What Was Your First Paid Job?
By Morley Hunt
@Morleyhunt (21744)
Canada
January 21, 2016 5:21am CST
Way back, before cars were invented (I'm just kidding here.) we wanted to earn a few cents to spend.
Summer time was easiest. We picked fruit at the local fruit farms. My first paying job was picking strawberries.
We crawled on our knees, in the hot June sun, filling the flats with fresh ripe strawberries. We were paid $0.07 per quart. Each flat held a dozen one quart baskets. They were strict about un ripe fruit, blemished fruit or leaves mixed with the berries.
At the end of the week, as an eleven year old, I had earned $16.00. I felt wealthy.
Later that summer, we picked first sweet cherries (with stems) followed by the sour cherries.
This was my summertime income for several years.
21 people like this
24 responses
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
21 Jan 16
I did a lot of babysitting for $0.25 an hour as well. After midnight you got a whopping $0.50.
@AbbyGreenhill (45494)
• United States
21 Jan 16
I babysat one time, one evening, in my whole life, that was enough for me. The kid was a brat!
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
21 Jan 16
@Platespinner one weekend I had an overnight job babysitting, Friday around 5 until, Saturday around 2. I was paid $20.00. That's better than winning a lottery.
@mysdianait (66009)
• Italy
21 Jan 16
I ent fruit picking too acter school when I was 11 years old. What memories!
Then I started working at 13 in a tpy shop on Saturday mornings and when I was 15 I did the whole day on Saturday (as there was no school on Saturdays).
At 16 I worked as a waitress in an hotel in my town for the whole summer before starting college and during college I worked on Saturdays in a big chain store (Marks&Spencers) in the slipper department 
2 people like this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
21 Jan 16
My first job with regular 7-3:30 hours, was on an assembly line making the under dashboard wire harnesses for Ford Mustang II. My pay started at $2.24 per hour.
1 person likes this
@alchemistrx (2547)
• Philippines
22 Jan 16
That must be a long time ago. Volunteering for a farm is now the trend here.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
22 Jan 16
Now they bring in migrant workers from Jamaica to pick the fruit.
@LadyDuck (471508)
• Switzerland
21 Jan 16
@Morleyhunt In all countries they bring migrants to pick up fruits and vegetables. The poor workers are under paid and have no social insurance. You are right this is criminal.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
21 Jan 16
Picking fruit builds character. No high schooler will do it. Now they bring migrant workers from Jamaica. With unemployment at the levels they are, I think this is criminal.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45494)
• United States
21 Jan 16
That's funny, my grandparents were strawberry farmers in Louisiana. I picked berries a few days when we were there one time - and one time was quite enough! My first paying job was working the snack bar at lunchtime at high school.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45494)
• United States
21 Jan 16
@Morleyhunt I think I spent my pay on their chocolate chip cookies, I loved them.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
21 Jan 16
I worked in the snack bar at high school too. I'd forgotten all about that job.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
21 Jan 16
Some jobs are mindless. Others are a constant learning process.
1 person likes this
@Inlemay (17713)
• South Africa
21 Jan 16
@Morleyhunt mine were always the latter until now - I'm a housewife or Home Executive - 
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
21 Jan 16
@Inlemay I was a domestic goddess for about 13 years. Then I got a job managing a poultry barn. I could take my toddler with me.
1 person likes this
@LovingMyBabies (85288)
• Valdosta, Georgia
21 Jan 16
My first paid job was babysitting when I was around 14 years old. I have been babysitting ever since because I enjoy doing it so much. =)
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
21 Jan 16
Over the years babysitting has been a source of income and a source of pleasure. I look after my three year old granddaughter once a week. Five of the other grand babies also spend a fair amount of time with grandma.
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
21 Jan 16
As a kid, we didn't find it incredibly hard. We tended to socialize while picking. If you were a good and fast picker you could earn a decent wage. Now a days there are machines to pick much of the fruit.
1 person likes this
@MarymargII (12422)
• Toronto, Ontario
21 Jan 16
Like most young girls my first paid job was babysitting for neighbours, etc. At .50- .75 cents an hour though it wasn't very lucrative. ha! I eventually graduated to a cashier at a much better rate!
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
21 Jan 16
I have daughters who have worked as cashiers. Two were good, one was horrible.
@khanal7 (1)
• Kathmandu, Nepal
22 Jan 16
My first paid job was an internship at the university that I graduated. I was for 2 months, and I earned about $100 dollars in the end. Too little, yes. But, my first earning nonetheless. I was happy that my bank account had some decent money. It was nearly 4 years ago.
1 person likes this
@fearjp (458)
•
21 Jan 16
Haha, wow that would be kind of cool because picking strawberries (of course bad in the 100 degree weather) would be like fun especially if I can sneak one and eat a few lol. My first job I had is with my dad. He was his own boss on a construction field with a worker or two. I was the third and I would help him out every now and then and eventually daily job. I actually never had a job that I would need to fill applications and that aren't friends/families working in the job.
1 person likes this
@navthunder (12)
• Page, Arizona
21 Jan 16
When i was akid(in the 50s) we picked cotton for lunch money at school. That was in southern n. mex. It wasn't that bad, we were young.
1 person likes this
@DianneN (247186)
• United States
21 Jan 16
That must have been a tasty summer job, too! Of course babysitting was my first paying job. Then I worked as a telephone encyclopedia salesgirl setting up appointments, which lasted two weeks. The company was so impressed with me, that they trained me, with pay, to sell their encyclopedias. My father made me quit. He didn't want his 16 year old daughter going into strangers' homes.
1 person likes this
@Morethanamom (1948)
• Canada
21 Jan 16
My first paid job was delivering flyers in our neighborhood. One summer I did pick fruit as well.
1 person likes this
@quarternoes (236)
• Indianapolis, Indiana
21 Jan 16
My first tax-paying job was at the tallest building in Indiana. It was a bank, and I turned 18 one day before.I was a janitor, but I learned all about the checking system within a few paychecks..
1 person likes this
@PoetRoyyy (16)
• Mumbai, India
22 Jan 16
I used to be an all purpose employee in a small organisation of 5 employees in all and 2 partners
my work ranged from cleaning the toilets to management decision and suggestion making
ALL PURPOSE seriously
for 50$ a month approx..
1 person likes this
