If we count babysitting, I've been working since 12 or 13. Got my first "real" job once it was legal at 16. Then I worked 40 hours a week to put myself through college while double majoring. I'm 35 now and the one month I took off for my honeymoon is the most time I've had off from work since I was a teenager. I'm feeling rough.
One year I saved up all my time off. I worked a shift job where I got a week straight off a month and mostly week days off so I never had to take off for doctor appointments etc. I took a whole month off at the end of the work year and man it was glorious. My wife worked. I just did whatever I felt like doing that day. 10am I’d be like I’m gonna watch a horror movie and have a beer. Take a guitar playing session break. Have a day I feel motivated and fix up stuff around the house. I cannot wait for retirement.
That sounds so lovely. Good for you! Taking a month off for our honeymoon was amazing, but I'd also like to just have a month off at home to do everything you just described.
It really is glorious and it’s a shame we have to wait till 65 ans up just to enjoy our lives.
During the pandemic I worked as a travel RN. The pay was pretty great at the time so I would work 12-week contract and then take an entire month off. I’d sleep, go to yoga, sometimes travel, sometimes do nothing and just decompress. I had the best time of my life and I miss it every day.
Now I’m chronically ill and can’t tolerate bedside nursing anymore, but I would trade what I’m doing now in a heartbeat (if I was able) just go back to that schedule.
I was so close to quitting my job, then I was furloughed during the beginning of covid. I was scheduled a month ahead so my weekly check dropped in. I didn’t work for 3 months, stayed at my families farm (no animals or cops at the time) It was spring, I just walked around the property, deep cleaned the house, went on drives around the empty streets. It was glorious for me. I still think of those 3 months fondly. I bounced back, and unfortunately I am still at that job. Just with a better boss.
Maybe this is a vibe? Its almost like getting the ick with your employer and I just can't do such demanding work when I now give 0 fucks. Quit my job of 6 years at 37, been in this biotech career for 15 years and I'm just over it.
Man, I was making $21 an hour in 06 at a summer job. I paid cash for my college tuition I made so much that summer. 2 years later after I graduated, I was making $32. I felt like I was absolutely loaded.
I dropped out of the 6th grade to work in a warehouse but didn’t start again until 18, stopped from 20-23 to finish my engineering degree. Was homeless in the middle of that so definitely some confounding factors
I started working part time at my family's business when I was still in elementary school. I think my first time working full time was the summer of '09, between school years.
Edit, 14 as well, unless we count fundraisers (selling Christmas trees and popcorn for scouts or school stuff) then its way younger, but 14 was my first W2 job.
Same. Had an "internship" at a local theater as a stagehand at 14, then my first paying job at a grocery store at 15. Mix between full time and part time. The latter especially when in school
Ten years old here. My dad owned a buisness so naturally instead of paying for child care i just went to work. Which was a lot of fun actually, I learned a lot and I even got a real paycheck just like everyone else for fun. Obviously it was just cleaning and stocking things but eventually I learned a very valuable skill that comes in handy more often than not.
I can't think of a week that goes by where I dont use that skill. I do it as a hobby or a favor but it is not my career choice.
Same. 33 now. 19 years of working. Been working 40+ hours since I was 16 and 50+ since I was 18. Have 19 years of work experience, with 14 in my specialized field. Laid off last year after a merger and it took a full year to find a job because I had too much experience.
I don't count babysitting (earning cash at age 9 or 10, which seems crazy now that parents trusted a 9-year-old). My first official job was at 14. By 16, I had multiple jobs (thanks farm exemptions). At 17, I graduated early with a healthcare tech certificate and worked multiple jobs through college. Now I have 20 years in healthcare before 40.
Me! Started working at 13 one summer, turned 14 later that summer. I really wanted a car eventually and my parents would not have been able to buy me one and I was fully aware of that.
Besides babysitting, McDonald’s hired 14 year olds so yeah 20 years by 34, along with a college degree (working FT the whole time) and my oldest was 13 by then.
What most people would consider my first job was washing dishes at Pizza Hut when I was 14. Before that, I had a paper route when I was 10. I'm gunning for that 30 years of experience at 40.
Same here, and officially (meaning, work permit and all) since I was 15.
Honestly, 28 years later, I'm not tired like OP's dumb meme. It gave me a healthy work ethic and allowed me to always be able to provide for myself (and now for my family).
Much the same here. I was talking to another dude a couple weeks back and i mentioned I've been in the trade for over 30 years but I'm 45. Dude didn't believe that my first real job was framing when i was 13, and i did that every summer and winter break as well as some weekends until i graduated.
Same at least legally I started working at 14 before that I did summer work on a family farm but have worked full time hours from 14 I am now 34 just hit my 2nd job I have been at for a decade.
I got my working papers at 14 and started then. By 16, I was working full time. I worked at a local bakery for almost 10 years before I really started in my actual career field. Even though I went to a commuter campus for college, I was definitely in the minority of folks working full time.
Yep I remember working at McDonald’s and needing to coordinate rides from my parents to go to work at 14-15 lol. Worked all through college as well and I’m 36 now I’m tired boss
If you count mowing lawns, and shoveling snow around the neighborhood for cash, or running tractors and cleaning cabins, then I had 20 years of experience before 30.
Same here. 14 working on farm in the summer bailing hay then stacking the 75 pound bails 3 stories high in the barn .
You start exactly like cubert steps.
Then when that was done we would shovel out the animal stalls.
With like 8 - 13 layers if pure hell on a pitchfork..
You ever peel back a few layers & straight up white clouds of AMONIA punch you in the lungs???
I dont recommend it & the literal piles of maggots everywhere as they waterfall off the shovel etc.
Every job i had ever since then has been a cakewalk in comparison, no job has ever worked me as hard or rattled me since.
Just the sweating with hay & dust particles clogging every pore & getting into all the cracks and crevices alone was torture…
Technically, I’ve been working since I was 13 but dropped out of school and started working full time and playing child support.. passed level 1 sommelier test at 22 so by the time I was 40, I had almost been in the alcohol industry for a full 20 years
Family business retired from 25 years of cooking at 40. Honestly just saying I “retired” even though i just have a different career is mentally freeing.
Me! Started at 13 washing dishes at a restaurant, not even sure if it was legal but the owner was a neighbor. 41 now and really struggling that I’m only halfway in my career towards retirement. But hey! We can keep paying into social security for boomers while we won’t see a dime of it!
I got a paper route when I was like 12. Worked grounds crew under the table over summers between then and turning 15. I worked part time in food service until I turned 18, and then picked up more hours before graduating high school.
I haven’t been unemployed longer than a week since I was 15. I’ve worked full time since I was 18. I graduated college during that time. I just turned 40.
8 yo when I started over here. Classically trained, touring, recording and competing choral and solo kid vocalist.
I was paid well and I earned every penny. In that space, kids worked twice as hard bc no one gave a damn that we were little. It was high pressure and you were expected to act like an adult professional always.
You can't really stop being a singer, but I retired from doing it professionally at 30. It was a good run.
My first job was at 14 as the Chick-fil-A cow.
I worked it to pay for kung-fu lessons.
Worked food service till 18 then sales for 5 years and construction from 23-32. Currently trying to learn to be a gold smith so I can work with my hands and also have AC.
Part-time work during school doesn’t really count as “years of experience”. There’s a difference between working part-time jobs and starting your career.
You’d never put on your resume that you have 20 years of experience if 8 of those were part-time jobs at different retail stores.
But to your question, most people I know had jobs starting between the ages of 14-16.
I've been at the same place for nearly 26 years and i'm not quite 40 yet. I'm tired and over it. But here I am. I also had a second job on and off during that time along with schooling. Went to school for graphic design (only have used it for side work) and AI just yetted that off the board of jobs.
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u/MusicMeetsMadness 8h ago
I’ve been working since I was 14. Do you know anyone with 20 years experience before 40?