CE
At King’s College hospital when I was 16; the job was putting hundreds of pieces of A4 paper into A4 transparent envelopes. I lasted one day.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 October 2024 source ↗
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.
Others on this question
View all 230 →
Karamo Brown
American television host, personality and actor
Selling newspapers outside the grocery store for two years.
I was a secret shopper and had to do a lot of bookies – Coral and William Hill – all around London. For 18-year-old me looking all fab it was quite scary going in and saying: “Hiya, can I put £4 on No 7 horse, please?” But you got to keep the money when you won.
Joanne Froggatt
English actress
Scraping plates in a fish and chip cafe in Whitby.
Barack Obama
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
Scooping ice cream is tougher than it looks. … Rows and rows of rock-hard ice cream can be brutal on the wrists. … I was less interested in what the job meant for my future and more concerned about what it meant for my jump shot.
Recorded
LinkedIn, 'Here's the Scoop: Why My First Job Mattered', The Associated Press, 25 February 2016
source ↗
More from Chiwetel Ejiofor
View profile →“You’ll never do well as an actor unless you change your name.” I’m not going to say who.
As vital as breathing.
The different areas of global catastrophe.
Being torn to shreds by a very elderly woman for driving badly on the Isle of Man, maybe 15 years ago. She stopped in the middle of the road and really let me have it.
It’s actually people knowing how fearful I am.
To do the very best you can and then let it go.
More on craft & work
- What accomplishment matters most to you? 192 answers
- How do you tell when a piece of work is done? 67 answers
- What do you do when you feel creatively stuck? 63 answers
- How does a new piece of work usually begin for you? 60 answers
- How much rewriting or revision do you typically do? 46 answers
- What part of your job would surprise outsiders because it takes up so much of your time? 41 answers
Also answered this
Adrian Dunbar, David Arquette, Stephen Graham, Meera Syal, Julian Sands, Joseph Fiennes
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All craft & work questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject