At what age did you really started working?

[Crono]

Originally posted by: James Bond
16 - Grocery store
18 - Cyber Cafe
21 - School Help-Desk
22 - Networking Quality Assurance
23 - Jr Network Engineer
24 - Network Engineer Team Lead

You forgot:

28 - Special agent for the SIS/MI6, with a license to kill (not including fish)

 

[oiprocs]

Originally posted by: G Wizard
my first real job was when i was 16.8 at Taco Bell.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

15 - convenience store clerk / web page & data entry
16 - ^ + teller at horse race track
17 - military (Navy)
...

 

[Dear Summer]

Originally posted by: Deeko
I have been continuously employed since I was 14.

but you still have more debt to your name than the average person of your age

ouch

 

[Golgatha]

Age 15 - Worked at Fairgrounds in a food stand frying fish and potatoes.
16 - Wendys short order cook and store opener
17 to 19 - Roller Rink Floor Guard
20 - Pharmacy Tech
21 to 23 - Internship turned into full-time summer job testing polymers. Teaching assistance overseeing organic chem labs.
24 - Testing pharma products for CRO (laid off)
25 to 30 - Synthetic Chemist (laid off)
31 - Write specs for ~1000 raw materials, automate documentations, request info from vendors

 

[Saint Nick]

14

 

[edro]

12 - Local farm work (feed animals, harvest sweet corn, bale straw/hay)
14 - Local Business Cafe 4pm-Close
16 - Walmart 4pm-Close
18 - Current job as intern
22 - Current job -promotions

FYI... if you ever want to start a conversation with an old man, simple ask him to explain his career path.

 

[LordMorpheus]

Worked Full time (or more) every summer since I was 16.

Full time immediately after college graduation, but that only lasted ~13 months (3 working days left?!) due to me entering grad school in the fall.

I'm approaching grad school more like a job than school. I'll get paid, I'll be working summers doing research, etc.

My job only lasting for about a year was planned going in, and my manager was aware of this the entire time.

Timeline:
16 - office lackey at local engineering firm (thought I'd get good experience .. wound up filing. Good people, though).

17 - Machine shop assembling infrared heaters/dryers. Moved up over the course of the summer until I would take order sheets from the sales people, decide which things to build when, manage component production of other employees in order to meet the orders, and package and ship the resulting units. I think one of the managers almost shit himself when he realized I was leaving to go back to highschool in a couple weeks. Spent those weeks doing my stuff and trying to train a series of losers from a local temp agency.

18 - Circuit City, warehouse associate.

19 - Engineering intern with small consulting firm (HVAC stuff for hospitals), and part time at CC for the cash monies.

20 - Intern at the Shell refinery in Deer Park TX

21 - Member of Team Berlin, the Freie Universitat of Berlin's entry into the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. This was a ton of fun, insane amount of hours, and basically zero pay.

22-23 (post graduation) - Full time product development engineer working mostly on research/proof of concept type projects for an oilfield services company.

<--- this is the divide between the past and my future plans --->

23-27 (god I hope I get out in four years) - working on a Ph.D. at Cornell

27(or 28) - future - who knows? Maybe industry, maybe academia. I'm fairly confidant that I'll be able to get a position that I'll be happy with, though.

 

[Miklebud]

I've been continually employed since I was 15 years old.

 

[BurnItDwn]

1st actual job with an interview started my 16th birthday. Worked 30+ hours per week pretty much every week since then.

 

[minendo]

Started refereeing soccer games at the age of 12 and did that until I was 18. Also worked full-time my junior and senior years of high school.

 

[SilentZero]

First real job at 15

 

[HardcoreRobot]

entered the fulltime/no-end-in-sight/no time off professional workforce at the age of 22

 

[BoomerD]

I worked odd jobs starting when I was about 12, but my first full-time (40 hours plus) job started just after my 16th birthday.

 

[Dirigible]

First real job at 23. It sucked, I goofed off, I went back to school. Maybe I shouldn't count it.

So first real "no-end-in-sight" job at 27.

 

[Platypus]

14

 

[Zolty]

Job : 14
Good money Job: 21
College: 25
Shitty Regional Airline job: 29-30 if I am lucky
Good Airline Job: 33-34
Good Paying Airline Job: 38-40

 

[boomerang]

My first job was delivering newspapers at the age of 12. I earned enough from that job to buy my first transportation which was a new motorcycle. After that I pumped gas at a nearby gas station.

Moved out on when I was 18 and never looked back. I think children these days are not prepared for real life. Life on their own without their parents to fall back on. I would never have considered asking my parents to support me in any way after moving out of the house. When I became unhappy with my lifestyle, I made the changes needed to move up in the world. I've had a number of jobs since then, each time moving up in pay. I'm now retired.

I've got a 37 year old stepson who thinks he's going to pull into a gas station one day and they're going to run out with camera's and a news crew and drop a lot of money on him because he's the millionth customer or some shit. A great plan. I will say one thing for him though, he asks for nothing and supports himself. He's lived in tents in county parks when necessary.

Although his priorities in life are a mess, he still understands that his path in life is the path he's chosen. He accepts it and lives within those parameters.

There are many here who are still sponging off their parents and will probably live with them until their deaths. It's sad.

 

[Gooberlx2]

I started reffing soccer games at 13. Doesn't seem like real work, but I was paid real money, and I really had to show up on time. I did it enough to fill about 8-10 hours a week (4-5 games). Both my siblings played soccer and reffed, as well as my mom, so our whole weekend days were spent at the soccer park anyway since mom didn't care to be shuttling us back-and-forth all day.

First full-time job was apartment maintenance during highschool summers, after I turned 16.

 

[oiprocs]

Originally posted by: boomerang
My first job was delivering newspapers at the age of 12. I earned enough from that job to buy my first transportation which was a new motorcycle. After that I pumped gas at a nearby gas station.

Moved out on when I was 18 and never looked back. I think children these days are not prepared for real life. Life on their own without their parents to fall back on. I would never have considered asking my parents to support me in any way after moving out of the house. When I became unhappy with my lifestyle, I made the changes needed to move up in the world. I've had a number of jobs since then, each time moving up in pay. I'm now retired.

I've got a 37 year old stepson who thinks he's going to pull into a gas station one day and they're going to run out with camera's and a news crew and drop a lot of money on him because he's the millionth customer or some shit. A great plan. I will say one thing for him though, he asks for nothing and supports himself. He's lived in tents in county parks when necessary.

Although his priorities in life are a mess, he still understands that his path in life is the path he's chosen. He accepts it and lives within those parameters.

There are many here who are still sponging off their parents and will probably live with them until their deaths. It's sad.

I'm moving out soon. Sorry to have caused you so much pain.

 

[Turin39789]

14

 

[knawlejj]

15, part time at a pizza place...

To the OP: It might seem like "kids" dont know responsibility and stuff a lot of the time. But this is why I like the mid-west, it seems like the youth has a much better work ethic and responsibility. This is especially true with rural areas.

 

[Electric Amish]

First job = Kennel boy for a local Rottweiler Kennel at 14/15 earning a whopping $45/mo

First legitimate job with taxed income was at 16/17 sweeping/cleaning at a metal shop after school for 2-3 hours a night. $3.25/hr

 

[D1gger]

I have worked consistently since I was 15 (first job was as a farm worker). I am now 51 so I am looking to get off the employment train.

 

[Deeko]

Originally posted by: Dear Summer

Originally posted by: Deeko
I have been continuously employed since I was 14.

but you still have more debt to your name than the average person of your age

ouch

In high school, my parents paid for the essentials, if I wanted nice things, I worked for them.
In college, I took out student loans to pay my tuition, and worked to pay my rent (private school in downtown philly = $$$)

So yes - despite all my hard work, I don't have a ton to show for it. I'd wager I know a lot more about work ethic and the value of a dollar than most people my age though.