Your First Job?

[Ailina]

Re: Your First Job

1st job: McDonald's in Mililani.
2nd job: "cart girl" at Mililani Golf Course.
3rd job: tour guide at Dole Cannery.
Last Hawai`i job: long-distance operator at AT&T.

[Pedro]

Re: Your First Job

Jobs

1: Delivering Newspaper for Sunpress - 7th grade.
2: Summer fun Jr. Leader - 9th grade.
3: Window Washer 10th grade year and after graduation.
4: Commisary Stocker.
5: Security with BURNS
6: Presently Employed with Bishop Museum.

[DaveNSoKona]

Re: Your First Job

I think my first job was tearing down old barns in Kansas with my grandfather. I found a nest of baby squirrels and a 1936 Saturday Evening Post with ads for a brand new Cadillac for $600.

[kimo55]

Re: Your First Job

I found... a 1936 Saturday Evening Post with ads for a brand new Cadillac for $600.

you got that on ebay for your find?!

[lavagal]

Re: Your First Job

1st Job:
Babysitter of the neighborhood. Everybody called me.
2nd Job:
Lifeguard at a swimming club (white speedo, twirled the whistle around)
3rd Job:
McDonalds, Delran, NJ: two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun (I was there from 74-78).
4th Job:
Insurance clerk for Zurich Insurance (Oh my g*d could anything be more dull?)
5th Job:
Computer Operator with USAF (Get out of NJ FAST! Even got to track the first shuttle flight while stationed at Edwards AFB in the dreaded Mojave Desert)
6th Job:
Computer Operator for Kaiser Permanente Hawaii (exact same computers as the USAF)
7th Job:
Editorial Assistant, Honolulu Advertiser (Launched a writing career. I LOVE deadline pressure)

[kimo55]

Re: Your First Job

"Babysitter of the neighborhood. Everybody called me. "

what did they call you?

2nd Job:
Lifeguard at a swimming club (white speedo, twirled the whistle around)

pictures. We want pictures.

5th Job:
Computer Operator with USAF
6th Job:
Computer Operator for Kaiser Permanente Hawaii
(exact same computers as the USAF)

you mean you got to take yer computers from job to job?!

[lavagal]

Re: Your First Job

what did they call you?
Well, Kimo, back in NJ no ever called me Haole Bitch. But then again, there I was, all of 17 years old in a white swim team suit. They usually called and breathed heavily in the phone. It was kinda frustrating.
pictures. We want pictures. Man, why did I think I was fat back then?


you mean you got to take yer computers from job to job?!

umm. Let's see. 1985 IBM Mainframes, CDC 2000, some PDP thing and a plotter. Printers that are as big as tractors. Nah, I just changed freeze-yer-ass-off vaults. And then I worked the midnight shift. No complaints. That's how I got to learn to surf.

[shaveice]

Re: Your First Job

yeah, like someone wrote, my first "real" job was at the old dole cannery. man, it was sooo noisy. for the first couple of nights, i could hear the sound of the machines in my sleep! did all kinds of odd things. like going INSIDE of the big containers that held or mixed the pineapple juice to clean the thing. packed pineapple juice into boxes. talk about mindless work. i think my hands were going through the motions when i slept at night! i remember once on my break, i climbed up a high stack of cardboard boxes and took a short nap. what a stupid kid. lucky the whole thing didn't come crashing down.

[Konaguy]

Re: Your First Job

My first job was a Biological Aide working for USDA at Kona Airport.

[jdub]

Re: Your First Job

my first job was as a child actor in a variety of local commercials...that started getting in the way of sports, so i just stopped one day, to my parents' surprise but supportive approval...my first schmuck job was at showbiz pizza in aina haina...i got drunk with the other employees on my first night, and woke up an hour late for work in that little tank with the plastic balls...yikes!

[cezanne]

Re: Your First Job

DelMonte cannery. That sucked. Lasted 5 days haha. The Ginaca machine...ugh

[turtlegirl]

What was your first job?

Hi everyone!
I'm moving to Oahu in March, and have been thinking about what I want to do to earn my rent. My first year in LA, I think I got fired from every bar on Sunset Strip! So, I wanted to ask those of you who moved to Hawaii from elsewhere, for stories about your first job after you arrived. What did you do? Was it fun? Any horror stories? Did it take you a while to find a job you liked? Maybe someone found a great job right away?

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Your First Job

Jobs

1: Delivering Newspaper for Sunpress - 7th grade.

I remember my friend Kevin had a job delivering the Sunpress. That was one suck job as the paper was delivered to everybody for free and Kevin had to go to each house later to collect the voluntary fee. Some would pay for their "free" newspaper, others would yell at him, "I never asked for this paper why should I pay for it?" and slam the door in his face. I can see if you're an adult trying to collect and having another adult slam the door but Kevin was only 15 and was told he could earn good money delivering that paper.

For all that effort delivering that paper to every home in Waialae Nui Valley, he never really got much money from it. Sunpress really took advantage of him.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Your First Job?

First 'kid' job: Busboy at a restaurant where my father was assistant manager - I was all of 12, so $1.00/hour seemed like a treat to me. After that, I was a general dogsbody for him during the year he managed a golf & country club just outside a little Eastern Iowa town - at 14, I had a great time, especially that summer, when I was out there just about every day, from sunup to sundown.

First 'student' job: Two years as a library assistant during high-school, evenings and weekends, at the city's public library. Refiling books, magazines & reference articles, for the most part. Several nights a week, plus weekends. I really loved being in that old space (which has since been renovated into an art museum).

First 'real' job: Evening/weekend shift at a public radio station, providing continuity for classical and news programming, hosting late-night jazz programs, doing lots of audio production - the last of these being something I'm still doing thirty years on, and digging it all over again.

[Kittrick]

Re: Your First Job?

Hi everyone!
I'm moving to Oahu in March, and have been thinking about what I want to do to earn my rent. My first year in LA, I think I got fired from every bar on Sunset Strip! So, I wanted to ask those of you who moved to Hawaii from elsewhere, for stories about your first job after you arrived. What did you do? Was it fun? Any horror stories? Did it take you a while to find a job you liked? Maybe someone found a great job right away?

My first job after I arrived was as a toy demonstrator at the old Woolworth's Waikiki. It was fun and on commission. Feast or famine. We got paid .$60 for every Star Glider I could sell. Once a Saudi prince came in and bought all of the toys I had on display, as he instructed his 6 wives with him (all wearing burkas) to buy whatever the kids with them and they themselves wanted. I made like $250 in about 20 minutes of work. I went home after that for the night. That was a cool job because the tricks we used to do with the Star Gliders seriously sold merchandise. We'd fly them around display stands, flip them in the air, and every time they would come back to our hands or get them to land on our head or shoulder. People used to try to find a string that didn't exist on those things. Plus, it really got me into public speaking and showmanship. The demonstrators who could speak Japanese made like $150-$300 a night. I think I averaged around $100, only working maybe 4-5 hours a night.

In another position, I worked for a fly-by-night operation that was so shoddy
that we didn't get paid for a month or longer. Make sure when you take a job that they are legit! The people I worked with including myself just walked out after getting paid. Oh, and the paycheck we were given after a month of not getting paid bounced. Yikes.

In High school, my first part-time job was as a cook at Godfather's Pizza outside of Seattle. One time, I sliced my hand on the pizza cutter and bled on the pizza crust I was preparing next to a finished on I was cutting for delivery. I put the pizza crust on the side so no one would use it while my co-worker helped me dress the cut and stop the bleeding. It was pretty busy that night, so I guess the manager put the bloody crust back into the production and we couldn't tell which one it was as sauce and all the toppings were on it already, so we couldn't exactly pull it off the line. It got delivered to someone, but I'm pretty sure the blood was cooked by the oven temperature and no one would probably notice. I got pretty fat working there as they made a 5lb. pizza with a pound of cheese, and any of the mess-ups we'd take home as they were getting thrown out anyway.