Ask HN: What was your first job?

Shining shoes in bars on 7th St in Rockford, IL when I was about 9-10 years old. 25¢ per shine (that's pretty much one of the most dangerous places to hang out or live in the US now.)

When I was 14 I moved to Hollywood, CA to live with my father and started learning how to build custom cars. Clients included Elvis Presley, Dick Clark, George Barris, Batman (I helped restore some "Batmobiles" at Barris's shop), and many others you may have heard of. I did that for about 16 years before learning to code. It was actually very good prep for that too. Reading Steve Jobs analogy of software as tools helped a lot with that.

Part-time picking strawberries at a local farm at the age of 16. You were paid by the pound and I made ~$8.00/hr.

Waking at 3 in the night to go put pet food on shelves in a supermarket.

I can't say I miss it ;-)

Student janitor at a parochial school - Age 14 ~ $2.00/hr