What is the main thing you learned on your first job?

[Jamie (K)]

What are some of the lessons you learned on your first real job? I'm not talking about a job in your family's business, but about a real job out in the world.

My first real job was in a factory. One of the things I learned there was that even if someone is a very intelligent person, a stupid person can often outsmart him.

I asked a young cashier at a supermarket what she had learned, and she said, "Do your assignments the way the managers want you to, because if you don't, you'll only get the stupidest, least pleasant tasks."

What did you learn?

[SkiIucK]

Hi,

My first job was as a lifeguard at a water amusement park. I learned most people are stupid. :> What a great experience!

Regards

[Jamie (K)]

That must have been an interesting situation. In the Czech Republic, when I lived there, I learned that in the swimming pool ordinary Czechs are less disciplined and behave more dangerously than a German motorcycle gang.

It's really true. The German hoodlums were very aware of rules and safety, while the Czechs didn't seem to care if they landed right on someone's head.

[SkiIucK]

Exactly. Since most of the clients were slavic, one common trait protruded - their uncontrollable temper. They were very recalcitrant, whereas Germans and Britons were polite and disciplined.

[Jamie (K)]

The thing I never understood was that in the CzR a strong lifeguard in his 30s couldn't impose order and discipline on the people at the swimming pool, where as in my town in the US the lifeguards are all kids -- some are girls as young as 14 -- and people do what they say.

[Jan]

This has little to do with race or nationality but something of locations of the situation in swimming pools.People where water is treated as kind of fantasy world just act accordingly their imaginations, there where you have victims of sea and regular demonstration what water could do to you if you will forget yourself , people are more organized and reliable.
In Poland such situations were sometimes in my youth when huge public outdoors swimming pools where just open for summer season, otherwise I never spotted anything
unusual and shocking.
Jan

[Jamie (K)]

That's an interesting observation, Jan. There may be something to it. It could also have to do with the marine education that people receive in areas that have water. Where I live, people can accidentally drive into one of the Great Lakes, they can get capsized on small boats and be washed out to "sea" (which what the Great Lakes are), and all sorts of disasters can happen. As a result, swimming skills are considered a necessity, and kids who can't swim by the age of 12 are forced to stay after school and take lessons until they are deemed competent.

[Maybe]

The first thing I learnt in my first real job was to cooperate with your colleagues in most situations exept the ones which will be betraying the company. Sahid59

[Olga87]

Cooperation was the most helpful ability which I have learned during my first job ( in a broker company). At the beginning I made lots of mistakes that in such places are sharply criticized, but when I got familiar with my boss ( she was a woman so no sexual connotations:)) te atmosphere was much better. I could ask her whenever I had a doubt or problem and she was ok with it. I always try to be nice toward people- good deeds do come back to us:)

[NinaZara]

My first job was as an assistant to a teacher at a kindergarten. I learned that kids are funny, smart, honest and very mature from what we expect them to be, even though they have limited vocabulary.

Oh yes, I also learned that education line is not for me. No, nuh-uh.

[Happytofita]

My first job was a general director of a forum. I learnt that you must listen to your staff. I also learnt that you must give to receive. Unfortunately, the owner did not realise that. This was the main reason behind his total failure.

[Perken]

My first job "is" (cause I am still in it) an IT developper in a bank. The most important thing that I have learned is that the best jobs are those where one travels or interacts whith other people, or simply live and work at the same time, cause getting in front of a machine 9hours a day, and getting asleep after that is what we call a robot live: No time to read, no time to have fun, no time to just talk to people. I'm seriously thinking of changing my career orientation.

[Sarah113]

My first job was a teacher in a high school I was 21 when I started working, it was very hard for me to master a class of 30/40 pupils (adolescents) So I leyrned that I have to be patient , severe ,and funny in the same time so that my pupils wont hate me or the language that I am teaching them and they wont despise me (because I was not so hard enought as a teacher)
hard right ( belive me in the first days I cried at night but I hate giving up so I strugled and I luerned)

[Jamie (K)]

I notice that among the respondents outside the US, few or no people had jobs as teenagers, the way most Americans do, so they all started out in some kind of professional position. I think we Americans learn somewhat different lessons on our first jobs, because most American parents think that working is as important as studying, so we start with little jobs when we're as young as 12, and we have "real" jobs starting at about the age of 16, at least in the summer. Our first jobs are often low-skill manual labor, and these are some of the most important for developing work habits and basic empathy and respect for people. (The kids down the street from me started their own businesses when they were as young as 7, but this is a different situation, although still not unusual.)

If you look at the backgrounds of many American CEOs, you can see that their experience differs a lot from their counterparts in other countries. The chairman of Dell Computer started out washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant. The CEO of Seagate Technology worked in a mental hospital restraining unruly patients.

As for the jobs sitting long hours in front of a computer screen, I can tell you that a friend of mine who is a high-level software designer says that when he goes on a job interview, he looks around the office at the state of the people's health. He says that if they look like long hours and stress are taking a toll on them physically, he won't accept the job.

[Jan]

I had been working a lot on the family farm as young as 7 years old , mostly in time of harvest but I don't even remember it now any more, it was just part of your life .USA is not unusual with working teenagers if you would like to have money and can't get them from parents as you would wish , then it is only one honest way to earn something just by work.As I think about my jobs which I had to do as a kid or a teenager I never will wish such a thing for my kids, and after all, I guess, It will be more useful just carry on with my studying instead of picking up some emergency job which made me just tired.