Worst. Summer. Job. Ever.

One of the most humbling, hilarious and unifying adolescent experiences is the summer job - that unavoidable little stepping stone to adulthood that teaches us a thing or two about responsibility, time management and how best to hide a hangover.

During the hottest months of the year - in a frigid climate that is largely unforgiving - beach volleyball and summer crushes are squeezed in between hours spent schlepping fries at some thousand-degree fast food joint, folding t-shirts at a not-so-trendy boutique in the local strip mall or at any number of unglamorous jobs that spell pocket money and do wonders to quiet parental hounding.

Not to worry – even Hollywood's best and brightest had to start somewhere and writer-director Greg Mottola (Superbad, The Daytrippers) waxes nostalgic about his summer job in the upcoming comedy Adventureland, where he fictionalized the one sunny season he spent working the games and small-scale roller coasters at an amusement park in his native Long Island.

Sure Mottola, and his film stand-in Jesse Eisenberg, had to deal with fussy, entitled kids, neighbourhood ruffians and spoiled corndogs but we all bear battle scars from what we deem to be our worst summer jobs. And as far as they go, working at an amusement park boasts more than a touch of that carny charm.

Watch the Adventureland trailer

As for myself, my worst summer job can be summed up as follows: I didn't start the fire.

In a smallish Northern Ontario town, at the ripe age of 15, I begrudgingly donned the polyester costume that would be part of my teenaged burden when I took a job at a local coffee joint. Abysmal training, lack of communication and my own self-centered adolescent attitude spelled a rather crappy way to spend the hours of 9 to 5.

Then one fateful day less than three months into employment, I put a bagel in the toaster and moved along to the next customer, as I had so often done, but soon noticed a thick cloud of smoke rising to the ceiling. Turning around to identify the source, I quickly realized the firestarter in question was my bagel (!) and proceeded to douse it with a cup of water - but not before trying to coax it out using, wait for it, a knife.

Despite the fact that the bagel somehow got stuck inside the toaster without any wrongdoing on my part, I never fully escaped the “girl who started the fire” tag and it wasn't long before I was called into the manager's office, told I was "a good little worker" and sent on my way. Pretty standard stuff, no? There’s more.

I unwisely asked for a letter of recommendation and was, perhaps unsurprisingly, given a rather questionable facsimile: a hastily scrawled message, written in pencil on a torn piece of lined paper, that was not signed but stamped, and incorporated three point-form comments about my stellar personal hygiene, punctuality and willingness to learn.

Bolting out of the coffee shop that day, not wanting to prolong the walk of shame, I felt my face burn red with embarrassment and thought it was just about the worst thing I could imagine. Needless to say, I got over it though the memory still stings. And something tells me I’m not alone.

I want to know about your worst summer job. Don't be shy - share the shame!