• Question: Out of the various jobs that you have had, which did you most enjoy and why? Which did you least enjoy?

    Asked by hannahgrimes to Alex, Chris, Harriet, Jed, Ken on 14 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Alexander Zacheshigriva

      Alexander Zacheshigriva answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      I most enjoy the job I am doing at the moment. As for me it is by far the best paid job and I learn most in it. The banter was very good when I worked in the bar in Spain, but don’t think I would want to do this for too long.

      The worst job I have done was making snap-faxes. It’s a small booklet of discounts with magnet covers that are distributed to students. Making them is a very simple and extremely repetitive task. It was mind numbing. I am glad I did it as it gives me a first hand experience of working in a production line environment. But have to say I wouldn’t want to do that ever again.

    • Photo: Ken Gibbs

      Ken Gibbs answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      Hi there Hannah: You ask the most difficult questions !

      I have had about three most enjoyable jobs (designing the Tara handpump; being a trouble-shooter in Baluchestan redesigning piped water systems; and in northern Iraq, training people in how to design gravity water systems). Interestingly, they all had wonderful people associated with them.

      The worst job I had was to have to tell a senior colleague that he was corrupt and that I would not remain silent about what he was doing. It basically destroyed my career as big organisations do not like whistle-blowers. The trouble was, somebody had to do it but nobody had had the courage before me.

    • Photo: Harriet Fletcher

      Harriet Fletcher answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      I enjoy my current job more than any other I have had, even more than the job where directors took us to the pub – and paid – every Friday.

      The thing I have enjoyed most in my current job is commissioning an upgrade to Portsmouth’s sewage works. I was based on site for just over a year making sure that the design came out as planned and that there was no pollution during the building of the new plant. The reason it was so much fun was because the results of all that hard work were there to see. Also, it is a much more informal atmosphere on site as opposed to in the office, all the decisions had to be instantaneous because a crowd of grumpy builders were waiting to get their work done and every wasted minute costs LOTS of money. Design office work is all very well thought through and every decision is fully considered, which is great for getting things right and learning interesting things in detail but it is a slow process so it is very different.

      My worst job (and there have been many) was temping in a youth center office. My boss, who I really liked, was suspended in a really complicated discipline case on my second day leaving me to hold the fort. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to be doing or even how to lock the office at the end of the day. Very weird.

    • Photo: Jed Ramsay

      Jed Ramsay answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      Best job – probably the work I did for Raleigh International last year, where I went to Costa Rica and Nicaragua and worked on installing water supplies to remote villages. The place was amazing with all kinds of incredible wildlife and also volcanoes!

      Worst job – I once did a job which I quit after 1 hour!! I had to stand in a supermarket and try to persuade people going into the shop to buy a special offer. I hated it so much I walked out and left!

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