My First Job
Age writers and regular columnists share their humorous, poignant and thought-provoking tales of finding their feet and receiving their first pay.
Opinion
Cheap tickets and free popcorn suddenly made me cool in the eyes of my classmates
While all of my friends worked at the supermarket or in fast food, the cinema gave me a competitive edge and someone people wanted in their Myspace Top 8.
- by Caroline Schelle
Opinion
Dinner at 5pm and cats on leashes: Luxury retirement work had its perks
The diners at table three lodged an official complaint after I spent too long socialising with table four, and not enough time focusing on my work duties.
- by Sam White
Opinion
I wasn’t hired as a tradie on merit, but I was definitely fired for it
While some teenagers wrote profane things on desks, construction workers immortalised crude phrases on the frames of houses before covering them in plaster.
- by Simon Taylor
By my third year, I’d made it. I was picking asparagus for the Japanese market
Without shopping centres or fast food chains to rely on for summer work, I headed to the farm on a school bus that left just after 6am.
- by Shane Wright
Opinion
As a nepo-baby, I had all-areas access … at the greyhound track
At the age of 13 I was turnstile operator at the local dog track. The job introduced me to nepotism, betting and an eclectic cast of characters.
- by Billy Cantwell
Opinion
How being mooned in the drive-thru window prepared me for adulthood
As a teenager, my interests were simple: I needed cash to buy CDs and to spend time with my friends. Enter: working at McDonald’s and earning minimum wage.
- by Madeleine Heffernan
Opinion
As a city boy, taking a job at a farm changed my diet forever
My workmates were flabbergasted at how long it took me to blast mouldy cheese products off wooden pallets, and how much steel I could waste because I was afraid of the circular saw.
- by Tim Biggs
Opinion
Joe Cocker on repeat was torture. But suddenly, I could afford designer jeans
Working in a chicken shop doesn’t sound glamorous – and it wasn’t – but it was the music I had to listen to as I cleaned that really tipped me over the edge.
- by Carolyn Webb
Opinion
My retail job got me AC/DC tickets, chutzpah got me backstage
I hated my job at Pigott & Co in Toowoomba. But I earned enough to get me into an unforgettable AC/DC gig at Harristown High.
- by Margot Saville
Opinion
I got my first job as early as I could, with a covetable item to save for in my sights
At the tender age of 14 and nine months I began working at a freeway roadhouse. But with an hourly rate of $5.25, buying a CD player was going to take a while.
- by Cara Waters
Opinion
‘Glamour in a packet’: How I learned stockings were the tip of a nylon iceberg
Gossamer fine, in colours like ‘alabaster’ and ‘chateau’ – pantyhose meant different things to different women, and it was my job to help them find the perfect pair.
- by Felicity Lewis
Opinion
A fancy party and I was the hired help. Farm handing had become too real
It wasn’t my idea of fun. I believed school holidays were supposed to be a holiday. But 30 bucks was 30 bucks.
- by Tony Wright
Opinion
My government job was insanely boring. Thankfully, it was the peak of World Series Cricket
It was here that I learnt two invaluable truths about government red tape: one, it actually exists, and two, it makes for excellent cricket balls.
- by Karl Quinn
Opinion
Some jobs look better on paper. Being a hotel mascot is one of them
After four years it was time for a fresh start. And that fresh start looked like a big blue and white costume that was dirty, unwieldy, and way too hot.
- by David Swan
Opinion
I’m in a bit of a pickle, get me out of here
Crossing the city to work in a factory on a revolutionary island was an eye-opening experience. There were no two ways around it: I was simply foul.
- by Jason Steger
Opinion
‘Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?’ My astonishing summer as a hotel maid
Of all the jobs, it is most astonishing that anyone let me be a professional cleaner.
- by Michelle Griffin
Opinion
I was toiling to make the pitch perfect. Then the commandos choppered in
Fresh out of school, I’d been appointed groundsman at the country’s most prestigious military college. Rolling pitches was dull apart from one strange day.
- by Michael Bachelard
Opinion
Fluoro lighting, 3am silence your own thoughts: What the graveyard shift taught me
With the logic of a barfly who pulls beers to fund a drinking habit, I sought a job at a service station.
- by Tom Cowie
Opinion
In my mind, the job was colossal, I was esteemed and rich. But no one seemed to notice
It was this huge, prestigious company, whose ads I’d watched my whole life. Was I an icon now, by association? Not just Waleed. But Waleed from Telstra.
- by Waleed Aly
Opinion
I didn’t mean to work at an Irish bagel shop, homesickness made me do it
Not for the first and not for the last time, I gritted my teeth and went with it, rather than trying to cross the cultural impasse.
- by Cassidy Knowlton
Opinion
They hired me because of my older sister. Turned out, I was not my older sister
The coffee chain probably thought they’d hit the jackpot when my older sister asked them to give me a job. I could be a Solange to her Beyonce. How wrong they were.
- by Wendy Syfret
Original URL: https://www.theage.com.au/link/follow-20170101-p5euny