Why your first-ever paycheck still matters decades later

April 23, 2026 — 11:16am

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What was your first job? Cast your mind back to your early few weeks of working after you signed a lengthy employment contract filled with legal terms you didn’t quite understand. For some, this will jog positive memories of a time when you learned something new every day. Others will only recall the strain of being the bottom rung on the ladder.

Your first real job, with your first real manager and first feeble steps on the long road of employment, is more important than you realise. It can set you up for a successful career, or introduce you to bad habits that it will take a lifetime to unwind.

Now, when I talk about your first job, I don’t mean the part-time effort that you haplessly did because you had to, I mean the first real job that mattered to you. The one where you worked for managers........

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