How old were you when you got your first job?

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I would also like if anyone told the circumstances behind you getting that job. Thanks!

I got my first real job when I was 14 years old. I was a counselor for little kids at my town's summer recreation program. I made $4.25/hr. It was a lot of fun. I got paid to run around playing sports with kids all day.

First proper job was 16 - worked on the supermarket checkout.

Aside from doing some babysitting age 14, when I placed a card in a local newsagent window and a local family hired me, (ended when I broke a bone, was out of commission, had to recover, and lost interest in going back) my first actual job in a workplace was when I was 16 or 17, I can't remember. In those days you answered ads in the local newspaper. They hired me and I was pleased.....but I lasted one day! I sincerely wanted a job and to work and to earn, but that day was such a shock I didn't go back. I worked again later and managed to last longer but it took a while.

I got my first summer job when I was 16. There was also this one summer when a friend and I mowed lawns and cleaned and looked after farm animals (nothing large, just gathering hens' eggs and feeding rabbits actually) when I was 14. That came of placing a Classified Ad in the small local newspaper, offering our services for hire. And there was the odd babysitting job starting at 12, which I got either in the neighborhood minding my little sister's friends or from people at church.

But the summer job at 16 was the first one that I thought of as a real job. I filled out the government forms with my Social Security number and payed taxes and got a check with a pay-stub instead of just a little cash.

It was at a theme park called Enchanted Village. I wanted to work in the Petting Zoo with the animals, but ended up operating rides. And of course a friend who applied with me who wanted to operate rides ended up serving food. A group of kids I was loosely attached to mentioned that they were hiring, as they did at the start of every summer, and asked if I wanted to come along and apply.

It was just a summer job, like I said, but it was my first real job and NTHubby called me a "carnie" when I told him.

Service Clerk at 17 years old. It was literally a job where I walked in, asked if they were hiring, and was taken right in and got the job on the spot. No interview needed or anything. I bagged groceries, retrieved shopping carts, and cleaned the redemption center. It was a crap job that paid 6.75 at the time but it was the job that more or less turned me into an adult and got me to appreciate where I am now today. The company themselves may be a bit sleazy but I had some memories there I won't forget. I was at that company until I got a real job at 25.

I got my first job when I was 20. At the time, I was trying to find some independence after going through a severe spell of mental illness where I dropped out of high school and generally annoyed the living crap out of my family. While I was visiting old friends and family back in my home town, a friend's family offered to let me move in with them. It was an offer I just couldn't refuse, so I started job hunting without much success. At the suggestion of my grandparents, I put in an application at a local grocery store, and that's where I ended up working for about ~5 months. It started off good, then quickly went downhill after the first two months.

Eventually, I quit without giving proper notice, and I got a job at a dollar store... where I was fired after three days. It was months before I was employed in any capacity again, and my last job was actually in a government job training program, where I got kicked out after about two or three weeks. It took me several months to get into this program as well, during which I talked to this government disability coordinater. He had doubts about me getting into the program, but eventually he let me in. During this time, we also talked about getting me on disability, and finding living assistance for me. Thankfully, even though the job training program didn't pan out, I did get an expensive neuropsychological assessment paid for, which is how I got my current diagnosis, and also how I managed to get on disability.

tl;dr tried the job thing, found out I'm basically unemployable, now I'm on disability.

I'm 17 and I got my first "job" at 12 by being a dog walker. Then at 13, I began to babysit two children in my neighborhood, but ended up hating it. I tried to get a job a my local library, since I've always loved the calm and bookish-atmosphere. I didn't get the job though, and I haven't tried for any since. Now I'm just busy with school, but I have no idea what type of job I'm gonna end up getting later in life.

My first job was at 10 years old, delivering newspapers, at a paltry $1.25 per week.

I was 15 at a gas station / sandwich shop.

12. I got a dollar an hour for pulling weeds at a farm. I was fired for eating the baby carrots while working. They were delicious.

I was 18. Worked 5 years at a franchise McD's. I could ring up orders faster than anyone else because I learned the buttons so well, so during lunch rush they would have me just punching in drive-thru orders while someone else handled the cash. Sometimes they would put me on front counter, but if someone yelled at me I would cry and need to be pulled off front for a short while. At slower points of the day, they would realize I get socially burnt out and move me to the kitchen or have me stock/clean stuff so I could recharge. It was a store near a major highway and a statewide top 5 hospital in a somewhat wealthy town so it was busy a lot and standards were high. They pushed me hard and it was my lowest-paid job, but of any job I have had management there treated me best.

I was 19 years old when I, after over a year of fruitless attempts and abysmal interviews, finally was hired by an employment agency. In total, I have only worked approximately 8 months in my life. Though I currently volunteer on one day each week, I have been unemployed for nearly 6 years. Without a degree to my name, I honestly believe I am unemployable.

When I was 15, I delivered dry cleaning to people in my apartment building.

At 18-19, I had many jobs; got fired from a couple, quit a few. I worked for the 1980 Census; that expired.

Then worked for 4 months at the Yellow Pages. Then got my present job, where I still work even in 2016.

In a few years I hope

Wow, I gotta applaud all you guys on finding your first jobs so early, especially considering we're all on the spectrum. I was kinda late compared to you guys; I was 21. And no, I wasn't studying prior to that. I was at home, not going to school, and I had been applying for jobs on and off throughout 2008. At the very end of the year, I landed my first cleaning job, at a law firm. I lasted little longer than 2 weeks before giving up. Luckily, I got a nice job shortly after that repairing books. And I stayed there for two years, so yeah.