What was your first job or the most unusual job you’ve had?
- "What was your first job or the most unusual job you’ve had?" originally appeared in the March 2025 "Work" issue of COMO Magazine.
My first job was a summer day camp counselor. I loved it! It was the same place I attended as a child, and it was so rewarding helping shape the kids’ summers like counselors before me did. It also helped that we spent three days at the pool and two days going on incredible trips to local hotspots.
– Ashley Lasiter
I worked at Bucks Ice Cream on Mizzou’s campus during my freshman year. It was all fun and games until you had to help make the ice cream. The smell alone kept me away from all ice cream for a few years after I stopped working there.
– Lauren Karr
I worked at Worlds of Fun as a “ground squirrel!!” We were responsible for keeping the grounds litter-free with a small broom and dustpan. When the park closed, we had to sweep through the parking lot also for pick up. People are gross and the things we found out there were awful. Only made it through about two weeks and moved on to work at Ponderosa Steak House. I still hate making salads and pies.
– Lilly Hernandez Winkeljohn
I used to sell concert memorabilia at Chicago area shows, often Jimmy Buffet shows. Very devoted fan base, which is nice when you work commission.
– Madeleine Leroux
While earning my cosmetology license, I worked at a salon in a retirement home. I spent most shifts perfecting my perms while listening to resident’s life stories — and some surprisingly juicy gossip.
– Jordan Watts
Hired on at $1 an hour — that’s right, a buck an hour — as a server at the Belle Drive In. Not an outdoor cinema, mind you, but a greasy spoon eatery and pool hall/pinball machine dive in my hometown of Belle, Missouri. I was 16. Within six months, I was promoted to assistant manager and cook and got a 50 percent raise! Yeah, to $1.50 an hour. Pink Floyd on the jukebox, half the crowd stoned, all-I-could-drink ice cold fountain Coca Cola, and just three blocks from my house. Oh, and I’d also become the “school news” reporter for The Belle Banner, the town’s weekly newspaper that gave me my start.
– Jodie Jackson Jr
I worked at the concession stand at Twin lakes for Columbia Parks and Rec!
– Sarah Parks
I worked at the concession stand at Oakland Pool. That was my first job.
– Adro Nieman
One summer when I was in college, I cleaned all the cabinets in a fraternity house!
– Bonnie Youngquist
My first job was working at Quiznos in high school.
– Heavenly Valley Photography LLC
In college, I got paid to sleep. An older lady (in her late 90s) was afraid to be by herself at night, so her daughter paid me to stay the night. She set me up in her spare room, we would watch TV together and have popcorn together. It was such a sweet time and hey, pretty easy way to make some money during college and I did it for three years!
– Andrea Lyn Seppo