What did you learn in your first job?

[Artemis Windsong]

This link is a click through on what people learned on their first jobs.

www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/career/we-asked-people-what-life-lesson-stuck-with-them-from-their-very-first-job/ss-BB18r4DX?li=BBnbcA0#image=8

What I learned.

The time I spent doing ranch work didn't count as a reference.

My first typing job at 17 y.o.  I go to fill out my application.  The door is unlocked and no one is in the office.  I went back to my car until someone showed up fearing I was being set up.  I was hired to type address labels.  Not the stick on kind but they were like a photo slide.

I was doing what I thought was a good job when the woman came in and fired me after a week.  She said I could finish the day.  THEN, she called my mother.  Mom was frantic when I didn't come home right away.  She had left work herself to meet me at home.

I had gotten the job from job service so I went back and told the counselor what had happened.  I then had to go get one of the slides that didn't work out.

I don't know what they did to that employer.

My DS had worked like a dog for a woman who did events at the event center.  Setting up and cleaning up.  When he applied for jobs, she didn't know him.  Hadn't kept records.  He was heart broken.

[buystoys]

I was fortunate to live in a small town when I got my first working outside the home job.  I worked as a nurse's aid at the nursing home.  What did I learn?  That some people never grow up, that certain people will always try to find someone to do their work, and that being a good employee doesn't necessarily get you a good raise.

I had the job for almost a year.  I studied and took a certification class and got certified.  I was then offered a job at the hospital.  I made more and the people were nicer.

[Empire the P.A.]

To be extra careful when scooping out the french fries from the fryer. Fingers and hot oil is a painful combo. 

[Tennesseer]

Always keep your eyes on the pool and scan the waters for people in distress.

[flan327]

Books go in Dewey Decimal order

And librarians are really funny

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Sept 25, 2020 19:51:58 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Always keep your eyes on the pool and scan the waters for people in distress.

Huh. That's what I learned too! And that it's still too soon for me to be around chlorine. 

[irishpad]

Grew up on a dairy/grain farm so worked without pay for a dozen years.   First job off the farm was a work/study job on campus at the computer center.   Actually learned a lot.  This was back in the day when the PC was just being introduced so on campus all the computer terminals were hardwired to the mainframe computer.   Our job was three fold: Setting up and maintaining all of those computer terminal connections (got to go in every tunnel, under buildings of all structures on campus as we wired, fixed connections), delivered printouts to various offices on campus (only printer was at the mainframe) and ran programs such as payroll for the campus using IMB punchcard programs.   It was a great 20 hour a week job.  

[ners]

How to put things in number order.

How to run a deleaving and bursting machine.  Figured out what the programmer did incorrectly when I could tell the monthly statements were incorrect.  Not sure that programmer ever forgave me, since she had to come in on Saturday to correct her error.  (She forgot to change the date so only statments that were over a month past due printed) 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

The customer is not always right but you're not allowed to say it to their face.

[kadee79]

Since I was a church secretary...senior yr. of high school...school half day, work half day.
Keep my eyes open & mouth shut & don't cuss when the mimeograph spews ink all over your hands...cause someone may be just outside the mimeograph room door.

[irishpad]

Sept 25, 2020 21:32:44 GMT -5 kadee79 said:

Since I was a church secretary...senior yr. of high school...school half day, work half day.
Keep my eyes open & mouth shut & don't cuss when the mimeograph spews ink all over your hands...cause someone may be just outside the mimeograph room door.

oh, but the upside was that the mineograph ink was like an instant HIGH.  lol    Just saw my 3rd grade teacher on Monday, she is 90 now and lives next to my mom.   Still can remember the times table worksheets she gave us and how it was great when they were freshly printed.   lol  

[Tennesseer]

Sept 25, 2020 21:55:00 GMT -5 irishpad said:

Sept 25, 2020 21:32:44 GMT -5 kadee79 said:

Since I was a church secretary...senior yr. of high school...school half day, work half day.
Keep my eyes open & mouth shut & don't cuss when the mimeograph spews ink all over your hands...cause someone may be just outside the mimeograph room door.

oh, but the upside was that the mineograph ink was like an instant HIGH.  lol    Just saw my 3rd grade teacher on Monday, she is 90 now and lives next to my mom.   Still can remember the times table worksheets she gave us and how it was great when they were freshly printed.   lol  

We used to sniff those papers like they were lines of cocaine as we passed the newly printed tests down to the students behind us in class. they smelled so good.

[sesfw]

Worked in a bank and was walking in the basement one day.  A door was open and I saw a guy counting piles of money.  Didn't give it another thought and went on to do what I was supposed to do.  I was fired a week later.  About 6 months later that guy and a VP of bank were arrested for running a gambling ring.  I learned to stay out of basements.  LOL

Next job was in a paper bag factory and discovered I liked the manufacturing end of things.  Didn't have to dress up, stayed busy and active, met great people, and had fun.  Also saw a lot of shenanigans going on and kept my mouth shut.

[Artemis Windsong]

Some of this group are mimeograph ink sniffers! Me included.

[TheOtherMe]

I loved the mimeograph paper!  

I took typing and shorthand in high school.  We learned how to run the mimeograph machine.  

One thing my teacher taught us was that the word "secretary" begins with "secret" and that is because you are to keep things that you see and hear confidential.

That always stayed with me, which was a good thing as I spent my working career at the Internal Revenue Service.

[justme]

So my first job was at a drug store so all the skills required were pretty common sense. All the lessons were more what I learned otherwise.

Managers can hate you just because they didn't hire you

They'll often do whatever makes it easier for them

Faking smoking gets you more breaks

Sometimes you have to go over their head when they fuck up, but you probably should be looking for a new job or transfer

It can be hard to tell whether it's sexism or something else causing you to be treated worse

Sometimes asshole managers realize they were assholes when the manager they aligned with against you turns against them (that was an interesting day)

And with shitty managers that have it out for you for no reason - malicious compliance can be a glorious thing

[dippyegg]

 I learned that Adulting is hard.

Working 40+ hrs a week was a lot less fun than being in college and taking classes.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

No matter how hard you work in your position and no matter how good your leadership skills are, someone who is good at kissing ass is going to get the promotion you worked hard for.

[toomuchreality]

That customers will lie (say you kept their change), not caring about you, or your job, to get money. But if you have a good boss, it won't work.
I had a great boss.

People can be real assholes.

[Tennesseer]

Sept 26, 2020 12:51:12 GMT -5 Artemis Windsong said:

Some of this group are mimeograph ink sniffers! Me included.

I was always jealous of the students who were asked by the n8ns/teachers to go to the copy room and make copies. They always returned glossy-eyed with a smile on their faces.

[Tennesseer]

what did I learn from my second job? It was smart of me to take typing I and II in high school. From my second job through all of my working life a keyboard was involved in part or all of my workday.

[kadee79]

We must have had different ink than what you guys are talking about.  It sure never made me high!  And I didn't think it smelled good either.

[saveinla]

I was a tutor to a couple of kids whose parents were rich and did not have time to help them with their homework.

I did not have to do anything, except take a book so I could read and sit with them while they did their work and praise them when they were done. That was the best job I had. I got fed every day, got paid by the week and just had minimal work when they needed help with math which was my favorite subject. I did this from 10th grade through end of college. 

I learned rich kids had different problems than us.

[teen persuasion]

I learned how to debug Martians in the computer. Control characters were overwriting the letter the secretary was typing in Word, making her scream "Martians". I figured out that it was the wonky clock chip in the PC; it had incremented itself several decades into the future, triggering a Y2K type error (before the term Y2K had even been coined). Reset the clock and Martians disappeared, temporarily. Time to replace the bad motherboard, too.
 Unfortunately, I couldn't find any way to contact MS to report my experience (way before Google).

Also learned just how to whack the ancient word-processing device the secretary normally used (instead of my PC) when the cathode ray gun got stuck so the display collapsed to a single bright line down the middle. (should be a dinosaur, for full effect)

[Tennesseer]

Sept 26, 2020 20:02:47 GMT -5 kadee79 said:

We must have had different ink than what you guys are talking about.  It sure never made me high!  And I didn't think it smelled good either.

Your loss. Good times. Good times.

[alabamagal]

Sept 26, 2020 20:02:44 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

what did I learn from my second job? It was smart of me to take typing I and II in high school. From my second job through all of my working life a keyboard was involved in part or all of my workday.

My DS is 26. He had a job in college doing transcription for a financial advisor. He got paid by the job, so quickly learned fast typing skills. He recently told me that the job really helped him in his current job. He is home appraiser now and gets paid by the job. A big part of his job is preparing appraisal reports and good typing skill help him do it quicker and make more money.

[mroped]

Discipline is necessary in workplaces. That living on a limited space with 20 or so other people makes you overlook the fact that some are utter arses but so could you in their eye. That life, your life is so frail and insignificant and you could be walking at 10 pm in the dark and not exist anymore in the next 5 seconds and nobody will even notice for another 12 hrs in the least.

[tractor]

Always be nice to the support staff, they can make your life fun/easy or difficult/miserable.

[flan327]

Sept 26, 2020 20:02:44 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

what did I learn from my second job? It was smart of me to take typing I and II in high school. From my second job through all of my working life a keyboard was involved in part or all of my workday.

I was a stubborn kid at times

Back in the day we were allowed TWO electives in our senior year

Take typing,
insisted my guidance counselor

BOOOOOORING

I took International Relations and Creative Writing

[TheOtherMe]

Sept 28, 2020 18:06:24 GMT -5 tractor said:

Always be nice to the support staff, they can make your life fun/easy or difficult/miserable.

Having been both a secretary and then an accountant, I knew to be nice to the administrative workers for this reason.

I know how I reacted to those that were PIA.

One of the secretaries I had liked that I knew shorthand.  She took all phone messages in shorthand and then transcribed them.  She didn't have to transcribe my messages.