What summer jobs did you have as a teen?

[Natalka]

What types of jobs did you do in the summer months between school years
- both in high school, and post-secondary?

My work years started in the 1970s.
I started earlier than high school, I babysat summers when I was 11 and 12.

When I was in Grade Eight, I started working at the public library as a page. That was heaven; I spent most of my time there anyway! I was underage, but that somehow wasn't a big deal then.

Changed that when I started working part-time at a publishing company/newspaper through my Grade 10 year, and worked full-time there the summers after Grade 10 and Grade 11. I was a typesetter.
I felt very fortunate to work for this company, because they were very future-looking, and it was the mid-70s so I was able to work on computers earlier than my peers. I ended up working for this company years later at two different times as a reporter, photographer, and editor.

The summer fter Grade 12, I worked at The Met (department store) at the Mall. I was a cashier and in charge of smokes and jewellery.

Following my first and second years of university, I was SO lucky to get a summer job at the Saskatchewan Hospital, a mental hospital. I say lucky because it was a government job, and it meant that I could save a lot of money for uni in the four months each summer. Some of my friends were aides or worked in the laundry, but I was a float, so would change positions every two or three weeks when someone went on holiday (I did everything from accounting, tailoring, to canteen). Most fascinating place I have worked, but also the scariest.



A job I would have wanted, lol!

[walkonby]

very first job? Hmmm in grade 10, at a hospital in the kitchen assembling the patient meals along the conveyor belt. Loved getting the mashed potato spot...scoop, plop! repeat as the trays went by. To this day i think of Lucille Ball and the chocolates on the belt she stuffed in her mouth!

I cannot remember now but I also had a pathetic stint selling something??? Wasn't Girl Guide cookies, too old for that, oh the brain has shut out the product just now. I was NOT a good salesperson.

In grade 11 and 12 both summers worked the C.N.E. ( Ontario) midway food concession stands. Hot, greasy conditions, way overworked, way underpaid and appreciated...welcome to student employment! lol

[lecale]

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[hollyquaiscer]

OMG such a funny episode!!!

I worked for the Regal Stationary factory in Omemee, I ran the puzzle press. I was in grade 10. I loved it, in fact I did it for 3 summers in a row. It was so much fun (especially when the press would break....hehehe) I remember dreaming of little bo peep for months, lol

[tearlessnights]

I worked in a candy and ice cream store

[xox2010]

I was 16 when I got my first job - I was a cashier at Loblaws which closed and became a No Frills. I then got a job at a big box store and have been there ever since. (I'm still in college)

[Darth Penguin]

I was 16, too. I was about to start 6th form(grades11&12) when I got work as a cashier at a new supermarket. I worked 10 hrs/week, 2 nights 5-8 and 4 hours on a Saturday.

I also used to work overtime during vacations, sometimes in other departments which was fun too.

[avoncallingu]

I can't remember how old but - I sold Monarch Cards door to door to earn money to buy Christmas presents.

I worked in the fields - picking strawberries, de-tasselling corn, and picking tomatoes.

I worked as a Christmas Card Engraver - if the customer bought a certain level of cards, they got their name and a message engraved for free. - I loved that job and also, at the same book/stationary store, I worked wrapping presents and making bows. I really loved that and Still love wrapping gifts!

I worked for a very short time in grade 13 as a waitress at Kresge's - I HATED that one! and I was terrible! I would forget to give customers their cutlery. I was TERRIBLY shy and hated "chit, chatting" with the customers.

I worked in the housekeeping dept. of the hospital when I was in university.

I worked in a gas barbecue and lamp company in the office for 2 summers.

I worked as a sales person at Fabricland when it first opened while I was at university. I LOVED that job.

I ran the cafeteria (one person job) at a grain company for 2 summers.

I sold cards and worked as a sales person at Eaton's several times during Christmas while I was at university. I worked in another family dept. store in Kingston when I was at university - during the Christmas rush selling nylons which came in boxes in different shades and textures. (Mostly elderly ladies were the customers as panty hose had been invented then.)


I worked as a tutor/marker when I was at graduate school and marked assignments which came in from correspondence courses. Significantly from penitentiaries where the inmates were taking correspondence courses.


I worked once handing out flyers while I was dressed in Hot Pants at a local fair for the radio station. ( I didn't understand the significance then of why I was asked to dress as I did - this was before my education in feminism.)

I guess I was busy.

[laurabak3r]

I live in a small community, my first job (other than babysitting) was at the local fish plant as a fish packer! I was always the "class clown" at that job, had to have some kind of fun!

[lecale]

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[Pinkypie]

I got a job at the busiest burger king in north America when I was 15.... I stuck it out til I was 21!

[Lynn49]

In grade 11 my English teacher recommended me to the Sudbury Star. I worked in the "Morgue", which meant I read each day's papers, clipped important stories, usually local, and filed them in a huge room full of files.

Funny story: One day the "Social" reporter called me into her office. I thought I had done something wrong. She wanted me to write a couple of the "wedding" stories for her, as she was going out of town for a few days. In those days, we wrote long stories about each wedding...what the bride wore, who was there, when the Mom's wore, the whole shebang. And yes, I had that write-up, too... Anyway...I was quite flattered that this....well let's say she wasn't too far away from Merryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada! "BUT!!!", She says. "I don't EVER want to see that you've written "the dress fell to the floor" when describing a wedding gown!!!" LOL...for some reason that stuck with me. I thought it was hilarious and so true!! I must have done an okay job, since she had me write a few more after that. I also learned to work the 'switchboard"....anyone old enough here to know what that is? Hahaha....! Yep, pulling plugs out of a little wall, and putting them in somewhere else...I actually thought it was fun! I also liked hanging around with the more hard-core newsmen, esp near the teletype machine where the news came out....Wow. I'm dating myself!!
I'd better just keep quiet now....

[c_mcarthur]

my first job was when i was 11-12, i had a paper route and delivered the saturday and sunday Toronto Sun.
I dropped that job when I was 13.
I got my first REAL job at 15, working at mcdonalds.
I worked there for 1 and 1/2 years and I still say that it was my best learning experience.
Yes i got yelled at by grown men, screamed at by angry mothers. Had food thrown at me. Had to clean up nasty messes.
Perpetually smelling of french fries and having bad acne because of the greasy atmosphere.
But i definitely learned some great skills there. and still use the stupid motto i learned there whenever the cashiers at my job are slacking, '' If there's time to lean, there's time to clean!'' LOL

After mcds I worked at Dominion in the FRESH TO GO section making pizzas... YUm!
Got sick of working there and decided to try tim hortons.
Left after a month of being harassed by a snotty little witch LOL long story short I got her fired

Then I Worked at Edible Arrangements as a fruit designer for a few months.
Now im at my current employer, going on 6 years... ugh I so hope I can find a Good paying job

[ninna]

First job at age 14. Minimum wage was $2.15/hour for students. hahahaha. I worked in a restaurant--one of those service centres (rest stops) that dot the 401 highway every 80km or so here in Ontario. Back then they had actual "sit down" restaurants and not the fast food chains they have now. Originally I worked in the takeout food division where all the teenagers worked. It was like a quick serve cafeteria and we had ready made sandwiches and jellos and stuff that you grabbed from a cooler kinda like a cafeteria. They put the students there first so they could learn the ropes before you graduated either to the kitchen as a cook or to the dining room as a server. One day a waitress phoned in sick and they were short staffed so they handed my a tray, gave me a bunch of tables and said, "go to it!."

Not gonna lie. I was a crappy waitress. But they never sent me back to take out after that.

After a few years the fast food joints took over and the buildings were renovated. the sit down restaurant was removed and we became a Wendy's, a Tim Horton's and a Mr. Sub in the one building. As a former employee from the old company, I was guaranteed a job, so I moved on over into the Wendy's division where I spent the remaining highschool years and some university years there too.

I STILL have nightmares about the Wendy's. Kid you not. I have a recurring dream where it's summer time and we're working and its hot and its super busy because there's bus loads of tourists coming through and we can't keep up with the orders and I'm drowning in fries and I can't get the burgers made fast enough. It always the damned burgers that I can't make fast enough. LOL.

Oh...and I can still make a Wendy's single hamburger in my sleep. lol. With the perfect order of condiments-- mayo, ketchup, pickle, onion, tomato, lettuce, and a swipe of mustard on the hamburger patty.

[FallenPixels]

My parents owned bars so most of the work we did was for them, inventory, kitchen prep etc

I worked a summer washing hair, when I was 14 or so, worked in a high end purse & luggage store (amazing discount) but I was lucky enough to land a part time job for a politician after a school work experience placement there, started with filing and worked my way up to policy & speech writing by the time I was in university.

I also spent a summer working for someone who was writing a book, typing from her notes, proofreading and editing etc