Early Jobs - Starting out in the workforce

RalphVa · Jan 29, 2020

lman said:
When I was 14 years old, I started helping farmers baling hay. I did that for about 3 summers. They began paying me $2/hr. One farmer was not happy when I was not available because of helping a different farmer. He then started paying me $5/hr. I didn't need football practice to get in shape after handling about 10,000 bales in hot, humid weather. It didn't upset me much when they started going to round bales, since I was ready to move on to something else.

Did some of this, too, as well as pulled cotton bolls to get my clothes money. Hauled some hay even after moving off the farm. Hauled for a guy who was killed in the tornado that swept through west of Stonewall, OK in about 1959 or early 1960.

Ralph

Dftodd · Jan 30, 2020

My first job was going around with a push mower mowing yards. Stacked fire wood as well.

First real job was a cook a McDonalds,. Lasted there for around 6 to 8 months, then as a cashier at a corner store. Went from there to stocker at farm a feed store.

After high school I went to work at a print shop printing plastic bags and wrappers for a few years.

Then got into installing alarm systems. Did that for around 7 years finishing off as a service manager. Got burned out and went to work for a pump rental company. Been doing that for the past 15 years. Current job role is shop foreman.

hosspuller · Jan 30, 2020

A city boy at 14. Got my NYC working papers and volunteered at a local hospital as a mail room go-fer. At lunch time, I helped in the kitchen loading dishes into the biggest dishwasher I'd ever seen. I've always loved machinery.

At 15, had a summer job calibrating hearing test machines. (audiometers) Summer jobs at a jewelry Tool & Die shop. (EDM and surface grinding...after heat treating & quenching dies in oil, shampoo didn't cut the oil in my hair. :thumbdown: Had to use dish detergent ). Clerk at a hardware store. Eventually retired after 26 years as an engineer to a small farm. I produce hay for horses. (A most particular & finicky customer :licking

2LaneCruzer · Jan 31, 2020

I just recalled one job I had, didn't last long, but it was pretty esoteric. I was a "washer snapper". Farmer was building a metal grain bin; and it was put together with bolts that had a metal washer fused to a rubber gasket. I spent one or two days snapping those washers on to the bolts; an essential, but lackluster task. I kept thinking where on my resume it would look good; eventually the notion just faded away...

bunyip · Jan 31, 2020

hosspuller said:
I produce hay for horses. (A most particular & finicky customer :licking

And never pay their bills

grnspot110 · Jan 31, 2020

I started as a farmhand as soon as I was old enough to do labor, our family farm!

First paycheck job was at a local lumber yard when I couldn't rent the land to start farming on my own. Then a winter working in a radiator plant, a couple years setting up & hauling farm machinery for a local dealer. A few months at a grain elevator/feed mill, then 29 years fighting fires before retiring some 14 years ago!

QRTRHRS · Feb 1, 2020

Started hanging out on house building sites with my carpenter father at age 8 (okay, I may have mostly just been in the way). Mowed lawns at 10. Washed dishes nightshift Friday and Saturday at a diner. What an eye opener for a 12 year old when the bars emptied out! Caddied. Started to apprentice for an electrician at 15 but my 30 mile ride took another job so I had to give that up though I always wished that I could have stayed on. Gas station pumping and tires. Driving a dump truck at 17 then heavy equipment but at that time most dozers had no cabs so the dumps at least had heat in the winter.Uncle Sam called for a couple of years. Back to driving dump trucks then on to semi's. Age 30, got a 2 yr degree in electronics. Market for tech's was in a slump so I helped a friend put up windmills (just small Enertech's and Jacobs, not those big monsters). Got on with AT&T in 1983' which became Lucent then Agere then pretty much died in 2003. I had not bothered to keep my commercial license when the CDL came around. Took the class for that, went back to driving running doubles, etc. Decided to move to KY in 2008. Worked quality control for an air plane component company. Took my SS. Drove school bus for four years. Took a couple off. Went back to driving school bus this year and will finish the school year then that's about enough of that. Along with all of that, boarded and bred horses. Dabbled in antiques and sold at the flea markets. One of these days I really need to sit down and decide what I want to do when I grow up, lol!

windy acers · Feb 2, 2020

QRTRHRS said:
Started hanging out on house building sites with my carpenter father at age 8 (okay, I may have mostly just been in the way). Mowed lawns at 10. Washed dishes nightshift Friday and Saturday at a diner. What an eye opener for a 12 year old when the bars emptied out! Caddied. Started to apprentice for an electrician at 15 but my 30 mile ride took another job so I had to give that up though I always wished that I could have stayed on. Gas station pumping and tires. Driving a dump truck at 17 then heavy equipment but at that time most dozers had no cabs so the dumps at least had heat in the winter.Uncle Sam called for a couple of years. Back to driving dump trucks then on to semi's. Age 30, got a 2 yr degree in electronics. Market for tech's was in a slump so I helped a friend put up windmills (just small Enertech's and Jacobs, not those big monsters). Got on with AT&T in 1983' which became Lucent then Agere then pretty much died in 2003. I had not bothered to keep my commercial license when the CDL came around. Took the class for that, went back to driving running doubles, etc. Decided to move to KY in 2008. Worked quality control for an air plane component company. Took my SS. Drove school bus for four years. Took a couple off. Went back to driving school bus this year and will finish the school year then that's about enough of that. Along with all of that, boarded and bred horses. Dabbled in antiques and sold at the flea markets. One of these days I really need to sit down and decide what I want to do when I grow up, lol!

I AM WORN OUT JUST READING YOUR POST !! YOU HAVE GAINED MY UTMOST RESPECT.