First Job Life Impacts 3AW 693AM Radio Melbourne with Tom Elliott

By Sue Ellson

Topic: First Job Life Impact

Date: 8 April 2026

Media Outlet: 3AW 693AM Melbourne https://www.3aw.com.au

Broadcaster / Interviewer: Tom Elliott

Producer: Breanna Edebohls

Time Stamp: 01:46:43 – 01:53:09

Duration Total: 00:06:26

Time of show: 11:12am

Audio Recording:

Video Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SW05WTh2m0

Transcript

All right. What did you learn from your first job? So, my first proper job was selling the old afternoon Herald at Camberwell Junction. It’s a job that wouldn’t exist anymore. Partly because we don’t have an Afternoon Herald anymore, but also they wouldn’t let you know 11 and 12 year old boys walk up and down uh cars waiting at the traffic lights trying to sell papers into the window.

I the big thing I learned was when the paper was 15 cents as it was back then, this is in around about 1979 most people give you 20 cents and say keep the change. Wasn’t worth you know getting a 5 cent piece. So we actually did really well. Made a lot of tips.

When I say a lot, it was a few dollars a week but back then that was quite a lot of money for an 11 year-old. The problem was when they put the price of the paper up to 20 cents, no one fished out an extra 5 cent coin and our tips went from 5 cents a paper to no cents a paper very quickly. So, the rounding rounding errors were important. Our next guest is a career coach, Sue Ellson.

Good morning.

Hi, Tom.

Well, uh, our premier to be or will he be because it’s looking rather uncertain in the Labour party at the moment, but let’s just assume he is. He said his first job was age 14, working at the Kmart in Airport West.

Mmm.

He said it was tough for a 14-year-old, especially at Christmas time, but it taught him the value of hard work. As I mentioned, I used to sell the afternoon Herald to drivers waiting at the traffic lights, and you’d have to get off the road when the traffic lights went green.

Mmm.

When the paper was 15 cents, we made a lot of tips cause people would give you 20 and say, “Keep the change.” When they put the price up to 20, we got no tips whatsoever. So, it wasn’t so wasn’t so lucrative.

Mmm. And you wouldn’t get tips in Kmart either.

No. Well, tipping is not a big thing, but I mean your first job, I mean, it’s never going to be the most brilliant job in the world, but I guess you do suddenly learn the value of a dollar, don’t you?

You definitely do. And you have to budget. And all of a sudden, you’re working with other adults, not your parents or teachers. You’re making new friends. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a really fantastic mentor. And you might decide, well, you know, there’s a better way to do things. And I met a young person who started a new job recently, rocked up on the first day, just finished their training in cyber security and said, “Oh, you know, they haven’t been doing this” and thought he was pretty smart and then the following week made a mistake and ran home to dad and said, “What do I do?” So,

[laughter]

you know, there’s there’s a lot of things that our parents suddenly become useful for when you start work, too.

Yeah. Well, there’s some other things. I know my my daughter has a part-time job, and the concept of taxation suddenly Mmm looms large in her life. Because I you know I earned what is it $17 an hour Aha or something but you know the federal government takes quite a lot of that and I said yes and as you get older that only gets worse.

Yes. And it can be very tempting to do the math and say oh look I’d be better off on student benefits rather than a job but you gain so much more from a job than just the cash. So I I wouldn’t recommend that. Uh it’s always better to be out in circulation and earning a living

Mmm

and and learning new skills. I definitely wouldn’t do just the math.

I think another thing I always learned was to was to turn up was to be punctual.

Mmm.

Like turn up on time and ideally turn up five or 10 minutes early and and in in our industry, I mean, punctuality is hugely important because, you know, shows have to start at certain times and people have to be prepared for them. They just you just can’t not do that.

Yeah. Mmm. No, absolutely. And I remember when I started my career, I I’d get up late and be running to the train station with wet hair. And I think about it now, I would never turn up to work with wet hair, but I certainly did back in the day. So yeah, you you do learn to get much better at that over time.

Another thing I was told by my parents was to not talk to elders unless they spoke to me and to listen to what they say Mmm and not proffer my opinion. Now, I don’t know, these days, young people start work here and they seem to have instant opinions on everything

Aha

and and are prepared to share them with people who have vastly more experience.

Mmm

Is that is that sort of idea that, you know, one should be seen and not heard, has that changed a bit now?

I I’d definitely say so. They’re much more empowered and they’ll chip you on if you say something that was slightly inappropriate to suggest or it might be racist or sexist or um like I was out uh with a young person very recently and I said, “Oh, that girl offered great service.” And the person said, “I don’t think it was a girl.” Oh. You know, like I thought, okay, that person, that person, I I quickly corrected myself. So, yes, they certainly do have the power to speak up and I remember having to call them Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. or whatever rather than by their first name. So, a lot of things have changed, but I think we can learn a lot by having that intergenerational workplace.

Yes.

So if there’s a level of respect with everyone, your lived experience, you know, can be helpful and their new ideas can be helpful. So yes, if you can keep that communication open and not be fighting over striped paint and left-handed screwdrivers, uh then, you know, life can be very productive at work.

I think the final thing that young people learn and maybe need to learn is to let their mobile phones go for a while.

Oh.

Like if you’re working in a, you know, in a shop, for example, you can’t sit there staring at your phone. And you got to be on the lookout for customers and folding clothes and whatever. And you know, having to spend six or eight hours without looking at your phone too much

Mmm

is is quite difficult for them.

Yes. Because they’re so accustomed to it. And now they’ve also got their watches. So there’s also that element.

But uh I also know a young person who started off in retail and it was in a different chain to Kmart and they found that they didn’t have the support of their manager either. And so what would happen is some customer would come in and complain and request a refund and the manager would always just bail and and then that behaviour was perpetuated.

So I think there’s a lot to learn from both sides because um this young person said, you know, look, you should say no to this person. They’re clearly lying.

Yeah,

They’ve have been used. They don’t have the receipt, you know, etc., etc. Uh but if people complained enough, they’d get away with it. So yeah, there’s still lots of things that need a little bit of ironing out in the workplace. Um, but the Fair Work Ombudsman has some really great resources for people who are starting work. So I definitely recommend that people check those out. There’s a video and it provides some of that information on, you know, what is acceptable when you start work. And I think those sorts of resources can be really helpful for people, too.

Righto. Thank you, Sue. Sue Ellson, career coach. Thanks Tom.

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FIRST JOB EXPERIENCE // What did you learn from your first job? 🤔 In this interview with Tom Elliott on Tapt Media‘s 3AW Radio Melbourne Mornings Program today, we discussed:

✅ First jobs providing young people with essential life lessons, including the value of money, the necessity of budgeting and the reality of taxation

✅ Workplace experiences fostering professional development by teaching punctuality, the importance of interacting with adults outside of family or school, and the benefits of mentorship

✅ Modern workplace dynamics shifting towards greater empowerment for younger employees, who are more likely to speak up regarding inappropriate behaviour or social issues compared to previous generations

✅ Challenges in the contemporary workplace include managing mobile phone usage and navigating inconsistent management support

✅ Resources from the Fair Work Ombudsman that can help younger workers

Thanks to Producer Breanna Edebohls for the invitation to contribute!

➡️ What did you learn from your first job?

#firstjob #3awMelbourne #SueEllson