Lived in a place just rural enough to not have any businesses other than a tiny supermarket, and just urban enough to not really have many orchards, much less farms. Typical shitty planning that required everyone to have a vehicle to get anywhere important. So before I got a car it was pretty much shovelling snow in the winter and mowing lawns in the summer.

I did back in the 70’s. I worked at Firestone tires after school and weekends for about 5 years. I changed tires (swapped old for new) and did on car wheel balancing. Towards the end I would fill in for peops who were sick etc at different locations. Had a blast.

I worked in a local butchers shop when I was 13, for an hour after school every day. I fucking hated it. I had to clean the knives and cutting boards, then sweep up. On Saturdays I had to do all that, plus disassemble and clean this big mincing machine. I got shit money. That was 35 years ago and I can still smell it.🤣

My “I was 18 and stupid” job was back of the house at a southern style fried chicken resturant in the heart of the american bible belt. While Hate Chicken will close on sundays and Colonel Fried does not give a shit, my franchise did the worst possible sale on sundays. If you came in with a local church bulletin postmarked for that day, we took 10% off your order. Now you would think this would be good for business and you are unfortunatly correct.

The problem was that everyone else that worked there was attending said services except for ~4 of us. I worked back of the house behind hot friers and ovens most, if not all, sunday mornings. The amount dead foul that has passed my hands, its an actual work of god that im not a vegitarian.

Mowed lawns a few times at 12 and then got a job at 14 to glue boxes together in a lottle factory. Both were paid under the table work. I boight a lot of video games.

No regrets.

I worked at an amusement park running a few different rides. Paid alright for the late 90s, but could work outrageous hours if you wanted. Physical and simple work in the hot midwestern humidity. Met a boy with the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen, and the rest is history.

I was a teenager back in the 80’s.

My very first job was a paper route and I absolutely hated it.

Second job was at a nursery/garden center, that also had a pool center. This job I didn’t mind so much. I learned a lot about landscaping and plants in general. I actually became knowledgeable enough that at the age of 17 I designed several landscapes, even one large job that was the HQ for a Japanese car company. Fast forward 20 years and my wife and I buy a house and my wife has always dreamed of having a yard with tons of landscaping. So I dusted off my skills and built multiple beds across our property. Today we have a yard that is mostly very mature beds which bloom continuously throughout the growing season.

Paper route at 10 years old until I was 14 or so. I bought a PS2 and my first computer with that money.

Then I worked part time at a pizza joint until I was 19, just as a cook. I sometimes did opening shifts on weekends but not often. By Grade 11 / 17 years old I only attended high school until lunch break for my last two years there (I exploited a few specific classes, had 52 out of 100 credits in my first year alone) and then started work by noon and working until 7pm. A lot of my friends worked there too so they’d do 4pm - 7pm after school, just the supper rush.

I had a paper route. I hated it. They kept assigning me random houses that were several miles outside my zone.

Besides the obvious (for girls) babysitting to start with, my first job was working as a carhop one summer but it didn’t last long because I was a year younger than legal, I think you had to be 14 and I was 13. Which they obviously must have known, so apparently they got called out on it and we had to quit. One summer I worked at an industrial-scale chicken/egg farm, which was horrible. Then I worked at a fast food fish place throughout high school, both cooking and serving, until 17 when I graduated. Then I moved away from home and worked in a laundry. Then at 19 I got an office job.

I counted stuff. Worked in a paper products warehouse doing daily inventory counts. It was kind of awesome since I got to walk around, BS with some friends that had other jobs in the warehouse, and developed boss-level skills with the number pad that I still apply today. After working the summer there, I was pretty glad my first couple applications in food service got rejected.

every teenager should work in the fields (agriculture) at least once. i did picking fruit. 10/10 would recommend. touch grass, vibe with plants

I started working as a cook at 14

I walked to the restaurant close to my house, told the first person I saw “I want a job, but I don’t want to work with people”. They stuck me in the kitchen and taught me everything. Did that for 14 years.

Lied about my age to work in a grocery store, which was funny as they gave me keys to an Audi stick-shift and told me to do donut runs every morning. I didn’t even have a license. I did learn fast and mastered a stick, as well as saw my manager fuck my classmates.

Babysitting, McDonalds, collectibile card store, florist, night club, painter.