What was your first full time job?

[madandana]

Worked landscaping in the summers during high school then went to school for heating and a/c. My first real full time job was as a heating a/c tech.

Dana and I now own a growing heating and a/c company.

[jholen]

General Laborer, after high school.

Then first proper job would be Corrections Officer at a local area prison.

[Fosgate]

Working in a hospital washing and sterilising the operating instruments.

You need a strong stomach, but the money is good and scrubs are about the most comfortable clothes in the world.

I did this for about a year while in college. Yes it takes a strong stomach and a special personality dealing with surgeons.

I grew up working for farmers during the summer since I was 8yrs old pulling weeds and on to bagging groceries in my teens until I joined the Army. I don't know if I really considered it a job, as much fun as I had in it at the time I looked at it like some do college. Ass chewings were regular and probably helped me for my current career. I don't know why I never thought of making the military a career as I often wish I had. It's the only old job that I still maintain regular contact with my old coworkers to this day. Anyway got into computers and sales afterward which led me to insurance. Now I am a field claims rep for an agriculture based insurance company.

[avaldes]

My first "real" job in college was as a cable tech at an aerospace company. I used to build cables and boxes for a systems integration lab. This was back when GPS was just coming available and the military was thinking about putting it in airplanes. So we built a lab to see how all of the airplane systems would work together when we added GPS.

Eventually I graduated with a degree(s) in Aerospace Engineering, which is what I have done for a living ever since. I love my job, not many people get to design airplanes.

[Habana Mike]

Worked more than full-time in farming at 10 years old. My dad moved us to rural western Massachusetts during one of his tours to Viet Nam in 1969.

Neighbors had dairy farms, vegetables and fruit.

Used to help set up the milking machines, clean the cow **** off the scrapers, sanitize the gear, drive a cucumber picking contraption for the pickle factory, planted and picked strawberries, baled hay, helped clear fields, whatever the farmers needed cheap child labor for.

Payed more than enough to meet my Matchbox cars and Skittles budget so all good!

[ElPuro]

Overnight supervisor at OfficeMax, an office supply store stateside. I was 17 and naive, supervising people more than twice my age but loving what I thought was big money.

Ended up going to college after one of my employees threatened me with bodily harm over a perceived insult (that really wasn't one). Good choice in the end.

[backslide]

My 1st job was in a Class 1 clean room. I worked for a company that manufactured EPROM's, Microcontrollers, SPLDs, CPLDs, and Flash memory. I operated multiple lithography tools. I moved up quickly to the maintenance side of the facility repairing and maintaining robots and specific tool sets. At times I miss the good ole days of semiconductor manufacturing.

[Warren]

I always aspired to be a test pilot in a mattress factory.

Either that or a diesel fitter for Victoria Secret.

[povertypimpin]

Started working at UPS in high school, been here ever since.

[Habana Mike]

Started working at UPS in high school, been here ever since.

Not a bad deal at all with that Shawn! Glad to see you posting!

[derrty0657]

I worked at Force Protection industries. They built military vehicles such as the cougar and buffalo. Started at 18, got laid off at 24 due to the economy

[oneizzzz]

First jobs out of college were semi-pro hockey player and pastry baker at a local cafe.  Then I was a chef at a Zen Buddhist monastery in Colorado for two years.  Left last year.  Now I'm in search of the next thing - maybe outdoor education, writing, or mental health work.  If only CCs were legal in America - I'd open a tea and cigar shop.  Al's Pu'erh and Cubans.  Cozy brown shop with lots of green plants.  I'd sell tea, cigars, chocolate, coffee..... let the cats prowl around inside...

Also hmu if you're hiring!

[MichaelJB]

Pushing trolleys at the big supermarket in town at 14

[WLC]

Construction with my dad at age 14.  Was the official gofor.  First proper job was with the US Forest Service. Stayed with them for almost 20 years before we moved up to Alaska.

[Chibearsv]

Wanted a 10 speed bike when I was 10 or 11, so I asked my dad for one.  He said "I already bought you a bike".  I said, "yeah, but that was a little bike when I was 6".  He stared at me for a moment and said "well, I guess it's about time you got a job".  I started delivering newspapers within a month and got my ten-speed within a year.  I've never been without some sort of job since.

Edit: Oops, didn't see the "full-time" part.  First full time job was stacking steel behind the shear at a sheet metal fabricating plant.  I don't miss that job

[gustavehenne]

I left high school when I was 16 and went straight into work as an admin assistant exporting beer from the UK to the USA. It sounds a lot more glamorous than it was - just a data entry exercise.

Fast forward, I work in the tobacco industry (sadly, not in cigars!) as a Senior Director and I run commercial and consumer technologies globally for one of the largest firms in the sector

... although I wish I was full-time in cigars.

[Kaptain Karl]

Post college/baseball career I moved from Northern California to Charlotte, NC to work for a mortgage lender/realtor coaching company doing inside sales, banging the phones for 6 hours a day. 

[Chas.Alpha]

I played drums in a country-rock cover band. Google Judd Erickson (RIP)

[j4ke7thed4wg]

Salesperson in a local bike shop in high school. Minimum wage plus commissions on higher-end bicycles. I was a junior racer at the time, which helped with sales, but the real draw was the employee discount and ability to attract free stuff from vendors who wanted to support junior racing. Plus the older employees helped me buy beer  Not bad at all for a highschool gig.

Currently working in finance. More money, much longer hours, less free beer and, as my wife likes to remind me, I am much fatter now that work no longer aligns with my cycling career 😅

[Texwrangler]

My first job was during my senior year of high school as a grease monkey at a local gas station.  Never did I realize all I learned at that time was to carry over in doing my own car maintenance (oil change, brakes, tune up, etc) since.  I can’t image how much $$ I’ve saved from learning these basic skills.  

[Cairo]

My first real job was as an advance person for a Congressional campaign.    A friend decided to run for Congress and hired me.   We got clobbered--made every possible mistake.

But--we had a blast anyway--total adrenaline rush.

One hilarious story from the campaign.    The campaign manager thought it would be really clever to rent a huge trailer with campaign signs and put a small (but very loud) marching band in it.   We kept the back of the van open so everyone could hear the band and see the candidate.   We drove around the district and periodically the candidate would get out and shake hands wherever we are.

My job for the trips--van driver.   I had never driven anything other than a small car before.   At the end of one very long day I made too sharp a turn, hit the curb, and all the instruments went flying out of the van!

😀

I am retired now.

[captaincaveman]

Filling potholes for the county!

[Lfhard]

First full time job out of high school was plastic manufacturing. Nothing to special. 

[Troels]

Worked 3 months in a sugar factory between High School and uni - had to put the sugar in bags and stack them on pallets - working in shifts - tough job

[In-A-Gadda-Davidoff]

Railroader.  Started as freight train conductor, and have been a locomotive engineer for the past 22 years.