LucyRogers

1. Able to convince yourself that you do not have a proper job
2. Good for the ever-bubbling wanderlust, as you are able to convince yourself you WILL volunteer in that orphanage / become fluent in Spanish etc at the end of the next contract. Or the one after that.
3. Regular spring clean of colleagues, desk, and role is healthy
4. No bizarre employees lingering in the corner of the office because somebody has forgotten to sack them.

Cons

1. Unable to convince your parents that you have a proper job

2. The kick in the teeth feeling of doing a good job and still getting a boot out of the door

3. The very real fear you will reach a year long draught of work and become pyjama wearing depressive

4. The never ending feeling that you are on an initial 6 week trial.

I’ve had some utterly bizarre jobs. Some are displayed as medals on my CV, but most are safely filed away in the ‘life experiences best not to talk about’ area of my brain. One such hellish posting was ‘Data Cleansing’ (I’m still not sure what that means) in Slough one achingly hot Summer. My induction was with a dead-eyed manager who told me two things.

1. Never tell anybody where you are calling from, because everybody hates us.

2. No-one lasts longer than a month.

I lasted 2 weeks.

Veering towards the bragging end of the career scale, I was an apprentice dolphin trainer in Mexico. The dogsbody of the marine world, my daily task was to wave an extremely large pole around to ward off swooping seagulls stealing the dolphin’s fish. Three months of diligent pole waving later and I got my chance at being the big shot; making the dolphins pull scarily obese Californians around the pool for a ride.

I’ve been a deputy manager of a behavioural needs school looking after monstrously mischievous children. Standing one day in the middle of a main road reasoning with a urinating 7 year old, I realised this is what I wanted to do with my life. Well, not EXACTLY that, but being given a chance to experience a life, a job or a viewpoint for a while. The realisation that being a documentary maker may mean I could spend my life finding out just how Mr Normal chooses to live his weird and wonderful life is my idea of heaven. And I really hope I get there. For now, I’m a slightly over keen researcher, which is undoubtedly the best job I’ve ever had.

I will to track my progress as a fledgling doc newbie for the next few months via this blog. I’m hoping it might help me make documentary-making friends, and could even have helped me two years ago when I was trying to find a door into the mysterious world of docs.