This is something we were talking about at work today - our under age 21 jobs.
What jobs put some cash in your pocket?
For me:
Babysitting
Ice cream shop
Waitress at Pizza Hut
Temporary receptionist
Cafeteria worker (campus)
Telemarketer (VERY brief, I hated it and was awful at it!)
Grocery store cashier
Most loved: grocery store cashier (pushed cash register buttons back then!)
Most lucrative: Waitress - the tips were pretty good!
Most boring: temporary receptionist.
House cleaner: hated it; quit after one day
Paper girl
Food service worker at CCRC
Food service worker at college union
Secretary at college union
Typist (yep, I actually used a typewriter) of term papers and dissertations
I liked the college union jobs. I have great and eternal respect for very hard and very soft ice cream.
I loved being a bar tender. The drinking age was 18 when I started college. I did this job for two years as a junior and senior in college…and made about twice as much working part time as I did my first year as a teacher.
Waited tables. Liked that too.
Camp counselor. Really didn’t love it mostly because the pay was horrible.
I loved being an RA. I hated working in the dining hall. But the pay was good.
I was an undergrad assistant to a professor, and it was really a fabulous job. In addition to loving the work, I also got a first class letter of reference from someone well known in my field.
My kids…
One was a lifeguard from age 16 on. Great pay and great job availability in this area. Great working conditions as well around here.
Other kid waited tables…and really is good at it.
College…one worked in undergrad admissions. Best payin job on campus.
Second kid ushered for a major symphony orchestra…excellent pay plus free concerts. And hours were flexible.
Shoe store sales clerk
Rotary club server in college
The gal who hands you a number when you enter the dressing room at large department store…so boring!
Clothing sales clerk at Ups and Downs at the mall. (Does anyone remember those)
Me
Fast food - hated it but did love the ready cash! Pushed buttons on that cash register for sure.
Lifeguard - loved it. Easy work at an apartment complex mostly occupied by busy working adults (not much in the way of small kids or party people)
Receptionist at visitor desk of hospital - loved it. Very, very rewarding.
RA - loved it.
Cocktail waitress! - allowed to serve in DC despite being underage. That one definitely had its ups and downs but the tips were outstanding.
Kids
All three were (are) some version of camp counselor (S2 is still doing that.)
D also worked in fast food and was an RA.
D and S1 were both homework graders in college.
@conmama I always thought being a shoe clerk would be AWFUL! I would never have the patience for all the shoe boxes back and forth and helping people try on shoes. That sounds like my nightmare!
Me (also from the stone ages):
Travel agency - filed brochures (boring)
Stationary story clerk (LOVED)
Babysitter - have many horrible stories to tell
Grocery store cashier - hated
Research assistant - best ever
Best college job I had… chemistry lab assistant. My basic duty was to wash dishes, but because there weren’t a whole lot of those, I got to do some research for the PI. Loved it. The summer after graduation from HS I worked as a laborer helping a small paint crew… did not like it. But I can paint my house!
Worst: working at the potato farm, picking rocks and sticks and stinky potatoes off the belt before they were stacked in bins. 12-13 hour shifts on Saturdays or 4-5 after school. Talk about child abuse.
Better: office work, babysitting, waitress, busgirl,
College: typing in the Interlibrary Loan office, working at IBM parts ordering filing room (paid well), typing papers for others
My nephews are 13. They started reffing baseball, soccer, and hockey last summer when they were 12. This past weekend one made $200 reffing mites hockey. Not bad for a 13 year old. I don’t think they will every have to cut the grass or scoop ice cream or change a diaper for extra money.
Me
Camp counselor for rich kids in the Catskills - hated it but the kids loved me. Their penchant for lies and manipulations were usually rebuffed and never mirrored back to them.
Waiter at a hotel, Poconos - loved this. It was hard work, 6 days/week, but about 60% were female college students there for the summer. Made $300-1000/week, clear in the bank, had our own staff bar and area at the lake.
OPC - handed out time-share pamphlets. Sorry, I needed the money.
Waiter, Italian restaurant Cape Cod - Good money again and it should have been the best summer, but invited my then girlfriend and it was a disaster from the start.
S1-
Grocery store clerk
Warehouse delivery driver for industrial supply
D-
Doggy day care place.
S2 -
Float tube rentals at the river - he loved when, say, a girls select soccer team came through, but the usual was a bunch of dirty, sloppy drunks
@abasket , it would be a nightmare now. In high school I loved it. Every single part of it. I liked the boxes, the orderliness of the stockroom. I enjoyed helping people with their shoes (I’m not sure that’s done anymore). I would hate it now. Shoes are so easy to sell, they really sell themselves. I liked how easy it was to ring up and just put in a bag. No folding, no putting on hangars, no gift wrapping. The store was privately owned and we were just like a family. I think of was the happiest job and time Spent at work I ever had.
Paper delivery girl while in junior high/9th grade, including collections. I did half of our small town and my younger sister did the other half. The town bar was on my sister’s half. My dad made her give me that delivery, as if it was better for a 12 year old to go into the bar instead of a 9 year old. It was 3 pm, no customers were there except occasionally someone getting a coke.
baby sitting
janitorial after transferring to my LAC. I liked this one, except I had to be at work at 5 am to wipe boards before the first class started. Notes were to be left on the boards overnight in case a student wanted to come into the classroom to look at them again or for the first time if they missed class.
I was the student manager of the food service while in my master’s program. I did the student payroll and student worker schedules. I also worked some meals. Because of this I could eat for free whenever the food service was open. I did not have keys so I could not go in when it was closed, and it was closed on weekends, so on campus students (and me) had to figure out something else for the weekends. This was where I met my H, he was one of the student workers. We started out just being aware of each other’s existence. After a 7 months or so he asked if I would work for him so he could study before a big test. Our boss made him take me to a dinner and movie as a thank you and here we are almost 30 years later. I started out just being happy for the extra hours and bigger paycheck.
High School:
Counter Help - Italian Restaurant (loved this job! Hired me back during all my college breaks also)
Hostess - Deli/Restaurant at the beach
Waitress - Local Restaurant (HATED being a waitress!!)
Babysitting
College:
Office Work for small architectural firm in Manhattan during school year
Summer Internship at Dept of Navy in Crystal City - BORING!
D17
Summer Nanny - best paid!
Ice Cream Shop - she hated this job!
Analyst for global risk management firm - originally a summer job after freshman year, she still works remotely for them at school
S19
Lacrosse Tournament Staff (LONG days but well paid)
Landscaping Crew - Private Golf Course (had to be there at 5am every day but he did it two summers!) Course is closed next summer for long term maintenance so he’ll be doing something else this summer
S21 definitely needs to find a job this summer as he was bored out of his mind last year. D23 is too young for a real job but makes decent money babysitting. She has been going to camp every summer and this year will be her last as a camper, next summer she will be a CIT and then wants to be a camp counselor as soon as she is eligible.
Me:
Babysitter
Summer work at my mom’s office (actually at UMCP where I eventually ended up attending)
Hallmark (LOVED this job! It was a small, quirky store. They gave me a key and management responsibilities as a teen).
Daycare-Infant/toddler room (OMG, LOVE) and the moved into Asst. Director (19-20 years old) and then Director-(21-23 my first salaried job)
Ice Skating coach at an outdoor rink during college (most lucrative by far…and I loved it. I wish I could teach skating again, I miss it, but the times conflict with my own kid’s sports).
RA-room and board paid for which helped my parents out, but I didn’t see any money from that.
My kids are younger but
DS20 has worked as a lifeguard since he turned 15, it’s not a bad gig. He’s working about 10 hours a week right now and works a lot more in the summer.
and D22 just applied to be an asst. coach for the swim team and is thinking of teaching swim lessons.
Back in that long-forgotten era where houses were small and yards were big, I worked summers at a store that sold swimming pools and pool supplies. People had room for pools in their yards in those days. And for some inexplicable reason, they wanted pools, even though we were in Connecticut, which is not exactly a tropical environment.
I met my husband there. He was a summer employee too.
.
Babysitting
Tutoring, tutoring and more tutoring
Grader for the Math Department
Afterschool High School Science program
Credit Department at Sears
Setting up Urology research library for med students (lots of copying)
Biomed intern at VA hospital
Liked tutoring best, lots of money for not too much time. Also liked setting up the Urology library.
Kids:
S17
Office Depot
Camp Counselor (2 months each summer)
LA for Physics Department
Veterinary Technicial for Sports Medicine Equine Vet (Liked this best - got to travel a lot)
Not sure yet for this summer
D15
Daycare worker
Retail sales (Garage, Hallmark)
Doggie Day Care worker
I forgot one. One of my kids taught private music lessons to elementary kids when he was in HS. He had a nice little studio, and the money was decent. I think he charged $25 a lesson. That was 2001-2003…and he didn’t have a college degree, but he had a nice studio of beginning students.
He is a professional musician and continues to have a private studio…but he now has a masters and a lot of years of professional experience…so he charges more!
