Baby-sitting, house-sitting, paper route, pet-sitting from 10 years old onward, then working at a pet store trading tank/cage cleaning for food/bedding supplies. Bred & sold guinea pigs/gerbils to pet stores. Saved money to buy a guitar and my first 10-speed bike, each for a couple hundred, specialty items. Saved enough for my first two years of college. First full-time was as a waitress once I left home.

Have not been able to pass on the desire to work to SGD-12 and BS-13.

i was babysitting at around 11 or 12.

first job that earned a paycheck w/ taxes taken and everything was at 17 waitressing, summer job between my junior and senior year. i had to ride my bike, it was about 2 miles w/ lots of hills on a busy main highway.

I was 11 or 12. First up was the old fashion paper route. Walking six days a week with this heavy filled over-the-head carrier which carried my approx. 200 daily local newspaper in. Beating on customers doors each Friday for their paper fees. The tips were much better than the paper publisher paid to deliver. By 15 I got my work permit and started at the pizzeria down the road I our neighborhood. Again, tips were better than actual pay.

Unofficially 11 or 12; for real 16, completely full time 17.5
38 years this November since being in the work force full time.

I was around 12 when I started babysitting in the neighborhood. At 14 (freshman in high school) I started working for a DJ/dance company as a dancer. Basically we would go to middle school dances with the DJ and dance at the front and get kids dancing....you know, hand out glow sticks, pull shy kids from the crowd, etc. That was fun AND I was paid $10/hour! The work was very sporadic though. However, they didn't pay us for training, practice, or this parade, so that pissed off my parents and they made me quit.

Then when I was 16 I got a job at a restaurant/ice cream parlor as a hostess. I don't remember what I was making, maybe $7/hour. Then when that restaurant closed I went to be a waitress at Red Robin for the rest of high school and on breaks from college.

The summer Sophomore year of college, I got my first internship (paid, of course, I would never work for free) making $17/hour. The next two summers I also had paid internships....one for $20/hour and one for $500/week in another part of the country, plus free housing, free dinners, and a free car for the summer. Not bad!

I started out of college at my first job making $45k (at 21) and at 28 have no worked my way much higher. Hard work pays off! Trying to teach the skids that. SD15 babysits a TON (although I think her rates are too low) and SD12 will probably start babysitting soon as well.

I grew up on a farm so I *always* had a job.
I also had my own pony, then horse, and care of that animal was all on me.
Physical labor, cooking, repairing fences, helping my dad cut/stack wood for the winter...etc. I hated it sometimes but I couldn't ever get out of it (well, except for monthly cramps sometimes my mom let me go rest but that was it).
I did some baby-sitting starting at around age 12 but didn't like doing it.
As a teen I did animal/house sitting which was much better! NO kids!

As soon as I could legally work at age 16 my dad helped me find a job in a mail room assisting with a special short-term mailing job. I ended up taking over the organization of it.

So when DP complains that his SDs "are just too young" to do something like learn to load/unload a dishwasher, wash their own clothes, make their own lunches (I won on this one), on a regular basis - let alone take out the trash (thier delicate flower hands may be tarnished...yeah, you love me DP because I am strong...because I learned to shovel horse shit and buck bales of hay at 5:00 am, and don't have a fear of getting "dirty" - your SDs need this!).

I just have to let DP do all the work for them. He's slowly getting it, but he forgets how much work it is in the week we don't have them. His brain re-sets to rainbow land.

I was babysitting for pay at about 11 or 12. Had my first real job (at the mall) at 16.

Babysitting at 12. First official job at 15 as a hostess.

I taught ballet the summer before high school, so 14. When I was 16, I started working as a cashier at an auto parts store. I worked anywhere from 43-52 hours per work while going to school. I continued to work there while in college, and I was known for grabbing as many hours as I could, so I worked at 3 different stores during my breaks from school. One of the customers hired me to do the bookkeeping for his wife's business for a short time as well. When I was a senior in college, I got a job as a production planner in a tape manufacturing company and I finished my degree at night. They also reimbursed me for a portion of my tuition. Best thing ever.

First paper route at 11. Started babysitting at 12. Job at a department store at 14. So I have been paying into Social Security since 14.

I started babysitting and house sitting when I was 13. The summer between 8th and 9th grade I babysat pretty much full time for 2 kids whose mother was a nurse working the swing shift. I got my first "real" job at a pizza place when I was 15.

10 for babysitting and progressed to housecleaning etc. Jobs ladies were willing to pay young girls to do.

15 for a "real" job with a work permit from the state of California with FICA taken out etc.

Oh, I forgot. At age 12 my stepfather had me doing nurse assistant work at his part time clinic in a small town. We lived in a medium size town and he would go to this little mountain town like 2x a month or something. I guess those people were willing to accept whatever nonsense a doc would throw at them just to get a little care. I can vividly remember doing the jelly and electrode placement on a lady's chest for her EKG. You know, her exposed chest. I was 12.

I don't recall being paid for that, I'm almost certain that I wasn't. Looking back, they were probably trying to get me to bond with him by spending all that time with him in his office (mother didn't come). But I took the job very seriously and tried to do everything right and be very professional. I wasn't paid but I feel it counts as work history.

16 for cigarette money. 19 full time so I could move out.

I got my first regular babysitting job when I was 12. I babysat, pet sat, house sat, helped people with cleaning and household projects. This was pretty par for the course for kids where I lived. We WANTED to work. Mall money! I continued all that till I got my first "real" job as a summer camp counselor when I was 17. Once I was in college, I always worked 1-3 PT jobs while going to school FT. Damn! I miss being young and having that kind of energy!