a parttime 2nd job gig that year) was that a lot of women who go shopping aren't going because they really want or need anything, they are just bored with money to blow. They ENJOY you pitching something "new" to them. And a true salesman/saleswoman can sell anything to anybody with little effort. Some people just have that gift and I really don't. I have to actually like the person or the product I'm selling to do so and even then it's VERY hard for me to do without feeling shy and uncomfortable.

These women would come to the cosmetics bay and literally want to be sold something. I on the other hand, I would ask what they wanted and think that was enough. They'd literally ask "what new colors would look good on me?" or "what's new and hip now?" I mean I could tell them but my opinion is not always what the customer wanted to hear.

Seriously, if I thought another line's product of a particular item they are looking for was better quality or better value than what they wanted from my line, I'd honestly tell them so. And actually....it worked out to my advantage many times in the beginning. Because I was still nice to them anyway, they'd end up buying stuff from me regardless, then they would go to the line I'd suggested and buy something from them.

I remember my friend told me that the full time girl who worked where I did was pissed at first because I was selling more than she was and I was only working part time evenings and weekends.

YOU MET GEORGE JEFFERSON???? Sherman Helmsley is AWESOME!!! And is Lisa Lopes as pretty in person? I always thought she was so cute.

Permalink Reply by Rosenda on February 16, 2009 at 10:32pm

He do need to go cleanshaven head, Starla. He'd look good if he did that. That last pic makes me kinda sad.

Permalink Reply by lyfenlyn on February 17, 2009 at 10:39am

I think hes trying to.

Starla1 said:

Rosenda said:
He do need to go cleanshaven head, Starla. He'd look good if he did that. That last pic makes me kinda sad.

Yeah, I know right? I'll bet he has no money left either. I still don't know what's up with the hair. ....unless he's starting a new trend or something.