I'm in my mid 20s. I don't know if I would consider myself to have ever had a permanent, full-time job.
In my late teens, I did some volunteering. My first paid job was at 22 where I was a runner on a TV show. I ended up working with them for five months, mostly on a part-time basis (two days a week) but it was manageable for me. Surprisingly, given the long commute (hour either way) and long hours (10) but I guess two days a week offsets that.
I did a bit more in the TV industry but it was all very intense and I didn't last much longer. Also, it was freelance, and therefore contract based. Not really ideal if you're wanting stability. The opportunities didn't come so easily to me because I was after something which wasn't 5 days a week, 12 hours a day.
It was 2.5 years ago that I last had a paid job. I've done freelance/ad-hoc things in the meantime. More recently, I began looking in a different direction: I reached out to a theatre company in my area as I thought that could be a possible route. I've always been into performing arts anyway.
I had a meeting with someone who set up some shadowing in a primary school. He goes in and runs drama lessons for 5-7 year old kids once a week and I was there to, I guess, get a sense of what it's about and also just to be doing something cos it had been ages. I did that on two occasions, and had another meeting yesterday with someone at the company, and I sat in (and joined in with) a group of young people (with disabilities) who were preparing something.
I'm in a weird position where I don't know if I'll have the mental or physical capacity to do a job, and that's without knowing what the job in this field even is for me. Admittedly I've not made life easy for myself as I physically can't do jobs I don't enjoy - I'd back out after a few days, if that. However, I know there's something here that I can at least explore. I guess it's scary because I'm so out of practice; it feels so long ago that I was studying 5 days a week or whatever (well, it was long ago!) and I almost can't believe I managed that when I was younger.
