What was your first job?

tsubasa_ said:
In a chocolate/sweets factory, no I'm not kidding. I was wrapping up "Knoppers" mainly.

Kosmonaut said:
My first full-time job is my current one and that's top secret information.

My first paid job was as a walking tour guide. I got so much cash money out of tips and people asking to hang out later because they wanted a local to show them the best spots, good and simple times.

A random tip: if you're aiming for any opening that you'd need a degree for, put effort into your cover letter. Good CV designs are good and all to get the HR person's attention, but the cover letter is even more important for that goal.

Edit: I almost forgot another tip, but this is mostly for people still in undergrad. Don't be too proud and think that, even when you do have references, you won't need them. You'll need them. Bust your ass networking if you must. Your life in the workforce will be much easier that way.

Meusnier said:

Ah, I see that you are a woman of culture as well. I also worked in a chocolate factory for a week when I was 14, and did some chain work mainly. Never again! The other interesting things were the scientific tests, and I will regret all my life not having been able to partake in the radioactivity test that occurred a week before I came.

Meusnier said:

Every one knows that you are a graduate student who is procrastinating all day on MAL and PhD comics. This is fine, your advisor can not watch anime and go to fancy conference dinners at the same time.

tsubasa_ said:


Oh nice! I was 19 when I worked there, but only for a month or so because the pay was actually pretty bad and I earned less than I should have. But I still liked it there, was nice earning my own money, but sometimes it was quite stressful too.
And about the test.. well I'm sorry to hear that xD

Kosmonaut said:
That's an absolute and blatant lie, I'm offended you think so little of me. I actually only procrastinate on MAL a mere half an hour each day. The rest of it I'm hard at work with a blank sheet doc opened and v-tuber streams in the background. I like to think I'm very proactive.

Meusnier said:

At least you were paid.
Now that the chocolate factory has closed, I will never know how much radioactive chocolate is.

Now I remember that they had given me 3kg of chocolate. Of course, I bribed the jury by giving them some chocolate at the end of my presentation. Now, only bank transfers would do with the jurys...

Meusnier said:

This could not be more untrue, I hold you in high esteem. By the way, you could still work hard at night and procrastinate all day, so there is no contradiction in my words.

"a blank sheet doc opened"... Please do not tell me that you still use Word? With a blank sheet LaTeX doc opened, your productivity will rocket. Why is so? You need to write some lines in the preamble! No more blank page angst!

tsubasa_ said:


I wouldn't have worked there if I didn't get at least a bit out of it haha.
That's quite unfortunate, tbh my mom is working in a chocolate factory, a pretty famous one to be exact. I can give you some details on Discord.

Lol yes I can imagine, my mom gets some stuff cheaper because she works there, also a large bag with lots of sweets and chocolate on special days like birthdays for example.

Kosmonaut said:
You flatter me by thinking I'd be productive at night and not read the same paragraph over and over again. Worry not, I shine the best during the day, I manage to read even five whole paragraphs sometimes.

Of course I don't use Word, I wouldn't want to be bullied by the cool LaTeX kids. I still don't know why people don't just accept the clear hegemony of the notepad windows app.

Catalano said:
I worked at a bussiness center but I had menial jobs like sending mails (only for a few months and it was part-time, it was after college)
then I worked at a tourism agency but quit after the probation period (I think that's the word) because the pay was lame
then a few months as a dishwasher, prep kitchen etc at a restaurant in the States, it was cool and I liked the environment

my full job was as a hotel receptionist, pretty cool but too many hours and lousy salary.

my advice, just work in any field in the beginning, you will learn about working in general and how to treat future problems, and in your off time, spend time trying to be better in the field you wanna work.
hope this helps at least a little

EmtShell said:
used to do a full time illustration under someone who's majorly a part of school for almost 3 years. though i don't receive any money (maybe a little but not a desirable amount) but i got some reccom from other schools and recognitions.

Nyarlathothep said:
Hm.. Answering that is a bit complicated, because I got part-time summer jobs, full-time summer jobs, internships or so. My first job that was none of it, that could be the beginning of a carreer was as a French teacher in Middle-School. That was the easiest I could get with my background.

As for practical advices: I personally always do so that my CV is only one-page length, which is now pretty difficult. Also, recruiters like CV to be precise: they want to be able to see what exactly you were doing in the job. Adding side competences like languages, Excel, or even if you enjoy writing or traveling is also nice. I personally also added some of my charity labours on it.
As for cover letter, I think the way of writing them depends on the country. I still do it the French way, wherever I apply >.<

Atlos said:
My first job was working at factory (or processing facility as technically wasn't a factory)

Bobby2Hands said:
Does being a paperboy count?
Because when I was 12 I would deliver news papers 6 days a week and get paid £15.
Now that I think about it I was getting ripped off.

BannedAkko said:
My first job was rather embarrassing. When I was at school we were all told to go and get work experience. We all went down to West End in London to look for jobs at fashion retailers and shops like that. Few of us got a gig. I couldn’t find anything anywhere and had nothing on my CV except for my academic achievements so far and some summer courses that I did. Nobody was interested.

In the end my mother got me a gig at the local Chinese takeaway. We were customers there for years and my mother was friends with the husband and wife that ran it. They gladly took me on. I couldn’t stand the smell of having to wash and prepare seafood. I had to take the shells off of the shrimp and I had to wash the dishes and pack the orders into containers and seal them and bag them and give them to the customers. I also had to take telephone orders when not working in the kitchen. Everyone else at school got a job that was less embarrassing or they didn’t get one at all. I don’t think of it as embarrassing now but at the time...

Bakchos said:
My first full time job was as a bellboy at a fancy hotel for a couple of months.

Maou_heika said:
My first full-time job was actually an internship I did during my final semester, got a letter of recommendation from the college but I had to work for free. My job was web development.

For my first full-time "job" I applied to and attended countless interviews, sometimes I didn't get called/selected other times I rejected the offer due to one reason or another (mostly due to very low salary or misleading JDs). After 8 months of searching I finally got a half-decent internship position as a Software Developer and later converted to an employee at the same place. It wasn't exactly the job I wanted but I had to take it since being unemployed for 8 months after finishing college is quite a long time and I had to start somewhere.

PepecaChan said:
Administrative assistant for a sanitation company, but it was 30h/week. My first and only 40h/week job was project planner at a construction company. Next year I'll be a High School Math teacher, which is a stable and easy to maintain job, if everything goes right.

The easiest way to get a job is to have a friend or parent in the company who can recommend you to their superiors. That's how I got all my jobs. I still had to do the interviews and all that crap but their recommendations were far more important than my curriculum or what I said in those interviews.