My first job after leaving school was as a Lab Technician in - at a school next door to the one I used to go to.
YTS scheme though, which was just the slavery of the day.
£25 per week, no hourly rate at all. Dole for under-18’s at the time was around £15 per week “Supplementary Benefit” so it was better than no job at all.
First job I had where I got paid the same as everyone else there - RM six years later.
Spent the six years in between (no agencies other than Parkinson’s Staff Bureau, and Alfred Marks back then) - doing bitty work like working on farms, holiday camps, pulling pints, etc. I never worked at any fast food outlet, but DID do a bit of waiting on tables at the Regency Ballroom at Camber Sands Pontins camp…
I was also self-employed as a computer stationary courier at one point, delivering things like 5.75" floppies to Mayfair Mews, a kind of Office Stationary version of “Deliveroo”…
Don’t know about the FIRST job I ever had, but the WORST job I ever had was with Jayne Mansfield involving lobsters.
If you know what I’m on about, you’re as old as me (and share the same sense of humour )
If you don’t, just ignore me I’m rambling.
I had a couple of paper rounds, followed by a Saturday job at a pork butchers in Bradford centre.
Left school at 16 and started full time at the pork shop. £5 a week for 5 1/2 days, slave labour.
Moved from there to another pork shop at the top of town, more slave labour…
Got myself a class one licence at 21 in 1976 and started at National Carriers.
Various other driving jobs including a spell on the buses.
Retired early at 62 1/2 - I’d had enough of working!
I’ve been finished five years this easter - how time flies…
These of you who were electricians, accountants, engeneers and have become truck drivers, are you masochists ?
Seriously, why would an accountant for example choose to be a truck driver, I half understand the attraction but with crapy wages and conditions of the truck industry v a well paid respectable jobs with company car, why■■?
Macski:
These of you who were electricians, accountants, engeneers and have become truck drivers, are you masochists ?
Seriously, why would an accountant for example choose to be a truck driver, I half understand the attraction but with crapy wages and conditions of the truck industry v a well paid respectable jobs with company car, why■■?
I thought every truck driver earnt 56k?
Of course not. But the same is true of every industry, it’s not always as good as it’s made out.
Early days for me, but trucking doesn’t have to be hard work and can pay well.
trucken:
Various holiday and weekend jobs while at school, then at 16,Trainee underwriter for a major life insurance company, but it wasn’t for me. Left at 19, got job on local council driving under 3 ton unladen box van (todays 7.5t) delivering to schools. Passed class 1 at 21, and that was it until I retired. At the last job 40 yrs!
Macski:
These of you who were electricians, accountants, engeneers and have become truck drivers, are you masochists ?
Seriously, why would an accountant for example choose to be a truck driver, I half understand the attraction but with crapy wages and conditions of the truck industry v a well paid respectable jobs with company car, why■■?
I thought every truck driver earnt 56k?
Of course not. But the same is true of every industry, it’s not always as good as it’s made out.
Early days for me, but trucking doesn’t have to be hard work and can pay well.
It must be very unusual to meet an accountant or engineer and so on who gets paid less than a truck driver.
Macski:
It must be very unusual to meet an accountant or engineer and so on who gets paid less than a truck driver.
Not in East Yorkshire, I took a serious pay cut in 2017 when I decided to leave lorry driving and go work at a company as a systems tech doing a job which included IT, electronics and mechanical engineering and not just because of the lower hours. There’s plenty of solicitors too getting paid less.
Farm worker before and after I left school, then dry stone Waller and a bit of fencing (not the prancing about with a sword type lol), ironically enough I’m back at that now thanks to a slight medical issue and the total disinterest of the DVLA in dealing with it (or even acknowledging any correspondence)
windrush:
Paper round aged 14 for 10 shillings a week, left school in 1966 at 15 to be an apprentice lorry mechanic at a BMC dealership on £4.10 s and 6d a week which went up by £1 each year until I was 21.
Pete.
Blimey 10 quid a week was shocking money for 1970 time served skilled trade.
My Dad earn’t around £20 pw in the 60s as an engineer and more than that in the car trade as a self employed mechanic.
While my money as a driver was as good or better than serving my time in engineering in the factory.Also the days out on the road went so quick that two hours overtime was a pleasure compared to 8 hours working inside.
Realistically for anyone that can’t hack an inside job there is no alternative to being out on the road driving at any wage.
Macski:
These of you who were electricians, accountants, engeneers and have become truck drivers, are you masochists ?
Seriously, why would an accountant for example choose to be a truck driver, I half understand the attraction but with crapy wages and conditions of the truck industry v a well paid respectable jobs with company car, why■■?
In my case it was because I never wanted to be a engineer ( universal grinder ) , it was at a time where your dad got you a job , my dad was a manager at rolls Royce so he got me a apprenticeship, most of my years apprentices had dads there , I just wanted to drive a lorry but he wasn’t having his son doing in his words a dead end job
Looking back now it was the biggest mistake I could make, leaving rolls Royce , I’d probably be retired now with a good pension , my health , but you can’t turn the clock back .
I look in the drawer at my certificates , 5 yr apprentiship & think what a waste , waste of there time training me
But if I hadn’t left rolls Royce / Bristol , I’d not be with the mrs now , not have my girl , the memories ( though with some of my behaviour I’d probably like to forget a fair few )
I really can’t complain I’ve had a good life & made so great mates when engineering , barfords , kontack , south east lincs engineering etc , same as lorries
Most of my life iv drifted along if im honest.Failed army basic training at 20 ,hit me very hard and altho busy from then on nothing very fancy job wise since! But about 2 yrs ago decided to take up artwork no particular reason and never did before being colour blind was laffed at in art told use pen and ink only.Anyhoo now iv a shop on etsy and doing allrite at it will see me ok in retirement
Macski:
These of you who were electricians, accountants, engeneers and have become truck drivers, are you masochists ?
Seriously, why would an accountant for example choose to be a truck driver, I half understand the attraction but with crapy wages and conditions of the truck industry v a well paid respectable jobs with company car, why■■?
In my case it was because I never wanted to be a engineer ( universal grinder ) , it was at a time where your dad got you a job , my dad was a manager at rolls Royce so he got me a apprenticeship, most of my years apprentices had dads there , I just wanted to drive a lorry but he wasn’t having his son doing in his words a dead end job
Looking back now it was the biggest mistake I could make, leaving rolls Royce , I’d probably be retired now with a good pension , my health , but you can’t turn the clock back .
I look in the drawer at my certificates , 5 yr apprentiship & think what a waste , waste of there time training me
But if I hadn’t left rolls Royce / Bristol , I’d not be with the mrs now , not have my girl , the memories ( though with some of my behaviour I’d probably like to forget a fair few )
I really can’t complain I’ve had a good life & made so great mates when engineering , barfords , kontack , south east lincs engineering etc , same as lorries
Same here doze.
My Dad was in the Engineering branch in the Royal Navy,.he came out and went driving, and I used to go off with him as a kid,.that was the start of my down fall.
He went back to engineering,.ended up a foreman at GEC,.and got me in as an apprentice at 16.
I did 4 years,.and although my heart wasn’t in it,.I got an engineering certificate at college, and went and done a couple of A level courses in my spare time, the world could have been my lobster, but I went trucking 6 months after I qualified,.after going away with mates in trucks in holidays…
What a #### eh?
While in my last years at school I had a paper round and then worked in a furniture factory on Saturdays doing the sweeping up, fetching and carrying etc.
I then did a YTS stint for Henry Boot Construction but binned that as it was just a slave labour opportunity for rhe local builders. Moved to another YTS and worked in a kitchen and ended up getting a catering qualification which I never used as the YTS company sent me on a placement to a steel profiling company■■? I worked there as a trainee draughtsman and CAD programmer before moving out onto the shopfloor to run a steel cutting machine as the money was better and it was a full time job. Did that until I was 20 then joined the RAF as a weapons mechanic. Left the RAF and moved into sales and had several jobs as a rep selling everything from fire alarms emergency lighting, websites/marketing and concrete formwork. Sales really ground me down, the highs were great but the lows when you didn’t hit target and the pressure that was applied to you weren’t worth the hassle. Did a bit of courier driving for Interlink for a year then moved to UPS in one of their warehouses as a team leader. Now been with them 14 years and the rest they say is history.
Age 14 like most had a paper round 10 bob week plus tips.
At 15 i was an apprentice Orthopedic Technician making artificial limbs, Although each job was different it was repetitive.
Joined the Army at 17 (68) travelled the world free, got fed and clothed and a bed all with pay and full medical. Got all my Licenses and served 12 1/2 years. Couldn’t get a job so I fell back on my Licenses and went from various companies to Owner Operator doing mainly International work.
Now retired and living in Arizona USA.
Looking back the best job was HM Forces who pay me a pension every month as do the Old Age People plus my US Social Security and Private Pensions. Its been a hard life but I wouldn’t change a thing. I would advise anyone to enlist if they can its a great life, perhaps thats why I enjoyed Trucking so much.
Advise : - Save what you can you’ll need it when you retire !!
robroy:
Don’t know about the FIRST job I ever had, but the WORST job I ever had was with Jayne Mansfield involving lobsters.
If you know what I’m on about, you’re as old as me (and share the same sense of humour )
If you don’t, just ignore me I’m rambling.
Notice that nobody picked up on this, you obviously don’t know (Nor care ) wtf I was on about,.so I’ll indulge you.
‘‘I remember,.she had a HUGE bum’’…still cracks me up after all these years. youtu.be/_a_UKKvUcoE
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