Gifts for a Son Starting His First Real Job

A first real job is one of the better gift occasions because the gap between what he owns and what the job expects is wide and specific. He has a college wardrobe, a college bag, and a college wallet, and he is about to walk into a place where those read differently.

The most useful gifts here are the unglamorous adult equipment nobody budgets for in the gap between the last student loan payment and the first paycheck.

The daily carry upgrade

Everything he touches on the commute is now visible to people who form impressions. That is not a reason to buy him something flashy, but it is a good reason to replace the worn-out version of things he uses every single day.

A new job also adds objects. A building access badge, a company card, a new apartment key, a parking pass. Those go somewhere, and for most people that somewhere is four different pockets.

1. A wallet that holds the new stack. The Metal Brik puts his ID in a quick-access front slot, 7 to 8 cards behind RFID protection, folded cash under the back band, and keys on an integrated keyring. The rechargeable tracking card means a wallet left in a conference room can be rung from his phone. $69.99.
2. A real bag. Leather or waxed canvas, sized for a laptop and a notebook. The backpack from sophomore year is the single most visible college holdover.
3. A full-grain belt. Match it to his shoes. Get the size from a belt he owns rather than his waist measurement.
4. Shoe care and one good pair of shoes. Or a contribution toward them. Shoes are where a first professional wardrobe is usually weakest.
5. A simple watch. Not a statement piece. Something clean he can wear every day for a decade.
6. A good pen. Small, cheap, and disproportionately noticed in a meeting.

The things nobody budgets for

The first months are expensive in ways that are invisible from the outside: commuting costs, lunches, a deposit, work clothes, and the fact that the first paycheck arrives weeks after the expenses start.

Gifts that acknowledge that are more useful than anything decorative.

1. A transit card or parking pass credit. Directly reduces a cost he did not plan for.
2. A good lunch container set. Leakproof and microwave safe. Pays for itself in a month.
3. A dry cleaning gift card. Oddly thoughtful, immediately used, and something he will not spend on himself.
4. Grocery or meal delivery credit. Covers the stretch before the first paycheck without making it a loan.
5. An umbrella that lives in the bag. The commute makes this useful in a way it never was on campus.

What to skip

Skip the engraved desk set, the leather portfolio, and the business card holder. These are gifts for a version of office work that mostly does not exist anymore, and they sit in a drawer.

Skip books about how to succeed at work. Skip anything that implies he needs advice. And skip buying the whole professional wardrobe, because fit is personal and returns are his problem.

For related lists, see first job essentials and what to carry, getting a job after college gift ideas, and work bag essentials for men.

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