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My first gig was on a construction crew building apartment buildings. I was 16 and about 6'3" at the time. The site was across the street from my dad's apartment complex. My dad had worked as a journeymen between office jobs and thought it would be good for me to learn the basics. He asked the owner of the company if he needed a laborer. He said no, my guys carry their own lumber. My dad told him my son is bigger than all the guys on your crew and he can swing a hammer. Apparently that worked and I had a job. It was $7.50/hr when minimum wage was $4.25/hr but, I earned it. I carried every single floor joist and nearly every sheet of plywood and drywall (for fire breaks in the attic) all summer. That said I did swing a hammer and used every tool on the site aside from the table saw. We had a dedicated guy for that. I was stoked and worked the maximum hours allowed. Sometimes I even worked a few extra as the boss paid normal wages but cash for weekend work (off book). I learned a ton and toughened up quite a bit. I worked there the whole summer. The guys gave me some crap, like go grab the board stretcher and whatnot but warmed up to me pretty quick. Once the first floor was framed and the second floor deck went on I got to staple all the bridging between the floor joists since I didn't need a stool to reach it. The other guys needed to move a stool or bench every 3 ft to reach. Of course my arms nearly fell off after a few hours working like that. But, not having to do that made them like me even more, LOL.

My next gig was at CompUSA selling PCs retail. I started there just after the summer ended. I learned the hardware and made spiffs, as they called them, off extended warranty sales. I made $7.50/hr plus spiffs which were often about half the size of the rest of my hourly wages. So, my actual pay was closer to $11/hr. I worked there about a year. I took another PC sales job nearby at a mom-and-pop shop that built PCs. Eventually I applied for a PC tech job at BestBuy, before the GeekSquad had that name. They said no openings and put me on the sales floor. I did eventually transfer to their PC tech department a few months later. That was my first computer tech job. I've been doing it in some capacity ever since. I have some certifications but never completed a degree of any kind. Fortunately my experience and skill set have allowed me to make a good living.