I was fortunate enough to grow up at a time when jobs were easy to find: basically, if you were young, fit and literate you could find a job the same day you started looking. And, from age eleven, I always seemed to be looking: first I was as a newspaper delivery boy, then from age sixteen, I started working on Saturdays and school vacations: shop assistant, busboy/dishwasher, car-park attendant, petrol pump attendant, and as counter staff in a café/ice-cream parlor.

I've also done some short-lived permanent jobs:
- porter in a department store, which lead to promotion to delivery-van-driver's assistant: I was in charge of the maps, and one end of whatever piece of furniture we were delivering.
- as a guy on a clothing production line
- as an "animal maintenance technician", which meant feeding and cleaning out caged animals.