Glenn's Story: My First Job was cleaning and renovating pools at $5 per hour plus company van
Posted: 12.08.13
Glenn Hickling
Current Employment: Economic Development Officer with City of Onkaparinga
Story:
Apart from being a golf caddy from the age of 12 on weekends, my first real job when I started higher education study at Queensland University of Technology threw me in the deep end cleaning and renovating pools.
After a few days being shown the ropes, I was left alone with the company van to travel all around Brisbane's southern bayside suburbs. I thought I was so cool getting $5 per hour hooning around in a company van pool cleaning, tiling and painting.
Heaps of fun (as empty pools make great skate ramps), but this first job gave me a real insight into running a small business, interacting with clients and architects, and having a great boss (like one of the family).
My First Job experience steered quite a lot of my working life ever since. I even got back into pool installations 15 years later in Darwin as a side business to my project managing building work.