First jobs -- Take one
I wrote a story for today's paper to help teens find a summer job. Just for fun, I asked the my colleagues in the newsroom to describe their first jobs to me.
I was falling out of my chair laughing as the e-mails came in.
The point of the story is that it's possible for a young person to find a summer job that's fun, interesting and can jump-start a career.
This blog demonstrates that it doesn't always happen.
I will run responses for a couple of days.
Have a good weekend.
“If you’re not counting unloading hay or shoveling chicken pens, my first job was busing tables at the Countryside Restaurant on Highway 14 in Darien Township. I thought it was cool because I got free pop when I worked.”
--Beth Wheelock, reporter, WCLO
“My first job was as a ‘hose puller’ for a carpet cleaning company.”
--Anne Fiore, page designer
“I worked at Sandy’s Restaurant, Green Bay, for $1.10 an hour in the mid 1970s. They taught me how to make french fries on the first night but neglected to tell me when to stop. I made so many they had to throw them out.”
--Frank Schultz, education reporter
“My first job was as a bagboy at the Minot Air Force Base Commissary in the early 1980s. We didn’t get a wage because it would’ve been a federal job. So we got tips only from the customers. Usually you got about a dollar. Sometimes you got much more, and sometimes you got less.”
--Andrew Beaumont, design editor
“My first job was washing dishes and cleaning up in a family-owned bakery in Iowa. On a few occasions, my co-worker and I would chase each other through the bakery having doughnut wars with discarded product."
--Bill Olmsted, photo editor
“I worked in ladies wear at the Janesville ShopKo when I was a junior and senior in high school. My friends and I used to page each other on the all-store intercom in voices from the old Saturday Night Live “Coffee Talk” skit.
--Ann Marie Ames, reporter
May 5, 2008 at 12:49 a.m.
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Funny, but my 1st job was with the Gazette as a carrier when I was in 7th or 8th grade. I also had a Milwaukee Journal route on Sundays that encompassed about half the dang city!
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I became interested in selling subscriptions to the paper as a way to earn even more money (hard to make money when your 13-14 years old), and learned the art of "canvassing" from a guy the Milwaukee Journal sent to Janesville to teach the kids who were interested. This guy was a freaking Napoleon/Genghis Khan/Iatola Comani all rolled into one! I prob would have quit (as all but 3 of us did) if I was not one who liked a challenge. So I spent much time learning the art of selling, and trying not to kill this guy in the process!haha
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I went on to literally canvass sales for the Journal all over the state, and ended up being something like he #3 sales person in the entire state, which was pretty impressive being outside of Milwaukee.
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After the Journal went defunct in Janesville, I took my canvassing skills to the Gazette. I kind of laughed at the manager who wanted to teach me how to sell subscriptions..I just said; something to the effect of don't even bother, just let me go out there, and I'll blow away everyone you have doing it (being the arrogant little bastard I was at that time)... I think the 1st night I went out, I sold like 12 subscriptions, which was more then anyone else did in weeks. The managers down their in circulation were baffled (I doubt any even work there today) and I had an almost celebrity like status after I kept making more and more sales every time they sent me out. I ended up being the top selling carrier by a huge margin, and ended up winning carrier of the year..I think my parents still have the plaques and accolades hanging up in their house, haha. My Mom was so proud of me.
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Odd, but I don't even know who the guy at the Journal who taught me everything was. Sometimes people can touch your lives, and they don't even know it. I only wish I could have thanked him for all he did for me. By the time I was 16 years old, I probably knew more about business and sales then many who went to college 4 years for it!
May 4, 2008 at 6:41 p.m.
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My first job was harvesting tobacco family farms NO PAY But great work ethics were learned from the hard work and family bond
May 4, 2008 at 12:48 a.m.
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Tony Ferrera felt sorry for me after my father died when I was ten and gave me a job at the Roosevelt Avenue Grocery in Beloit. You don't find kind folks like Tony running mom and pop neighborhood grocery stores much any longer. A great piece of America replaced by Wal Marts and Woodmans. Slip slidin away.
May 3, 2008 at 7:32 a.m.
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I pulled weeds for 10 cents per hour in the 1930s. Ten hour day netted one big buck.
May 3, 2008 at 6:40 a.m.
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Other than babysitting - I was a bus girl at the Kings Pub... man did my feet hurt!!
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