How old were you when you had your first job?

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I've pretty much been working without any breaks (well except for maternity leaves) since I was 16.



At 16 I started my first job as a cashier at the Woodbridge Edwards Cinema. Had a blast. All the free movies and popcorn I could ever want. I used to let in my physics teacher's kids in for free. I'm pretty sure that's the only reason why I managed to pass his class.



I remember my boss telling us that he had been busted for armed robbery when he was 15. He kept telling us not to make stupid mistakes like he did.
 
I went to work when I was 9 with a hand labor crew.



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I was the only non-spanish speaking person on the crew. As I got older, I got to do more physically demanding work. When I tell people about it now , I still sense nobody believes me.
 
I was reading <a href="http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeschooling/2009/10/mama-don?t-let-your-babies-grow-up-to-be-deadbeats/">Pioneer Woman</a> and thought of this thread as today's topic is getting your kids to work. I think this quote is hoot.



<em>Parenting can be hardcore hard. We have to be devoted and consistent in instilling the notion that running a home and family takes work, honorable and privileged (and, ok ok, boring and tedious) work. Stewarding and shepherding ain?t for sissies, so buck up, folks, and put your kids to work! Don?t start with the coal mine?too much equipment. Start with the bathtub?all you need is some Ajax and a sponge</em>



Also today, my daughter was telling me about her new friend's family. The mom lives by herself with her four kids of which three are teenagers or young adults. My daughter tells me the three all work but the mom does not. First thing of of my mouth was 'SWEET!!!! how do I get that arrangement'. Daughter rolls eyes.
 
11 year old OC register Paper route. Back in those days you had to collect and that was a nighmare. The person that dropped the papers to me always dropped to many and they always tried to charge me for them. Sundays sucked and it ruined my bike so I decided to open up my own car wash business.



11-12 Washed the bachelors cars next door. There were four of them and I picked up two neighbors as well. That gave me a total of 8 cars for saturday mornings. I charged 4 bucks a car and they were washed and dried before most of them walked out. I dropped by later to pick up the money. $32 per saturday.



12 -13 after we moved briefly worked in a catering business for minimum wage on the weekends.



14 in AZ I painted, then moved to cleaning carpets during summers and weekends. Painted the entire U of A dorm rooms. Then I started my own side business where I did yard work etc. Hired for an entire summer by a guy that owned about 7 houses. I took the rocks off all those roofs, put tar down then used the white roof coating. Kept the houses cooler.



Moved back to CA and became a "car jockey" I took cars from Longo Toyota to the dealer and the car auction. The guy paid 6 bucks per car. I paid my friends 4 dollars per car. So for every set uf cars we moved down I made 12 - 14 bucks. We would drive up in a u haul with a car tower. Could move 4-6 loads a day. Did this 2 days a week.



I ended up starting to sell cars there because all the guys he hired ran off and got drunk and left me on the lot. I quit when he wouldn't pay me commission after selling 3 cars on a saturday.



Got a job at Knotts at the Chicken Dinner rest. when I was 17.



Then waitered at Magnolias peach in Brea. Now a BJ's I think.



Then I graduated High School.
 
[quote author="MojoJD" date=1256777268]10-15 occasional babysitting

15-17 lifeguard

17-20 swim instructor ($20 for 20 minutes... cashola!)

21-onward: career related.



My brother, on the other hand, is almost done with college and has yet to work. My parents don't seem to see the discrepancy, or understand why he doesnt value money the same way.



All I have to say is that my (future) kids are getting zero allowance after 14. Clothes and books only!</blockquote>
What about food and gas???
 
Didn't start work until summer internships in college. My brother didn't earn his first dollar until he was 28 when he graduated med school and started residency. The experiences for most of my friends are the same.



Did we understand the value of money as teens? No. But as adults we understand how difficult making money is. When I graduated college, I worked at the Big 4 making 40 something k and after taxes realized I couldn't afford my own place. I got a quick dose of reality and realized if I wanted to maintain the same comfort/lifestyle I grew up in, I needed to work my arse off to make it happen.



Now that I have a kid, I'd raise her the same way. Just believe that a kids responsibility is focusing on their education and extracurricular activities (music, dance, art, and not frying a hotdog on a stick). My responsibility as a parent is to provide so they can do just that. I understand many life lessons come w/ a job but those are lessons people will learn for the rest of their lives. And if my kids enter the working world sheltered and unprepared, then I'll be there to cushion the fall and support grad school for a career change.
 
My husband and I didn't work until we graduated from graduate programs. My husband too started to work at 28 years old. That fortunately didn't turn us into taking everything for granted. All the "pre-job" years meant to us the same type of hard work without being paid! I did feel the entitlement that rewards always (well, may be not "always") come after efforts, which is what I want to teach my kids. They can learn that from whatever they do, being at jobs or not at jobs. Now that they don't have to work for financial reasons, I would support them if only they selectively take some jobs to get a sense of reality.
 
I had a paper route or two when I was a kid. At 16 I went to work at McDonald's for not very long before working at a Ponderosa. In college, I did non-food jobs to pay for whatever scholarships didn't cover. The summer between undergrad and grad school, I waited tables at an Applebees. I learned a lot through those jobs. I learned how to interview. I learned what bosses looked for. I learned to get along with coworkers. I would not want to learn those lessons in my 20s. At that point, the cost of failure is much higher. Better to make mistakes and learn when all you have to lose is a job you don't really want anyway. Oh, I also learned to have empathy for those doing those jobs as adults when they surely must go home exhausted every day.



I know a couple people that are in their 20s and have never had a job. They have tried to get entry-level jobs and have failed to get hired. People doing the hiring look at them and then look at another applicant who has some work on his resume. Guess who they hire?
 
[quote author="T!m" date=1256881957]I had a paper route or two when I was a kid. At 16 I went to work at McDonald's for not very long before working at a Ponderosa. In college, I did non-food jobs to pay for whatever scholarships didn't cover. The summer between undergrad and grad school, I waited tables at an Applebees. I learned a lot through those jobs. I learned how to interview. I learned what bosses looked for. I learned to get along with coworkers. I would not want to learn those lessons in my 20s. At that point, the cost of failure is much higher. Better to make mistakes and learn when all you have to lose is a job you don't really want anyway. Oh, I also learned to have empathy for those doing those jobs as adults when they surely must go home exhausted every day.



I know a couple people that are in their 20s and have never had a job. They have tried to get entry-level jobs and have failed to get hired. People doing the hiring look at them and then look at another applicant who has some work on his resume. Guess who they hire?</blockquote>


I don't think work experience alone is the reason they're not landing a job (i.e. economy, social misfit, bad college, bad grades, etc). As someone who has hired staff straight out of college, school, GPA, extra curricular activities, internships, major, etc. is what lands the interview. After that, it's mostly personality, how smart I think they are, and drive/work ethic...meaning good grades and supervising a fast food chain does not impress me. I'd expect that from a jr high dropout unless you actually owned it. When I graduated college applying for jobs they cared about GPA, some asked for SAT scores, internships, etc...all of which would've suffered if I worried about work on top of school, sports teams and friends.



If it was all about tons of non-career related work experience, strawberry fields would be gold mines for headhunters. I agree work experience is important, but you can learn those skills elsewhere...playing on a sports team and understanding your role, interacting w/ prof's, surfing the web to study interview questions, mock interviews at the campus career center and of course when all else fails because you learned nothing by not having a job, leverage your hookups/connections. btw, i would argue most jobs found in your early 20's are not keepers and messing up then is ok.



So parents reading this blog, let your kid be a kid and worry about education and having fun w/ friends. None of my friends worked growing up and even though we were at times ungrateful, we all turned out ok working for good companies at one point...Deloitte, PWC, Accenture, Latham, Reedsmith, Sidley Austin, BCG, Lehman Bros i-banking, Credit Suisse i-banking, etc. And if for nothing else, it'd really help my property value.
 
This is the reason why we have the Boomerang kid generation. We are seeing so much more of it in the last decade and even more so in future design to house kids that leech on to parents.



Well to do parents who worked hard to provide for them all the way through graduate schools kids rarely in those circumstance know the value of the dollar. They will not be able to adjust when they enter the work force for the first time and especially not equipped with people skill.



Kids will come home to the parents and perhaps this could have been a planned destiny in a sub-conscientious level by the parents. In many culture such as Islamic and Chinese culture mothers do not want to let go of their boy. Years of providing for them not only robbed them of their dignity, inability to face the real world, and most importantly to even sustain a independent relationship with a woman without mom.



I saw once on HBO about the Mustang Ranch a mother paid 2 hours for her son so he could have the first virginal sexual experience with a woman. He was 26 and did not even have a clue. (that guy looks like Tenmagnet's avatar)



Living a sheltered life has its good and bad. It limits the kids potential to experience life to its full potential and the broadening ones horizon. Research has shown sheltered children not only burden their parents financially but less likely to becoming independent early in life. It also limit them with a very low tolerance level to adapt to new and different environment.



The plus is children will have no worry and stay focus with their goal in life. Sometimes it is the parents goal imposed on to the children. Children will excel in their task and will out perform their peers. Children will be much more involved with family and less likely to get into trouble.



We are seeing the 1st generation of the boomerang children. They do not have the ability to buy a house in Irvine so parents provide the down payment or a even large sum of dowry to assist in their home purchase within the same zip code as the parents.
 
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1256968242]This is the reason why we have the Boomerang kid generation. We are seeing so much more of it in the last decade and even more so in future design to house kids that leech on to parents.



Well to do parents who worked hard to provide for them all the way through graduate schools kids rarely in those circumstance know the value of the dollar. They will not be able to adjust when they enter the work force for the first time and especially not equipped with people skill.



Kids will come home to the parents and perhaps this could have been a planned destiny in a sub-conscientious level by the parents. In many culture such as Islamic and Chinese culture mothers do not want to let go of their boy. Years of providing for them not only robbed them of their dignity, inability to face the real world, and most importantly to even sustain a independent relationship with a woman without mom.



Living a sheltered life has its good and bad. It limits the kids potential to experience life to its full potential and the broadening ones horizon. Research has shown sheltered children not only burden their parents financially but less likely to becoming independent early in life. It also limit them with a very low tolerance level to adapt to new and different environment.



The plus is children will have no worry and stay focus with their goal in life. Sometimes it is the parents goal imposed on to the children. Children will excel in their task and will out perform their peers. Children will be much more involved with family and less likely to get into trouble.



We are seeing the 1st generation of the boomerang children. They do not have the ability to buy a house in Irvine so parents provide the down payment or a even large sum of dowry to assist in their home purchase within the same zip code as the parents.</blockquote>


Leech? Of course because it was allowed, but see it through all the way. Because we outperformed our peers, we can now afford to give our parents money during retirement so it's a 2 way street.



I moved up the ladder like everyone else at Deloitte Consulting, interacting daily w/ new clients, team members just fine even though i was "sheltered". And I met plenty of women...my parent's success actually provided false confidence if anything. The sheltered kid you're describing is the extreme and not the norm.



And what's the big deal about getting down payment assistance or any type of help from your parents? The parents in the hood are hating on you and thinking your kids are ungrateful because you can buy clothes from the mall and food w/o food stamps. Are they right and should you stop doing that? Getting down payment assistance from parents is no different in terms of advantage then getting SAT tutors, living in a better school district...all create socioeconomic inequalities. Where does your judgement draw the line.



Who says work provides all of life's lessons? I'd rather be totally out of touch and skip life's lessons by not working then endure it everyday...ignorance has it's advantages.



And what's wrong w/ being slightly sheltered? Are you Bear Grylls hunting for food, starting your own fire, and creating a new shelter each night? Should I take my daughter to the hood and let her watch a crack deal go down, a gang initiation, drive buys...



I guess we all draw different lines but can't stand when people hate about parent's financially helping their children.
 
That is a sense of entitlement. Parents money is their. Buy what you can afford and not living above your mean.



Many take money from their parents and counting on them for a buying a bigger home than what they can afford. Trust me, parents money rarely get paid back.



I am not suggesting taking children to witness the harshness of life in the hood but to recognize the value of earning a living, financial management and spending within one's own mean and not counting the extra from parents.



The best rewards in life is not what you ending up with but the process it took and the accomplishment based on your own merit.
 
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1256972048]That is a sense of entitlement. Parents money is their. Buy what you can afford and not living above your mean.



Many take money from their parents and counting on them for a buying a bigger home than what they can afford. Trust me, parents money rarely get paid back.</blockquote>


By your definition, most kids in America compared to the rest of the world has a sense of entitlement...it's probably true, but is it so wrong?



And no I didn't feel entitled to their money. Is it hard to believe some parents want to do it like I plan to do for my daughter? Like my folks, if my daughter couldn't afford the payments, I wouldn't stick 20% of the cost in a downpayment to see it go back to the bank. Living above their means (i.e. able to make the monthly payments), no, but getting something undeserved early, yes.



I could've done a better job saving rather than going drinking, gambling and vacationing, but where's the fun in that? But now that I did experience that as a teen/20 something, I don't feel like I have to party or go through a mid-life crisis now in my 30's. I don't feel a need to drive a bmw or buy fancy clothes cause I did as a kid and learned early that it means nothing and holds no value...hey just found a life lesson sheltered kids discover first...hooray!
 
Sheltered kids rarely take life in reverse. Early materialistic fulfillment never lead to frugality as one matures. They just move on to the next fix that give them comfort. First, designer clothes from the mall, then drinking parties, then gambling and the cravings never stop. Sound financial management is rarely the end result,
 
The best rewards in life is not what you ending up with but the process it took and the accomplishment based on your own merit.</blockquote>




I can appreciate the yoda like wisdom in your statement, but it's silly to think your accomplishments were based on your merit alone. It's like winning an Oscar and thanking yourself...



I don't know what you do for a living, but at some point, someone probably helped by referring a client, some business, your resume for a job. That is an advantage that was undeserved where someone assisted you because they wanted to help you. No different than your parents or did not mean you felt entitled by receiving.
 
childplease,



You lack the frame of reference necessary to have a qualified opinion on the matter. People who did not come from privileged homes don't take anything for granted, and it's quite obvious from your statements that you did and still do. You have that luxury because you know you have a safety net. And while you may not think it makes a difference in life, I can assure you that I would rather trust my money and business with someone who started with nothing than someone who thinks they learned hard life lessons interacting with professors or during mock interviews in a campus library.



No offense, but most poor kids learn that fancy clothes and BMWs hold no real value when they have to split a single hot dog for dinner. Earning an MBA and spending spring break in Cancun doesn't give you the same cred as working two jobs to put yourself through school does, and your posts here only serve to highlight your ignorance on the subject.
 
[quote author="childplease" date=1256966240]

So parents reading this blog, let your kid be a kid and worry about education and having fun w/ friends. None of my friends worked growing up and even though we were at times ungrateful, we all turned out ok working for good companies at one point...Deloitte, PWC, Accenture, Latham, Reedsmith, Sidley Austin, BCG, Lehman Bros i-banking, Credit Suisse i-banking, etc. And if for nothing else, it'd really help my property value.</blockquote>


I am sorry to say these companies meant nothing to me. If you think the measure of success is which companies you have worked for or where your diplomas were issued then your parents did not raise you well. Sure, money can buy tutors, good school district, education, good college, and even a good job but character is not for sale.



Abby Rockefeller once said to her son David success is not measured by how much wealth you made in your life but how many lives you successful changed by your wealth.
 
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