Your First Job

[Xanatos]

I'm moving to Dubrovnik (Croatia) tomorrow where I'll be working with tourists for Adria Travel. The arrangements and the job itself are pretty good, I have a paid accommodation, and the hours are superb to say the least. The thing is, I'm beyond nervous and slightly even terrified seeing as this is my first genuine job. I've done countless stuff so far, seasonal work, fixed PC's, done school projects and actual civil engineering projects, but that has always been a side work, straight cash, during my studies. Now, I'll have a boss looking over me, not to mention while not far I'm moving to a city I'm not overly familiar with, it's all new to me.

What was your first genuine job? Any tips?

[Lily]

Crappy agency work aside, and the one factory job I held for a couple of months part time, I worked in retail for a year and a half and it was awful. That job made me realise how much I hate people. I will never ever work in any kind of customer service job ever again, I would end up telling someone to **** off.

[Alpha]

I'm in my first "real" job now, have been for 14 months. My advice is: you're going to feel totally and utterly overwhelmed for quite some time. That is totally normal. It will get easier, and the only shortcut is to remember that "there are no dumb questions".

[Pete]

My first job was technically mowing my grandfather's lawn and doing the gardening. It was tough because my grandfather was very particular and wanted it done his way.

That being said, my first job that involved getting a pay stub was in college. I worked in the intramurals department, doing odds and ends like keeping score, getting the fields set up and whatnot. It sucked. I was sunburnt a nice purple shade.

I've had all sorts of jobs that have let me see a bunch of things that nobody really sees, which is kind of cool.

My advice, keep your mouth shut and eyes and ears open. Don't have too many opinions, and don't assume that you owe your company anything other than the work you do for them. Sometimes, when you have better opportunities, you'll feel a weird sense of guilt for trying to better yourself. Don't feel bad about leaving, and looking for other opportunities.

[loaf]

Live Jasmine

[che]

My first job was when I was in highschool. I was a chinese delivery driver. Block (if you guys still remember such an ancient legend) actually pretty much got me the job. We would make like $200 cash per night in tips. So I worked like weekends only, and I think might highest for the night was $375 or something ridiculous. It was the only good chinese food place in town, and everyone knew it. I was lucky as shit to have that job. I consider that my first genuine job, because it paid enough. My second (or maybe I did this first, can't remember?) was mowing grass for schools on a military base. There were four schools and had such a huge amount of grass to cover. I consider that my other first genuine job because I learned how shitty it was to be at work on time everyday for 5 days a week.

Afterwards, I'd go down to the local LAN center (for you youngins that's a place with a bunch of computers where you pay to play games online with the people there) and try to dominate fools. The good ol' days with no worries!