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The question

What is the worst job you have ever had?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

The Guardian's long-running Q&A repeatedly asks this standing question, with minor tense variation.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

David Vélez

Co-founder and chief executive of Nubank

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
Los diferentes trabajos en los que he estado, después de mi graduación, han sido de 100 y 120 horas a la semana, especialmente empezando con Nubank. Básicamente vivía en el lugar de trabajo. Empezamos la compañía en una casa de dos pisos. Mi cofundador vivía en el segundo piso. Yo básicamente dormía en el primer piso, o pasaba muchas noches en el primer piso. No salimos de esa casa por seis o 12 meses porque trabajábamos como locos.

Vicky Dávila, interview, Semana, 1 October 2022 source ↗

Others on this question

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Martin Compston Scottish actor
There was a period when I did four or five terrible films. My agent said: “Don’t do them.” But it was my month’s rent for a day’s work. One time, my green room was a lorry. It started snowing and it was just me and a plastic chair in the back of an open lorry. It was pretty grim.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 March 2022 source ↗
I had to clean up the sump pump [toilet system] in my house because my sister and I flushed things we shouldn’t have.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 October 2025 source ↗
Caddying for really rich people at this country club in Connecticut when I was a teenager. They would talk like I wasn’t there so I would hear all about their lives, their affairs and their stupidity, and yet I couldn’t say anything.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 February 2024 source ↗
I waited tables for one night at the turn of the century. They were being fussy about how I put the food on the plates, and I couldn’t have cared less.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 October 2019 source ↗

More from David Vélez

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Question What does everyone in your world seem to agree on that you think is wrong? Values & belief
I always say the Nubank story was very unlikely. It was a very low probability event. Again. We were going after these very big incumbent banks. Everybody told me, you know, you're Colombian. You have no idea what you're doing in Brazil. They're going to crush you. Like, don't. Just don't do it. And I did it mostly because everybody told me I couldn't do it. And so, if somebody tells me I can't do something, I want to go do it.
Recorded John Waldron, Goldman Sachs Talks, Goldman Sachs (official event transcript) source ↗
Question What is the biggest professional obstacle you have faced? Craft & work
Sí, empezamos desde cero. Pedimos una licencia de financiamiento comercial, pero es difícil comenzar porque la banca se basa en confianza, regulación y escala. Hay barreras regulatorias que dificultan la entrada de nuevos jugadores. Es un sector históricamente cerrado, que favorece a los incumbentes. Aun así, logramos construir una marca fuerte y generar confianza en los consumidores.
Recorded Alejandra Rico Muñoz, interview, La República, 25 March 2026 source ↗

More on craft & work

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