I’m a Doctor: This Is How Much I Made in my First Job
Written by
Diana Kelly Levey
Edited by
Rebekah Evans
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For many of us, our first jobs teach us valuable and important lessons. It teaches some people responsibility, whether that’s caring for someone or showing up on time because others are counting on you. For others, it can show us what we don’t want to do for a living. And for many, it helps put the cost of purchases into perspective when you consider the time and effort that goes into earning the money you’re about to spend.
Below, discover the first jobs of two doctors and how much they earned in their first jobs.
First Job Ever
Dr. Marlane Bassett, naturopathic physician at The Biomed Center, who has a doctorate of naturopathic medicine, shared her first job experience with GOBankingRates. “I got paid 50 cents an hour for 12-hour shifts. I didn’t love the job but saw it as a means to an end,” she said.
“My first job was doing childcare during the summer after seventh grade,” Bassett said. “I got the job because the child I was watching was our neighbor and I believe they knew I had a very ‘responsible’ nature.
“I made $200 that summer, which felt like a lot at the time,” she said, which she mostly used the money to buy clothes.
“I learned several important lessons,” Bassettt said. “One was the importance of discipline in achieving a goal, the hard work parents do daily and that having kids was not at the top of my agenda.”
First Job in the Medical Field
Dr. Jennie Stanford, double board-certified physician (in family medicine and obesity medicine) and medical contributor for Drugwatch, recounted her first jobs.
“I was a sophomore in high school and a file clerk at a durable medical equipment office after school and over school holidays,” Stanford said. She also did babysitting gigs for a few families throughout her high school years.
“I was paid about $8 an hour at the office job, worked about 15 to 20 hours a week and it was on the books,” Stanford explained. She got the job because she asked for it. “I knew the owner and I told him I was looking for a part-time job, so he hired me.”
She said she mostly used her earnings for gas money and some non-necessities but saved her first job earnings overall.
“I enjoyed that job. The full-time front office staff were incredibly friendly and it was not stressful,” Stanford added
“Now, my hourly rate is about 15 times what I earned at my first job doing clerical work,” she said.
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