Maria, 21 I had just turned 15 when I got my first job. I worked in the coffee shop of a speciality foods and sandwich shop. It was great at the time. I started on £3.50 an hour and was up to £4.50 within about three months. I got free food in breaks and there were great people working there. I also used to fancy my supervisor like hell and one night we got together on a work night out. That definitely made work even better for a while.

Sara, 22 I was 16 when I got my first job and I was the 'Weekend Grotto Supervisor' (i.e. Head Elf) at a Christmas Grotto in my local shopping centre. It paid £6.50 an hour and helped me pay to go to Amsterdam for the New Year.

Beth, 21 I was about 13 when I got my first job. I worked for my Mum and her boss in a shopping centre that provided a wheelchair loan scheme for customers. I got to ride the electric scooters on speed 10 around the shopping centre after it closed. Then I did a bit of dusting and got a tenner in an envelope addressed to 'Slave'. They were good times!

Danny, 22 I didn't get my first job until I was 20. To be honest, I had little reason to get one any earlier. I worked in a shop that is best described as a 'mini-supermarket'. I was paid minimum wage at the time, which was £4.25 an hour until 2006 when it went up to £4.45. I worked at that shop for two years before I moved on.

Amanda, 22 I think it was when I was 12 years-old and I was paid around £20 a month. I had a paper round delivering the weekly classifieds and advertising newspaper. It was originally my brother's job before I took over and then my Dad did all the work for me - he would bag them up and drive me around so I could drop them off. 'My job' lasted about a month when my Dad got sick of doing it.

Graeme, 19 My first job was last year when I was 18 years-old. I was offered a job as a fish farm worker and got £6.10 an hour. I then started a second job a week later in a factory where I got £5.35, which is above the National Minimum Wage for people aged 18 to 21, so I was happy with that.