First Jobs

Townhall.com ^ | July 18, 2012 | John Stossel

[Kaslin]

What was your first job?

I stuck pieces of plastic and metal together at an Evanston, Ill., assembly line. We produced photocopiers for a company called American Photocopy.

I hated the work. It was hot and boring. But it was useful. It taught me to get good grades in school so I might have other choices.

Four years later, good grades got me a job as a researcher at a TV station.

To my surprise, that became a career. I never planned to be a TV reporter. I hadn't even watched TV news. I never took a journalism course.

But by showing up and trying stuff, I found a career.

I write about this because I'm appalled watching politicians kill off "first" jobs. (They say it's to protect us.)

First, they raise the minimum wage. Forcing employers to pay $7.25 an hour leaves them reluctant to give unskilled kids a chance -- why pay more than a worker can produce? So they offer fewer "first" jobs.

On top of that, the Obama Labor Department has issued a fact sheet that says free internships are only legal if the employer derives "no immediate advantage" from the intern.

Are you kidding me? What's the point of that? I want interns who are helpful!

The bureaucrats say they will crack down on companies that don't pay, but that's a terrible thing to do.

Unpaid internships are great. They are win-win. They let young people experiment with careers, and figure out what they'd like and what they're good at. They help employers produce better things and recruit new employees.

I've used interns all my career. They have done some of my best research. Some became journalists themselves. Many told me: "Thank you! I learned more working for you than I learned in college, and I didn't have to pay tuition!

I could have paid them, but then I would have used fewer interns. When I worked at ABC, the network decided to pay them -- $10 an hour -- but it also cut the number of internships by half. Politicians don't get it. Neither do most people. Polls show that Americans support raising the minimum wage. Most probably also support limits on unpaid internships, believing that they replace paid work.

But they don't.

OK, sometimes they do. But the free exchange of labor creates so many good things that, in the long run, more jobs are created and many more people get paid work -- and we get better work.

But American politicians think they "protect" workers by limiting employers' (and workers') choices and giving handouts to the unemployed.

Outside a welfare office near Fox News, I was told that because of high unemployment, there are no jobs: "There's nothing out there. Nothing." I asked my team to check that out. They walked around for two hours, and within a few blocks of that welfare office they found lots of businesses that want to hire people. On the same block where I was told that there are no jobs, a store manager said he was desperate for applicants. "We need like two or three people all the time."

Of the 79 businesses that we asked, 40 said they would hire. Twenty-four said they would take people with no experience. All wished more people would apply.

I told German Munoz, a recent high school graduate, about one of the jobs offered, at a soul food restaurant. He went there and was hired to wash dishes for minimum wage. Within a few days, he was promoted to busboy -- then to waiter. Now, two weeks later, he makes twice the minimum wage. German doesn't want a career as a waiter, but he says it's great having a real first job.

"I meet successful people, and they give good advice and tips on how to become successful. I love it. I love going there every day and learning new stuff. It is like a stepping stone," he said. Exactly.

Low-wage first jobs are indispensable for both personal advancement and social progress. Our best hope for prosperity is the free market. Government must get out of our way and allow consenting adults to create as many "first" jobs as possible.

[YouGoTexasGirl]

Have an acquaintance who’s business needs drivers. Hard to find one that you can trust NOT to text or check them when driving. Last driver ran off the road with the hard work of the shop wrecking an F-350.

I know there are LOTS of good stories but we are like the news, tend to hear the bad ones....

[bikerman]

my first job was picking up bottles at construction jobs turning them in for deposit refunds, then paper boy,in my teen years went commercial clam digging then went into electronic repair, which I did for the next 40+ years and finally professional truck driving till retirement at age 62. Was never out of work or collected anything from the government.

[SnuffaBolshevik]

I was 14 doing farm work at a beef cattle operation. $1.10 an hour in 1972. Hard but interesting work (forking manure, putting up hay and ensilage, grinding feed, helping dehorn and, ahem, “emasculate” the little bulls, plowing and discing the fields).

Being tighter than 2 coats of paint, in about 18 months I saved enough for a 5 year old Camaro.

I doubt many farmers hire local kids for this kind of work much anymore. Too many illegals and lawyers around.

[dog breath]

I earned my own money as a kid from an early age maybe eight or nine, cutting lawns, delivering newspapers, selling garden produce and crafts. My first real hourly wage job was at a veterinarians cleaning kennels, I loved dogs and still do. I smelled like a nasty kennel if I didn’t shower and change clothes, that was not big with the ladies in high school.

[P.O.E.]

First job - (unpaid) - worked at Grandpop’s gas station. Learned customer service, how to make change and “face” the bills, etc. Went with Pop to weekend masonry gigs (fetch bricks, find where I put that hammer I was playing with)

First paying job ever - went with Grandmom to bingo and walk up and down the aisles - I’d fetch coffee, hot dogs, sodas, whatever, and the ladies would tip me with dimes & nickels. (around 8-10 years old?). Would also mow lawns, shovel snow, clean out garages in the neighborhood.

First official job ever - worked at the local five and dime as stock boy, gopher, sweeper-upper, whatever.

Other jobs over the years:
Lifeguard (3 summers)
Dishwasher (includes KP)
Waiter
Busboy
Bartender
Office cleaner
Store-window squeegee & floor waxer (at malls)
Ice Cream Man (back in the days of actual bells, not muzak)
Animated film-cel painter
Oil-spill mopper (factory)
Line attendant (factory)
Sludge-pit cleaner (factory)
Furnace cleaner (factory)
UPS warehouse
Mall clothing store stockboy
Church sexton
Furniture mover / delivery
Limo driver
Door-to-door salesman (cable TV)
Banquet worker (set-ups, serve, cleanup)
Short-order cook
French cuisine cook (coquilles St-Jacques a specialty)
Data-entry clerk
Computer (mainframe) operator
Computer (PC) programmer / systems designer (consolidating international subsidiaries’ accounts)
Beer drinker (oh, that’s right, never got paid for that)
Corporate financial analyst

I could go on.....

Many of the jobs I did at several establishments (e.g., bartender), some for long periods of time (22 years at the longest stretch)

Sad part is, not many of these jobs are available to the youth of today (what with OSHA, lawsuits, regulations, etc.)

[LongWayHome]

I started as a 9 year old paperboy. Had my own route, did my own paperwork keeping track of my collections. Tough job for a little boy. Difficut getting customers to pay at times. And delivering papers in a snowstorm was a nightmare. Good lessons learned though.

[tx_eggman]

Caddied 2-3 times a week at the local golf course.

This was my first "real job" too. I did it for 2 summers - '63 and '64. You had to start showing up in March-April on Saturday and Sunday. After that, it took a couple of weeks for the caddy master to put you out shagging balls - his way of insuring that he had people he could be sure were going to show up.

There were 3 or 4 of us from my neighborhood who did this. During the summer it was a 6 day a week job - the course was closed on Mondays - and, on a typical day, we would be on the course before 7 and back before noon . with $5 or $6 in our pockets. If we got a double, it would be $10 or $12.

Then, it was down to the bus stop in Freeport and off to Jones Beach.

I had more "just for me" disposable income then than I ever had again until my kids were out of the school and out of the house.

[CSM]

“Any work is creative work if done by a thinking mind.”
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

[SamAdams76]

I have fond memories of my first jobs as a youth - something that most young people today will never have because most job opportunities for youngsters (people under 18) have either been regulated or taxed out of existence or have been filled by illegal aliens.

I got my first job at age 13 delivering newspapers. It was the summer of 1975 and I remember waking up at the crack of dawn for that stack of newspapers to hit my front porch. I was making $15 to $20 a week and for a 13-year-old, that was a lot of money at that time for what basically amounted to an hour of work a day.

Having that paper route gave me a taste for having money in my pocket so I kept that route for several years and took on whatever other part time jobs I could find. Shucking clams in a clam shack. Bagging groceries at a supermarket. Washing dishes in a restaurant. By time I was in high school, I was used to taking home at least $50 a week - the minimum wage back then was $2.65 an hour.

I managed to get my own kids into part-time jobs when they were in high school but it was a struggle as most of these jobs have dried up. About the only employers who still take on young kids these days (under 18) are supermarkets and fast food joints.

[VermiciousKnid]

Not counting babysitting or mowing the neighbors’ lawns, my first job for a real company was in a flower shop when I was a bout 14.

I got to learn how to work a register, take phone orders, check deliveries for accuracy, take inventory, and of course...arrange floral arrangements.

Fun job. Harder than it looks.

Regards,

[central_va]

I pumped gas, the real kind.

[bgill]

First real job was at 15 as a waitress. It was a nasty little place that stored food in the back on the dirt because there wasn’t a floor. The toilet got stopped up one day and the owner never fixed it. He also never turned in our w/h or ss and forgot to pay us sometimes. Lots of lessons learned right out the gate.

[No Truce With Kings]

First real job (where someone paid me to show up on a schedule and work) was at a McDonald's at age 14. Hard work but enjoyed it. (Before that I got money mowing lawns and baby-sitting - at an age where it would be considered child abuse today, but I enjoyed that, too.)

Between my senior year in High School and my Freshman year in college worked as a clerk at a discount store.

Then I parlayed a computer programming class I took in High School into a job as a computer operator, part-time, at the University I was attending (at 2.5 x minimum wage!). This was back in the early 1970s when computers were booming and anyone with any familiarity with them could find something in that field. Paid all my college expenses (except tuition, which my parents paid), and actually allowed me to save a few bucks.

Of course this was well before the ridiculous run-up in college costs, so you could work and pay for college.

[No Truce With Kings]

And, by the way I *never* worked an unpaid internship or let my kids work an unpaid intership. If your services are useful you should be paid for them. YMMV but I think, despite Stossel’s opinion, that unpaid internships are a scam.

[NEMDF]

I did A LOT of babysitting from the time I was about 11, including one whole summer with a toddler full time, plus would do other jobs nights and weekends. When I was 14, I worked on corn detassling crews for several summers with my track team. We would leave for the fields before it was light in the morning, detassle for hours in the hot sun, then go to track practice for a couple hours each night. My first 16 year old job was as a waitress at IHOP. You were required to memorize the massive menu before they would let you actually wait on tables. The uniform was a long-sleeved peach cotton dress with white detachable cuffs, collar, and apron (so you could bleach the whites), plus white nurses’ shoes. Everything had to be ironed. Then worked a bunch of nights and weekends in high school at a locally owned retail place, mostly as cashier, but would do whatever kind of work needed to be done including stocking shelves and sweeping floors. Some college, then have worked full time for 36 years, except for 2 brief periods of unemployment.

Of course, I could not have done any of that without the government allowing those businesses to operate.

[wbill]

that unpaid internships are a scam

Agreed, however, with hindsight, I'd still have taken one. Got a degree in Electrical Engineering, looked for over a year for a EE job and no one would take me without any formal experience. Any kind of an internship would have made that transition easier.

So instead, I went into computers and that's paid my bills for the last 20-ish years. I guess I can't complain.

Instead of interning, I worked college summers as a Convention Coordinator. Ultimately, that was more valuable than an internship, I think, because it taught me how to deal with people.

But, at the time and after being told for four years... "Yeah, you'll graduate. No problems finding work. Engineers make a ton of money, too!" .... no work was a little hard to swallow.

[reed13k]

Spotting nails at 4 while my dad hung sheet rock/drywall - 50 cents/wall. Stocking and pricing groceries at 5 and 6....loved that paper price tag gun. paper route at 13, lifeguard at 15...

[Chickensoup]

Hostess at a lunch resturaunt in Downtown Boston, the Bulkie, remember it? Packed donuts and then worked as a CNA all through age 16. Worked in a factory for a little while, it was a PhD in Life.

[ZX12R]

My first job was at 10 years old, washing the udders of cows, ahead of the milking machines being applied.

[married21]

I was hired to play the organ at a little church out in the country at 13 (8th grade). The organ was so small that I had to push it out from the wall and plug it in when I arrived. I worked with a cantor (congregational song leader) and a tiny choir of her 3 friends. The monsignor promised that if this format worked out, he would buy a good quality organ at the end of the first year, which he did.

I was paid $40.00 a month, which equaled the cost of my music lessons. This worked out to about 4 hours of work at the church for rehearsal and mass, and a couple of hours at home practicing.

I was treated like a professional, and I did my absolute best to merit that respect. I felt the weight of adult responsibility to a large crowd of good people. Every mistake I made was out loud and in public, so I didn’t want that to happen too often. Holy Week was very stressful.

I kept that job through college, with increased pay and responsibilities (weddings) and my boss, the pastor, helped me get a scholarship that helped pay the expenses.

Monsignor Michael Flynn is one the first people I want to see when I get to heaven.