JN
I worked on a trawler and I was seasick the whole time.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 April 2026 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.
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Others on this question
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Melanie Blatt
English singer
Horrible gigs at the beginning, when no one’s interested.
Björn Ulvaeus
Swedish musician
A cabaret act with Agnetha, Frida and Benny. It was in a nightclub in Gothenburg and one night we had seven in the audience. It was before we found out that we were a pop group.
Zoe Ball
British TV and radio personality
The failed attempt at a home perm on myself in the 80s. I wanted to look like Kelly McGillis in Top Gun.
Kim Wilde
English pop singer
I’ve always enjoyed all my jobs, whether it was cleaning the stairs for my piano teacher or working at Lister hospital one summer.
More from Jo Nesbø
View profile →I wanted to play for Tottenham.
Tottenham this season.
Exultation, fear, quiet comfort and even hate.
The world doesn’t consist of bad and good people; it consists of people seeing things in a different way.
Rock climbing in Oslo. During abseiling, I hadn’t tied a knot at the end of the rope and almost slid out. I saw the end of the rope at the last second, so I stopped abseiling.
When Molde won the Norwegian premier league in 2011, the year the club was 100 years old.
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