MB
Horrible gigs at the beginning, when no one’s interested.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 July 2023 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 →
Victoria Derbyshire
British broadcaster
Working in a furniture factory in Warrington when I was 17. It was a summer job, and I had to cover the studs in the back of Chesterfield sofas with leather.
Emeli Sandé
British singer
I was a perfume girl at a department store in Aberdeen. I was so bad at it, I didn’t make it to the end of the day.
Jennifer Hudson
American singer and actress
I’ve loved all my jobs, even when I worked at Burger King.
Andrea Riseborough
British actress
Either shredding duck in a Chinese restaurant, or Oblivion.
More from Melanie Blatt
View profile →I haven’t stopped crying since Glastonbury, because I’m on a massive comedown.
I would put the brain that I have now into my 20-year-old body.
Just being remembered at all would be great.
Now, with time and wisdom you know your happy places.
“Your career will be over if you have the baby.”To whom would you most like to say sorry, and why? My parents, for my teenage years. I tried to run away when I was 15. We lived in a fishing village in France and, with my boyfriend, I headed to Spain to sell arts and crafts on the beach. Mum came and took me home.
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
Sue Perkins, Ricky Wilson, Björn Ulvaeus, Martin Kemp, Charlotte Church, Craig David
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