Personal Narrative : My First Job

“A good job is more than just a paycheck.” –James H. Douglas Jr. First jobs often provide a variety of experiences for teenagers. In many cultures, getting a job signifies the initial step towards independence from one’s parents. Not only do they represent new found liberty, but they also teach skills needed in the real world. Working at the local Giant grocery store has marked my transition to adulthood by teaching me about interpersonal relations, finance, and time management.

I was having a difficult time there, being my first warehouse job. I did not realize how much of a “man’s environment” it was. There were plenty of times I wanted to quit. He told me how much he believed that I could overcome the comments and the atmosphere and actually make something of myself at Ryder. After finally grasping the software program, understanding my job, performing other duties, and becoming one of the clerks that advanced into the liaison position, I felt my worth was being proven. I started having the confidence in me that I once had. Unfortunately, we lost our customer and shortly after he left, I put my notice in. Our location ended up in business only 6 more months after

The work atmosphere at Target is wonderful. My old co-workers are the nicest people ever, even the costumers would comment on that. Yet I hated working there. The reason I hated working at Target is because as a cashier I had to sell the Red Card to everyone. When I got the job, I did not expect that I would have to sell this piece of plastic. Target expected me to be a salesperson. I could never sell the Red Card, even though I told every costumer my sales pitch. In the two months I worked at Target, I was only able to sell two, and one of those was to my mother. My supervisors kept pushing me to sell more. Everyone I approached either had one or hated it. Being unable to sell them stressed me out. That stress started to come home with me. I started to dread going to work everyday. That piece of plastic made me hate my job and want to quit.

to 6 p.m. for little money. So I did what any money hungry person would do, found a salaried job that worked one hour less. Got there and by the second day on my new job, I was not happy. The boss was a female bully. (What happened to Girl Power?) She bullied any and everyone that she could but I stayed to myself and kept my head down. She didn 't like that. I didn 't want to be apart of her flock. Well that job lasted almost 2 months. Left there and got another job still making the same, with the same hours, and that lasted approximately 3 weeks. So I tried it again and got another salaried job paying a little more, and that barely lasted 2 months. It was always something and many could ask, "well what 's wrong with her?"

The work atmosphere at Target is wonderful. My old co-workers are the nicest people ever, even the costumers would comment on that. Yet I hated working there. The reason I hated working at Target was because as a cashier I had to sell the Red Card to everyone. When I got the job, I did not expect that I would have to sell this piece of plastic. Target expected me to be a salesperson. I could never sell the Red Card, even though I told every costumer my sales pitch. In the two months I worked at Target, I was only able to sell two; one of those was to my mother. My supervisors kept pushing me to sell more. Everyone I approached either had one or hated it. Being unable to sell them stressed me out. That stress started to come

Finally, after a month of trying to find a job, an application I entered at McDonald’s got accepted and I was scheduled for an interview. Now knowing me, I didn't want to mess this up since I came so far. So I dressed up in a nice suit and tie plus I got a haircut. I went to the interview and I got hired on the spot by the manager because of the way I presented myself. I was really happy that I got hired because it was my very first job. The flow day I had to wake up really early in the morning like I’m getting up for school to go to orientation. Orientation was pretty boring. It was 3 hours of sitting at a desk watching videos, going over the McDonald’s expectation’s, guidelines, and even filling out a bunch of paperwork. When it was all set and done, I was handed my uniform and was ready to start working. When I first started working at McDonalds’s, I learned the meaning of responsibility and the value of working with others as a team. The managers were nice and they helped me on the mistakes I made during the training process. While working I also learned the meaning of holding down a job and the responsibility of saving my own money. I also managed to balanced my job and also school as well. This way I could focus on school and also work at the

For the project, I decided to go to McDonald’s in Matamoras PA. I noticed a lot of high school students working there from Delaware Valley. Which is where I went to high school, I sat there for 20 minutes. The workers were running around frantically trying to get people’s orders ready, making me feel a little bit anxious because I felt like I should be rushing around too. People try not to make eye contact with you when you’re just sitting at a table staring at everything that is going on around you, which is understandable. There were many people who came in and ordered and immediately left after they got their food. Others came in with one person and sat down talked and ate their food. While one group came in and went to a room and just

When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to get a job. Sure, it would be a good way to make friends and learn how to prepare myself for the real world, but for me, it was mostly about making my own money. Having to ask my parents for cash every time I needed some annoyed me, mostly because they’d always say no. Every time they did, I would always whine and complain about how different things would be when I had money of my own, how I would never ask them for anything, and so on. This wasn’t entirely true, but at the time it seemed like a smart thing to say. I must’ve applied to dozens of jobs, and when I finally got the email telling

As I was about to transfer $150 from my first paycheck to my mom’s account, I began to think about what I have been through the past five months. Ever since I came to America, I had been wanting to reduce my guilt of using my family’s saving. I posted job requests and applied to different stores but only received junk mails; I went to McDonald’s ask for seeing the manager several times, when I finally saw her, she promised to call me back but I had never heard from her. However, the more jobs I tried to apply to, the more I realized I am responsible of making decision myself and the more skill I developed on writing a resume. One day, I received an email from a local Taiwanese restaurant saying that they would be glad to interview me. Surprisingly,

I took the last job right after I graduated back in 2009. The positions really helped me to develop a number of skills necessary for this automation manufacturing industry. I started as automation and moved on to IT system support specialist and then the automation senior project supervisor. That was very lucky to have the opportunity to work from sensors to PLC, from PLC to data flow, from data flow to the entire manufacture system, from built system to projects. However, there was little opportunity for growth with the same systems, and I felt it was time to move on to a new position with more responsibility. A position that will allow me to use the skills I developed at my last job, while taking on challenges that I know I am ready

The mid summer of 2015, I was 16 years old and in search for a summer job. I was searching for a job but wasn't really applying anywhere. But one day my aunt called me to tell me she was driving up north to get home from the store and saw a hiring signs at Dairy Queen, Taco Bell, Wendy's, and McDonald's. All these restaurants are on Armour Rd. Just 10 minutes away from my house. She thought it would be a good idea for her to take me up there one day and apply to any of those fast food places. Since I wasn't able to apply anywhere else that wasn't a fast food restaurant because I was only 16. She said me going inside and asking for a job application would make me look good instead of just trying to do it online or having her ask for a application for me though the drive thru.

The morning session before the break was fine, I believed he was a respectable person, then came lunch. The sausage sizzle outside Bunnings was staple for all Bunnings workers, myself included. I rocked up late after doing some extra work jumped in line and realised I was voraciously hungry. I waited in line for five minutes and saw him walk towards the line. One of the higher up bosses was in front and called out to him and offered to take the place behind him. I was irritated, but I didn’t say anything. After another minute or so I was anticipating my sausage as he walked up to purchase his sausage. I was next. He walked away and I walked up and as I was about to speak the person stopped me and said “Sorry dude, but there’s no more sausages left.” Oh my word was that the utmost painful sentence I had heard all my life. It was like I was slapped in the face, hard. All from the favouritism, all because he was put in front of me, I

I’m quite sure that most of us working folk have, at some point, been driven to leave a cruddy job. Some of us have had awful bosses, others have had terrible co-workers, and more still have been required to deal with rude customers day in and day out. On the other hand, I had a different situation altogether a few years ago, when I got my first job with a local ad company, working part time with minimum wage. My boss was a cool guy, my only co-worker was his wife who was very sweet, and I didn’t deal with rude customers at all. So what was the issue, or in this case, issues? Despite the positive aspects of my job, the over-the-top expectations that were placed on me, low opportunity, and low morale eventually stressed me out so much that

It was 7:26 AM on a Sunday morning in August. I woke up to my phone ringing. My store director was calling asking if there was any way I could possibly get to work by eight or eight-thirty. A little confused as to why he was calling me instead of my own manager, I agreed to come in early for work that day. When I arrived to work, I found out that my manager had been fired. For the next week all my coworkers and I were overjoyed to have finally gotten away from our awful manager who did nothing but cause us problems. We knew there would be no difference in the amount of work we would be required to do without our manager because we already did all of the manager 's job. However, our manager was unfired the following week for reasons we were not told. That put an end to our happiness at work and caused the misery to return. My coworkers and I completed much more work in the week our manager was gone than we did when she was there. Having a bad manager causes many negative effects on the employees who work under them including, lack of employee morale, demotivation, dislike of the company, and also causes employees to develop serious medical problems and can harm the overall well-being of the company.

Just like any workplace, you have to deal with the management. The managers at Steak N’ Shake changed every month I was there, which made it impossible to establish a stable working pattern. Big Mike, the manager who interviewed me, was only there for the first month I was employed then he transferred and was replaced with Jenna. I came in early one day and told Jenna that I couldn't work Monday or Tuesday. Somehow, when I got the schedule for next week, the only days I was scheduled to work were Monday and Tuesday. She didn't last long, and the process repeated itself for the year I worked there.