A first job is a rite of passage. There's nothing quite like getting that first hard-earned paycheck.
According to a recent poll, more than 40% of 16 and 17-year-olds have jobs, and more than half of 18-year-olds are employed.
But working through high school isn't new. TODAY's Savannah Guthrie revealed she started working her first job at age 14.
"I got $1 an hour, that's how they got away with it," she said. "I bussed tables."
At 15, Savannah moved on to working at a cookie store.
"I gained 25 pounds," she joked. "It was, like, scoop the cookie dough, eat the cookie dough."
After the cookie store, Savannah worked at a skateboard shop, but not because she was trying to impress anyone.
"My parents were like, 'Don't come looking for money and don't be asking for an allowance to do things you're supposed to be doing, like make your bed. If you want money to spend, get a job.'"
Savannah Guthrie
"I wanted that job really badly. That was a cool place," she told co-anchor Hoda Kotb. "Then I worked as a bookkeeper, secretary-type position at a construction company, but I worked summer and all year long."
Savannah said her reason for working through her teenage years was simple.
"My parents were like, 'Don't come looking for money and don't be asking for an allowance to do things you're supposed to be doing, like make your bed. "If you want money to spend, get a job,'" she said.
Hoda said her first job was actually in news — sort of.
"I delivered the Washington Post as my first job at 14," she explained. "I think it teaches you, first of all, discipline. You've to get up at the crack of dawn, and after a whole month of delivering the paper, when you showed up to get the pay, they would hand you a buck. And you were, like, 'A dollar for 30 days?'"
After her paper delivery gig, Hoda got a job at Ponderosa, a chain of buffet steakhouse restaurants.
"It taught you how to deal when people were unkind or dissatisfied. You just had to make it work," Hoda said of her restaurant job. "You’re around grown-ups so you learned all that kind of stuff."
TODAY co-host Jenna Bush Hager joined the conversation, crediting her mom, former first lady Laura Bush, for a volunteer position at Austin Children's Shelter.
"She knew I loved kids, so she said, 'I just visited this, I think you’ll love it,'" Jenn explained. "And I volunteered there every Sunday. But she didn’t say, 'Go do it.' She said, 'I want to show you something I think you’ll love.'"
