Workplace 1 - Wrap It. Wrap it Good.

Eager at 14 I started in the workforce. There was a place down the road called Handmade Things, one of those knick-knack stores filled with the sort of gifts you buy for people you don't know very well. You know the ones.

I wanted to work there so I took to hanging out at the store after work, getting to know the staff and probably being a pain in the ass. But always asking if I could work there. I think I went down every day after school for about two weeks before they finally broke and hired me to make up gift packs out the back. I was stoked!

I remember it being good work, all the new stuff that came in, I saw it first. Unpacking and reassembling it into pretty little cardboard boxes stuffed with shredded coloured paper. I remember being sneaky as hell coz I bought a hammock off one of their suppliers instead of from them. Woo!

So I probably worked there for a few months, as would become tradition, sitting in the little room out the back, trying to stay out of the dramas that happened between the four managers of this family owned/run business. Never go into business with extended family. OMG.

No idea what the pay was and it would have gone on Mars Bars at the school tuckshop but that feeling of pay day, having cash in my hand that was mine, it's the greatest feeling a kid can have*.

So if you're looking at going for this job:
Pros - I can wrap gifts and colour coordinate like a ninja! And industry hook ups for cheaper stuff
Cons - Business doesn't exist anymore and being caught in some other families drama's isn't something you want

*you know, after the love of your parents, passing at school, playing with a puppy.. all the stuff thats better than cash in hand. But it's definitely top 5, yeah?