Your first job

[jaybird2001wi]

Whats up all? I have been thinking about his for some time. I know some or most of you are professionals, but what was your first ever job. I have often heard of people starting off at a McDonalds or something and ending up as an engineer or something. What was your first job, what was your worst or dirtiest job? My first job was as a cashier at a ShopKo retail store when I was 16. My dirtiest job was as a student laborer with the Wastewater Utility. I spent my summer after my sophomore year of college diving into sewers near industrial plants collecting water for the City.

[zingsheim]

First job - dishwasher and my grandparents restaruant in Campbellsport when I was 14. Dirtiest job my parents CNC machining factory as the maintenence man when I was like 21 and in college.

[jaybird2001wi]

CNC work is tough. My dad went through that and he had to head to occupational health a lot for bacteria due to contaminated coolant. He told me he wore the necessary protectants and still ended up getting some infections.

What I learned as a cashier when I first started my "working career" was that elderly customers complained about everything. I remember when I finished my school day and headed to ShopKo and took over for this 70 year old cashier with a 70 year old in the same checkout lane and she gave me a mean look because I took over for the old lady and she likely had a "vendetta" against youthful folks because she wanted to rip me apart verbally.

Oh and the weirdest thing ever, Brent Moss, former Wisconsin Badger RB and Racine native (I lived in Racine) came in my lane one time and bought a ton of kids stuff for his kids such as a "Power Wheels" deal. He was kinda arguing with his "significant other" at the time of the cash transaction.

[mothershipconnection]

I started off working at a carwash for a year and a half. We had to clean out the ditches where all the gunk that came off cars went, and you had some really nasty stinky cars coming in there. Plus there was no AC in the summer and virtually no heat in the winter. Pretty much all of my coworkers who weren't too young to get a better job were guys coming from jail on Huber privileges. There were some real "live to win" types at that place. That job, and the 10 hour days I worked when I was 15, sucked.

[bball123h2]

Scrub-a-Dubbers Unite! I started at an oil change at 15, and worked at one through college. One would be amazed at the amount of drivers openly drinking beer at 7 AM on a Saturday morning in glorious Cudahy, WI. And being offered weed as a tip a couple times a year was a nice gesture (declined, though).

 

The fun days were when the elderly people would simply not follow (or more likely, see) the guide in directions and put their cars partway into the basement.

[jaybird2001wi]

Funny how you mention "gunk" mothership. My first ever day as a college laborer at the Wastewater Plant with the City (the City of Racine has a program for all college students, which allows them to work with diff. departments with the City during the summer months and I joined up, good money for a poor college student), they basically said, "Jason, you will be washing off the sludge presses!" I had to get in a rain suit (raincoat, rainpants, rainboots and face shield) and spray the literal crap off the presses. I went home smelling like sewage my first day.

[jaybird2001wi]

As a cashier at my first job, I had the awful honor of working the Christmas rush as a cashier at a retail store. I sometimes rung up 2,000 dollar purchases during the holiday rush and one lady had three shopping carts full of stuff and it took me an hour to bag up all of her purchases because she was so specific.

[JimH5]

When I was 17 I worked at the Marriott (now Sheraton) in Brookfield as a Houseman. I walked the halls, emptying Housekeepers' carts of garbage and dirty laundry & restocked those carts with clean linens. I sorted dirty laundry, went on room calls to set up cribs, rollaway beds & some banquet tables. The dirtiest job I had was that, using the plunger on plugged toilets, using a water extracter for carpet spills, and cleaning a basement bar when there was a greasetrap backup. Nasty.

[Crazyk1294]

I started at McDonalds when I was 15. I left there for another restaurant and got stuck there for 10 years. Working with food is dirty-ass work. I'm finally going to have a first-shift M-F job starting tomorrow. Yey me!

[RyDogg66]

16; grocery store shelf stocker. Working the 6-10 shift.

[Brian the Automator]

Subway in Sturtevant was my first gig. I can't complain too much, it was always dead, and there was no grill.

[Houlie24x]

I was 11 when I started reffing soccer. Everyone starts out at the youngest age possible which was pretty much 7 year olds. It's amazing how much parents complain even for kids that young. Normally I really didn't have many complaints but on days when it would rain all the kids would want to slide and get muddy. There really isn't much I can do if they are doing that while not breaking the rules. The parents wanted me to make them stop because it was dangerous. I did that for almost 3 years and oddly enough my last game was in the rain with tons of complaints.

 

My first real job was in the restaurant at Silver Spring Country Club. I started at 14 as a dishwasher and after about 6 months I moved up and did other things like cut meat out in the restaurant for people on weekday parties, Fridays I fried fish, Saturday I put together and made some of the food for the Sunday brunch, and Sundays I either kept the brunch buffet line full or made omelets. I ended up working there for two years and looking back I wished I would have taken advantage of the free golf more often.

[jaybird2001wi]

Brian, Sturtevant? I always thought you were born and bred in Waukesha? I know Sturtevant really well since my best friend from WAAAY back in my middle and early high school days lived in Sturtevant. I had no idea that Sturtevant even had a Subway?

[2hoophead]

Had a Milwaukee Journal route before I turned twelve but left it soon when I found out you really only made any kind of scratch from them once a month. Then, the day I turned twelve, I got a Wisconsin State Journal route and over the next three years had as many as three routes at one time(WSJ,TCT, and a Sunday WSJ gig). Was told I should've filed for income tax because I made enough but good thing I didn't because the next year I was back down to only one or two routes.

[hawing]

My work history won't rival anyone's here in either the dirty or 'generally crappy' departments. Still, I'll join in.

 

My first paying job was as an assistant at the local public library. Cue foreshadowing. I started about a month after game 7 of the 1982 World Series.

 

I had two crappy summer "home from college" jobs, both in Monroe: one packaging bakery at Swiss Colony (came home every night smelling like chocolate flavored confection, which becomes cloying faster than you'd think) and one at a factory assembling little bits of speakers, before they went on to become bigger bits of speakers.

 

The dirtiest job I've had was actually at my current place of employment. When I was a college student I was sometimes assigned to the stacks. One week another student and I were assigned the task of shifting and shelfreading our oldest oversize books. Leather bindings deteriorate over time and just touching them will leave what we in the biz call "red rot" (sometimes red, sometimes black) on your person and/or clothing. It washes off/out readily, but until you get to a sink it's kind of gross. My hands have never been so black as they got during that project. Still, nothing like what some of you have experienced - and I'm grateful for that.

[Brian the Automator]

Brian, Sturtevant? I always thought you were born and bred in Waukesha? I know Sturtevant really well since my best friend from WAAAY back in my middle and early high school days lived in Sturtevant. I had no idea that Sturtevant even had a Subway?

I was born in Racine, but my family moved to Raymond when I was 1. Went to Raymond elementary, Union Grove HS, then went to UW-Whitewater.... I lived downtown for a year and a half, then moved out to Waukesha.

There was a Subway in a little mini-mall on Hwy 11 and Willow Road. I'm pretty sure it's gone now. I worked there from '94-'95.

 

[jaybird2001wi]

Brian, I know Racine county very well. When you say, "Willow Road" I always think of Johnson Wax. UGHS? Wow.

[Brian the Automator]

UGHS? Wow.

Yeah. Four of the most boring years of my life. I got along with everyone pretty well, but opportunities as far as classes go were VERY limited. There were like 4 people in my programming class (the only one they had), so they had to cancel it.

 

[jaybird2001wi]

I know Union Grove a little bit because of, well women. When I was at UW-W, I met a couple of girls from UGHS class of 2002 and they screwed me over. But then again, a hottie who graduated from UGHS in 2001 is now a spokesmodel for the CW station in Madison.

[Brian the Automator]

I was class of '95, so that would be well after my time...

[jaybird2001wi]

For Brian's eyes. I went to college with her and she and I shared the same major in journalism. Welcome the Madison's CW spokesmodel who was a UGHS Grad of 2001.

 

http://www.uww.edu/marketingandmedia/common/images/db/57_Emmy_Winner2.jpg

 

 

As a matter of fact, she and I had a couple journalism classes together and she lived in the same residence hall as me at UW-W. I lived on the 7th and she was on the 5th in Wells East.

[Jode403]

First job - washing dishes at North Shore Country Club in Menasha. Started during my freshman year of high school. Worked there all the way through high school. After graduation, I worked summers for a landscaping company in the Fox Valley until I finished college. Now I'm an accountant.

[colbyjack]

I was a dishwasher for a fried chicken joint in the Dells for my first job, a place called Kalkas, starting the day I turned 14. My first several jobs were food service; dishwasher, bus boy, etc., and I hated every minute of it, but at the time I didn't realize I had other options (my mom was all about food service). I think the only thing I took from my first job is that you can remove gum off of just about anything with peanut butter.

 

My dirtiest job was cleaning the dorms at UWM as a member of Project Crew, which did everything from cleaning bathrooms and residence areas to fulfilling work orders (replacing broken chairs, burnt curtains, etc.) and collecting trash and recyclables. You would be amazed what some people would do, and leave behind.

 

The best job I had (including the job I have today) was working at a liquor store, Gilbert's on Oakland on UWM's campus. No one goes into, or leaves, a liquor store unhappy.

[Schlitz001]

Delivering newspapers when I was 11. It paid $5/day and that bought me some great stuff. Now I make about 50x that/day as a wellsite geologist. And that buys some pretty great stuff also.

[ajgodson]

First Job -- picking Strawberries at a strawberry farm when I was 14....just some middle schoolers and migrant workers.... fifty cents a pint.

 

Dirtiest Job -- Toss up between detasseling corn (4 summers) or washing dishes at a Boston Market. Detasseling was muddy and wet, BM was just plain disgusting. I was a paid EMT/Firefirghter, too, which led to some grossness you don't even want to hear about.