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🎉 Throwback Time: Your First Job Ever! 💼✨
Good morning Bizhubbers!, What a fabulous sunny Thursday.
Let’s have a little trip down memory lane, shall we?
I want to know: What was one of your first jobs (the most memorable), and what did it actually teach you? Did it shape your future career or make you determined to never have to work again?
Maybe you had a Saturday job working in a shop, waited tables at a restaurant with questionable music, or babysat kids who made you question everything. 😅
Whatever it was—we’ve all been there. That glorious phase where we were clueless, awkward, and just wanted to make enough money to go and buy the latest cassette (yes I really am that old!). I remember the total motivation for me was building my music collection…as those ‘NOW’ albums weren’t buying themselves!
🧠 Why this matters:
Those early gigs might not have paid much (or at all…), but they gave us golden nuggets of wisdom:– How to deal with people (especially the difficult ones)
– What we do or definitely do not want in a career
– That being on time, smiling, and surviving eight hours on your feet should qualify as a superpowerPlus, someone here probably had the same job—and let’s be honest, nothing sparks conversation like discovering you both used to scoop ice cream, fold shirts, or scrub dishes for pocket change.
💬 Drop your story in the comments, and reply to someone else’s!
Share a funny moment, a surprising life lesson, or the thing that made you swear, “Never again.” Let’s get the conversations flowing and the memories rolling.Ready? Set? Go!… and share. 😆….I’ve gone first in the comments
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So, my first ‘job’ was a paper round, aged 11. Does that qualify for child labour?…. I’m not sure. But what happened in the 80s stays in the 80s. The guy who ran the shop was a really mean old guy who smelt of cigarettes and rage. I remember him never having the rounds ready on time, which always panicked me as I had to get them delivered and then go to school! This taught me to ensure I always got my bit of the process done so it didn’t hold up others. Well, I try to stick to that anyway!
I had two large rounds, which, on the weekends (which included the supplements), often caused me to topple off my bike when I went around corners. As I type this I am aware that actually my first job probably gave me PTSD…or maybe it was just ‘character building’, as we liked to call it in the 80’s! I remember thinking that earning money should not be this hard and that I needed to find a job that was less physical effort for more money. 14-year-old me progressed to a Saturday job washing dishes in a local wine bar. Which was equally painful and poorly paid! I am glad to say I have moved on since those days when it comes to my work!-
@Hannah you are a great storyteller ! You really bring that whole experience to life. Sounds wonderfully character building 😊 aka terrifying
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Working in hospitality definitely teaches you a lot about the general public haha! But it’s a great starting point for youngsters and teaches lots of transferable skills. Hospitality jobs often involve thinking on your feet, using your initiative, and problem solving. As well as maintaining a ‘customer service’ face 🙂
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@claresellar This is very true. Maybe it’s what has made me who I am today! Want to share one of your first jobs?
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@Hannah working in a greengrocers at 14, trimming the cauliflowers so they looked nice on the shelf mostly! And various pub/bar/restaurant jobs, which is always good experience to have and has filled a few career gaps since. I worked in a local shop for a while and loved it – got to know the regulars and which cigarettes they smoke, and sold out of soup on a snow day lol!
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My first job was through my work experience when I was in year 10. I worked for 2 weeks at a jewellers and a silversmith. I didnt know it at the time but its shaped my hole future and it’s what I ended up studying for my degree.
I did my two weeks and they asked if I wanted to work part time at the weekends and in the school holidays. I worked their all the way up to uni so about 5 years. The hole time I was exploring my love of all the arts and I didnt know what I wanted to do until uni when I realized that all this time I wanted to be a silversmith.
So I believe that first job even if it’s not related to what you now do does shape what you become and how you persevere work. I’m grateful for that opportunity to try something I didnt even know was a job.
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@abimarsh I love this. How fabulous that it planted a seed that helped shape something you loved so much, you went on to study and then create a future from! Thanks for sharing that 😊
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@abimarsh that’s amazing and a real incentive to offer work experience, knowing it could create a whole future for someone that they didn’t know existed !
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I worked in a tea room during college. I was the only male staff member… take from that what you will!
Everything was painted pink, I had a little apron and It was actually a pretty chilled out job, despite the usual customer service antics.I had two other customer service jobs after that, everyone should work in customer service at least once. Gives you a ton of perspective.
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@James_West reminds me of a week I spend in a greasy spoon community cafe…but best first job I had was probably on building sites while a student. Meet a lot of people from all over the world, so you get used to communication basics – ‘move this from here to here’, bit different to architecture school. Working for an agency that would send you (as labourer) anywhere across London. Double pay for working nights because accountancy firms not wanting the fit outs disturbing them in the day. Which then became mainly Australian sing-alongs!
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@ivan I love this idea of you presumably cycling all over London at night to do fit outs with singalongs. Sounds great fun but must have been exhausting ! Waltzing Matilda?!
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@James_West thanks for the vision of you in a pink frilly apron!! I agree customer service is a great leveller and learning to deal with customers well a very useful skill
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@James_West Yes I agree about the customer facing roles. I’ve had jobs where I would love being in front of customers and others where they would annoy me so much that I would have to be hid away. I guess over this time you learn how to deal with or communicate better to people.
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Great question @Hannah ! I was fired from my first two jobs one in a lighting shop (the one in Guildford) and one in a bakery and both times for thinking I knew better how to run the place than the owner . I believe I was right in both cases but I have since learned to communicate better !!
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My first job was in a fish and chip shop. (Cue the nicknames from my surname) I hated it – particularly the smell on the clothes. Think I was only there a few weeks to be honest before walking out.
I then got a weekend job in Burtons Menswear and did kinda enjoy it dealing with customers etc. Most of my day involved folding and refolding all the garments and whatever area of the store I was situated in that day I made it my mission to make everything as neat and presented as possible. I still neatly fold clothes back on the shelves if I am browsing a store so it definitely left a mark on me.
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