Today, I had a few nostalgic memories about my first job.
Today my wife applied at the place where I first set my employment footprints and it looks like she may get a job there. So talking with a manager that works there and worked there when I did got me in to a few nostalgic memories about working.
A lot of times your first jobs are not the most glamorous job. They are usually know as McJobs.
McJob is slang for a low-paying, low-prestige job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intracompany advancement. Such jobs are also known as contingent work. Most perceived McJobs are in the service industry, particularly fast food, coffee shops, telemarketing, retail and business-to-business copywriting. Working at a low paying job, especially one at a fast food restaurant, is also referred to as flipping burgers.
My First Job was at
McDonald's
Yes, I one time wore the uniform and work with some great characters
(
this is a photo of the gang oddly I was sick the day of the photo :) )
I am actually proud that the Golden Arches was home to my first Job. I worked at McDonald's for a year and a half it was one of the best experiences I had ever had. I know that every McDonald's is slightly different and Today McDonald's is different from when i called it home. Here are a few reasons why I am proud of the Golden Arches as my first job......
1. Hard work was appreciated
I started out ....well flipping burgers and them moved on to all of the duties in the grill area. I worked hard and the Managment had appreaciated it. There were lots of incentives to work hard.
Here are two of the incentives:
-Employee of the Month
The Rewards a for Employee of the month was this:
A free value meal item for each of every member of your family (up to 4 people)
2 free video rentals
Photo on the wall
-There was advancement
Hard workers rarely ever stayed in the kitchen. They were trained with more responsibility until they became management or fill-in management.
2. You've got friends.
When I worked at McDonald's there were lots of great people. some of them stayed a few months others stayed long after I left. Working with them I learned to learned to depend on them as a team. we all worked together. If we failed to do things properly we failed as a team
Working with those people build memories and friendships...some of them lasted to this day
3. A lesson in Responsibly
McDonald's became my first lesson in the working world about responsibilty. There is nothing like a special order to make you realized that what you make is your responsibility.
When someone orders a
- Big Mac
- Extra Pickles
- Extra Cheese
- Extra Onion
- Extra Lettuce
- NO MEAT
That's what they want the don't want to see...
no matter how great you make that meat looks.
one of my favorite orders was:
Cheeseburger
NO BUN
basically it became a box of meat, pickles, ketchup, and mustard
but that's a bunny trail....the point is you had to be responsible for the things you did.
4. A lesson in Personal Interaction.
Every fast food service person has run into a customer that well ...you totally despise...you know one of those the other customers are embarrassed for them. You learn to take it in most cases with a smile and "we will take care of that right way...sorry for the inconvenience."
But you learn there is a time and a place and work is not the time or the place to make a stand ...(unless the manager does it for you :) )
5. A study in people
This last reason is more for my entertainment. I used to work the grill area....I got to see and hear everything that happened up front ...it was fun to watch people. Kind of the same way a nature documentary film maker watches an animal. You get to see how people decided what they order....how they get mad at the person beside them because they don't know what they want....how other customers feel when someone complains... You even get to see how much a person will order for themselves and how much is for a family....but most of all you get to see....
The Regulars.
These are the people who spend a certain number of hours of any given day in side of the restaurant...they actually become a fixture of the restaurant and when they are not there you actually miss them.
They are usually retirees who just come in, in the morning, to have a cup of coffee and talk with other retirees and the McDonald's crew. Sometimes you would get a great story about the war and other times you would get a smile and a nod that told you that they appreciate what you do.
The funny thing is I loved my job at McDonald's .....I mean it was great. Yeah I hated the grease, I hated the smell and I no longer eat there unless someone else "forces" me to. but it was great!
What was your first job? What did you like about it?
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Comments (22)
I hate McDonalds and how packed it is in there. And hot. :| No bun ? No meat ? Might as well make a fucking salad. wtf.
first job: babysitting
first official job: doctor's office.
My first job was working at a Chuck E Cheese. I worked the floor delivering pizzas, hosting birthdays, fixing games, and yes... being the big mouse. It really helped me to be able to let go and just be myself, have fun and work hard. I loved it and was there for almost 3 years. I met one of my best friends working there, and I wouldnt trade it for anything!
my first job was working as a pharmacy technician at walgreens pharmacy. i had a love/hate relationship with it but all in all, the part i love most about the job was helping out people during a time when they were sick. i enjoyed that a lot.
I loved working at McDonald's! I met some of my best friends there.
I ain't had my first job yet.
my boyfriend works there, and he likes it
he's been there a little over two years
same thing, mcdonalds ! :)
My first job was at a daycare center but it was throught a job findy program for teenagers so....I always kinda considered Mcdonalds my first job sense I really really got it in my own even thought it was really my third job haha? Complicated right? I'm on my 8th job now...and it makes me feel so old...but it never hurts to go down memory lane..never...makes you value what you do.
my first job was working for a now dead company called "The People's Gardener," so I took care of upper middle class and rich people's yards... the pay was shitty, my boss was a not-so-high-functioning-alcoholic, and all of my other coworkers were either statutory rapists or went to prison after the company died. but i was 15, it was a fun job with interesting people and i genuinely liked some of my clients. and it gave me the experience i needed to eventually move to a higher paying job... i sometimes kinda miss it.
I'm at a coffee chain in Canada, Tim Horton's. It's a lot harder to advance in status there, but pay and appreciation are in its place. I can really attest to the sentiments of understanding hard work and people - despite how much I hate some of the people I serve and/or work with, I love my regulars. I love seeing them and I love knowing their orders and serving them.
Apparently working "McJobs" really gets your foot in the door, I'm told, at bigger and better jobs. Someone told me Tim Horton's is a horribly difficult job to work at, worse than McDonald's, and having a good reference at a Tim Horton's especially at a young age can really say "I survived". Speed, efficiency, endurance, and a strong emotional stance could never have come to me so forcefully and quickly elsewhere. Some people treat you like total shit, but you smile, serve them, and get them out of your face all while being polite and doing your job, and you'd better believe we're doing it damn well.
All that said, I will miss it when I leave to pursue more career-oriented jobs.
Burger King. I worked the cashier/drive thru. Got plenty of wacky orders like A whopper with Cheese (but hold the cheese) and an order of cheeseburger but the person wanted everything off of it (they demanded the bread only) -_-
Retail. I hated the hours- since they mostly consisted of closing shifts. But I loved the girls there, we all became really close. As much as I despised being exhausted after each day, it brought me joy to have something I was good at and know that each paycheck was money I earned. Definitely an experience I had to go through and I think everyone should have to take on a minimum wage job at some point to be able to respect people who are working them now.
I don't know about anyone else, but I loved my first "real" job. I say "real" job because I worked in my church's nursery from the time I was 14, and continued to work there until after I got a real job outside of the church. My first real job was at Michael's Arts and Crafts. And I agree with everything posted in this article above. It was the first time I had to be responsible (and on time!) beyond just school. I learned a lot, and I did grow to appreciate it, for the friendships I formed (I talk to at least one of those people still to this day) and the hard work I did. And the 25% discount didn't hurt, either. :)
My first real job was working as a data transcriber for the IRS. I was 16. I started out at $7.25 an hour. At that time making that much money was great. I was a junior in high school, I didn't drive so I had no car payments, I didn't have a cell phone yet, but I had a pager. I eventually got furloughed but I went back a year later for a few months.
I liked it b/c the work was easy, it was right around the corner from my house so I could walk, and I was put in a room with others my age so I got to make friends.
Giant Eagle (grocery store). Fucking worst years of my life.
My first job was at a Super K-Mart, and it was the worst six months of my life. They hired me as a cashier, but ended up moving me to the back of the store to unwrap the plastic from the boxes unloaded from delivery trucks, as not only the youngest person there, but the only female. But then I found my current waitressing job, so I like to pretend that the Big K never happened...
My first real job was wrkng wth a mechanical firm though the work was pretty interesting my seniors made ma life a hell..Politics!!..I say is a very bad thing...
My first job was also at McDonald's. Honestly, I pretty much liked my job and loved the people I worked with. I had to leave when I started college about a month and a half ago and I really do miss it.
My first job was a summer job at an office. I worked 40 hours a week and made an impressive sum for somebody who was only just 16. It was only about 2 and a half months of work altogether. I'm glad that I went there before ever going to where I am now.
Mcdonald's. I understand a lot of the points made, but when I'm made to think about it, I feel a lot of negativity towards it. It's not the most professional job out there. The majority of co-workers are in high school.
Because the majority of the workers are still young, the managers who are in their thirties find a way to manage with them and begin to act just like them. The managers become spiteful and childish. BUT, because you are a crew member, you would have to do something so incredibly terrible, that there is no way they would ever let you work there, like steal over $10. So, rather than firing you, they learn what positions you hate the most and continually put you on them. Systematically, they break you down and strip you of your soul. Out of spite, they aim to make you hate your own life.
It's a job that doesn't really require a lot of technical know-how, but it is incredibly stressful none the less. I look at the managers, well into adulthood, and fear that I too will never escape McDonald's.
Dairy Queen. I was seventeen, and I learned how to make four banana splits in under a minute and a half. I think every teenager needs to work a McJob at least once, just to understand what it means to serve someone.
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