My First Job… at 18

Hey guys, welcome back to a newest blog post from yours truly~

Now, to be perfectly honest with you, I have lived a pretty sweet life. Unlike other teens that I’d known from school, I was blessed with having an awesome mom who wanted me to be safe and happy… by which I mean, not leaving the house and letting her take care of me. Which worked out pretty nicely for me as I’m not much of an outdoorsy kinda gal, both forest wise and just leaving my property line wise.

And while other teens were getting part-time jobs and summer jobs and were out there making all that money… I stuck to side hustles as, let’s say it once again, I’m not an outdoorsy gal. I prefer to stay indoors and stick to my room as much as possible. And my mom has no problem with it, she likes it even. At least she knows I’m safe and not falling into the pitfalls that other teens my age did back in high school.

So, our arrangement worked out nicely and while I tried researching to figure out where to even start on my journey to being a writer, something pretty awesome happened. I met my boyfriend. Not gonna say his name for privacy reasons so let’s call him… Nate. I met Nate through my best friend… Harriet, as she’s currently in college and so is he.

And yeah, my love life was pretty uh, non-existent, ever since I got out of a multiple years long relationship so this was new waters for me. And with dating comes going on dates and wanting to buy gifts for the other person and wanting to take them places plus gas money was actually a thing and — oh shit, I’m gonna need a job.

So, me, at eighteen years old with literally no working experience whatsoever, was on the hunt for a job. I’d applied to a few places earlier in the year as I was really craving the delicious thing that is money, although I was half-assing it, let’s be real. So, when I all of a sudden had someone else to think about, I felt I needed to step up, so to speak. Plus, compared to him being in college and working on the side, it was pretty intimating and I felt I needed to step up my life game.

It was super hard as apparently literally NO ONE WANTED TO HIRE ME. It was insane. And I refused to work in fast food or at a restaurant due to all of the horror stories I’ve heard and things I’ve witnessed just as a customer. So, that left retail and everything in between.

I won’t tell you all the details as honestly? That’s a blog post all on it’s own (If you want me to do something like that, lemme know even though I’m probably gonna do it anyway because content.). But, I did in fact get a job at Party City as an ‘Seasonal Sales Associate’ meaning I worked the register, helped with stocking and cleaning up after hours, and even worked the photo-wall every once in awhile which was a definite highlight.

So, there I was making $8 an hour at Party City. My first ever job and… how was it?

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It was alright.

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Yeah, that’s it. It was alright. It wasn’t life changing in any kind of way, pretty fast pace which was pretty good as it made time go by faster. The coworkers took some getting used to but all of them turned out to be pretty good apart from two people who I won’t call out (who knows who’s gonna be reading this, after all?)

It was a pretty okay job all things considered, though the only reason I wasn’t itching to stay was because of how… disorganized everything was. Like, you wouldn’t find out your schedule for the next week until Friday which was very frustrating as it made it kinda hard to plan things out in advanced. Plus, it made your hours pretty unreliable as you would work one day one week and then five days the next week.

So, I guess some advice I would give you is that working a Seasonal position at Party City isn’t super great if you actually had bills to pay or needed some kind of stability. But, if you’re a teenager in highschool looking to make extra money, it’s pretty good, I’d say. Plus, there are opportunities to take extra shifts to make more money so I think it could work. Don’t think you’d make enough money there to take care of a family, of course, or pay all of your bills but it can be useful none the less.

The job for me lasted a month which made sense as I was there for Halloween so from October to October 31st, I worked there, and on November 1st, I was let go along with pretty much all of the Seasonal Employees. I wasn’t annoyed by it as I had no intentions to stay longer than I needed to, this primarily being to get some kind of experience which I did! I actually have a resume now, which is super exciting.

And I used the money to buy some stuff that I’ve always wanted, without even thinking about saving any of it, haha. But ay, I wanted to enjoy my money and have fun with it, for my next job I’ll do better… honest. (Like, seriously, I’m saving money so I can get my own place at some point in 2021, as well as having multiple months of rent saved up. The side hustles are also more real then ever.)

So, did I enjoy my first job?

For a good half of it, yeah. It got better towards the end.

Would I ever work at Party City again?

Oh yeah, definitely. I already have plans to go back during their next Halloween Seasonal position as it was pretty fast pace which was necessary, trust me.

Would I ever recommend someone work their Seasonally?

Honestly? If you’re a highschool student or even a college student on campus or even someone who’s living at home and who’s figuring out their crap, yes. It’s good side money. If you’re a fully grown adult with bills to pay or a family to take care of? I’d say no. You can do extra shifts to try and make money but you also don’t want to spend all your free time working to try and make enough for it to be your only job/source of income.

And yeah, I think that’s it. This post wasn’t really so much of a storytime so much as me just describing a period of my life and how it affected me with the big message being: It didn’t, haha. Me working there didn’t change me or make me into a better person or any of that. I know how to work a register now, and I now realize that I hate balloons with a flying passion but otherwise? Nothing life changing.

And NOW, I’m back on the hunt for a new job! Something more stable and more my speed. I’ll keep you updated on that, haha.

BUT, I do think it is time for me to wish you all a good day and… yeah. Tata for now lovelies and I will catch you all on the flip side!