Ask HN: What was your first job?

Bike Messenger in DC.

Made great money for a HS student. Got to ride bikes all day and use my middle finger a lot. And my boss was just a voice on a walkie talkie. It was one of the best jobs I've ever had.

Almost everyone I worked with was an ex-con. Crack, stealing assault you name it. I worked for one company where the boss hired me for the summer on the condition that I found him a replacement in the fall. "If you leave without finding one," he yelled, "I'll see you in the street and run you over!" He was quite serious.

I'm a white guy and I worked for an all black company for a summer. My card said, "A black owned and operated company." During my interview there my future boss said, "I'll be damned. I'll be damned! You must be the ONLY white Willy in Washington."

The job was all about having a reliable bike and knowing the micro optimizations. You gained more speed by deftly navigating the buildings than the road. Knowing which buildings had service entrances, which doors had guards who didn't make you sign in and which elevators were fast all saved time and made money. I also got to know the mini subway system that runs between the capital and the senate and house office buildings.

But the government was the best for money. They took so long to do anything that you could charge them a dollar a minute for wait time. I feel like they should rate efficiency of institutions based on how long it takes for them to get a package in the hand of the person they called to pick it up. Like gigaflops for bureaucracies.

In four summers I got hit by about 12 cars. I was never seriously hurt but I did do some substantial damage to cars and went through a few bikes. If you ever get hit, ditch your bike and jump ON the car if you can. If you're flying through the air twist so you roll like a hotdog when you land.

One time I got decked by an SUV on a double rush (guaranteed 20 min delivery = $100 for the customer) to CNN in Rosalyn, VA. I was carrying a reel for the nightly news. It fell out and rolled through the traffic amazingly landing unharmed. I showed up to CNN on time and covered in road rash and blood. The receptionist grabbed the movie reel and didn't even ask me if I was OK.

Such sweaty, gritty, speedy good times.

My first real job was as a telemarketer/telephone salesman at age 16.

I noticed that there was a nice discount for large bundles of pencils, so I bought one and then went door to door selling them. Not sure how old I was, but this was during elementary school. I think one pencil cost 2 cents, and I would sell them for 16 cents. Then a friend came along, and I hired him to join me for 8 cents a pencil. My father was later telling me I shouldn't have paid him so much, so I got discouraged and didn't continue the "business".

1974: I was 12 rising 13 and my dad was fired (later it turned out that his boss was embezzling and was worried that dad would find out.)

My sister got a Saturday job in a corner store, and I got a paper round. 6 days a week, 05:15 start, 120 papers delivered before 07:00. I don't remember the pay, but it provided pocket money as my parents struggled to start their own business.

I learned a lot from watching them deal with cash-flow, customers, orders, invoices, manufacturing, deliveries, and having no money to spend.

Cleaning horse stables. Must have been about 10. Not sure what I was paid, probably a few bucks an hour. Worst part was in the winter when you had to carry a screwdriver to break the ice off the water bucket.

The radio in one barn was going all the time on the top 40 station. There are still songs that bring back the smell of horse manure and sawdust whenever I hear them.