by Crikey work experience kid Nicolas Bradley

For this week’s Crikey Question™ we are going way back to uncover all of the scandalous dirt on the misspent youths of the Crikey team members. That’s right, as part of the experience of my work experience, I have been instructed to ask the following: What did you do for work experience?It’s time to don the <insert decade specific and humourous fashion item here> and put on some <insert obscure older musician here>, we’re taking a ride back in time!

Sophie Black, Editor Ahem. New Idea. Even as a cripplingly shy 15-year-old hobbling around in bad (fashionable at the time, and currently now THE HEIGHT of fashion again) clogs, I knew that being at New Idea was not cool. But gee it was amusing. There was a frisson of excitement that week in the office, the mag had scored the exclusive rights to the wedding pics of one Danni Minogue to one Julian McMahon (yes, remember this film clip?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26e-ptrht-U )

Most exciting task?  Picking shots from international photo agencies of Rod n Rachel, Tom n Nicole, yada n yada so that the back page team could fashion stories around them. Also, opening readers’ entries for Mere Male, a great time killer. Most humiliating moment? Ironing the clothes for the impossibly sun kissed model who’d just jetted in from Germany for a fashion shoot, and was THE SAME AGE AS ME. Terrifying stuff.Flashing her boobs to everyone in the room to ask if she needed a boob job, showing off her new tattoo — freshly inked on left buttock — and doing the European double air kiss to everyone except me.

I longed to be her. If only they could see me now… livin the dream…

Amber Jamieson, Journalist Well, I had a few different work experience placements in high school. There was the stage I was convinced I was going to become a lawyer, so did a week at the Magistrate’s Court. I remember absolutely nothing from it, but I needed corporate clothes. Mum bought me an ill-fitting blazer and a cheap dress. Ten years on that dress is still a wardrobe staple.

I also did a week at Freehill’s law firm, which happened to be the week before Christmas. I handed out the fancy gourmet Christmas hampers to all the lawyers and got to keep one. Yes! Fancy chocolate and jams for me!

Then there was my show business phase. Apparently it’s not easy for an actress to do work experience, so instead I went to a dingy casting agency in St Kilda where I did data entry.

My final work experience was with a well known Foley artist. One day I spent hours sitting in a theatre watching the same 30 seconds of The Quiet American as they added on layers of sound I couldn’t hear. Another day I was out on a big yacht on Port Phillip Bay, literally hanging off the side with a microphone to catch the sound of waves. It was cool.

Leigh Josey, Production Manager I’m from WA and we didn’t have work experience placements — at least my school didn’t have them. And if they did, I didn’t do it. But if I could have that chance again — I’d probably do my work experience as an astronaut. Or a fire truck.

Glenn Dyer, Journalist Worked in a butchery, delivered newspapers, worked in a printing works, worked as a chainman with a surveyor and a builder’s labourer

Andrew Crook, Journalist I went to dad’s office in the city and faffed about with the stapler. The occasional spreadsheet was printed out for me to highlight pointlessly.

Jason Whittaker, Deputy Editor In high school?  I got dispatched to Brisbane’s favourite alternative street press newspaper – Rave, Scene, Binge; I forget the name – when as a petrified and deeply naive 14-year-old I took the hour-long train trip from the semi-rural badlands of Caboolture into the junkies’ haven of Fortitude Valley to compile gig guides filled with bands I’d never heard of playing at venues I’d never dreamed of attending. Thankfully, after a few days, the polo shirted gang at neighbouring Golf Australia magazine took sympathy on me and I ran errands for them instead.

Richard Farmer, Journalist I finished school one October on a Friday at age 16 and started work on the Monday as a cadet journalist. Work experience placements were unknown in my days at school during the 1950s. I had worked for many years during the Christmas holidays to earn enough pocket money to buy the family presents. It was at an automobile repair shop using machines to blast pistons with ball bearings to enlarge them if my memory is right which it probably isn’t!

First Dog Onthemoon, Cartoonist I was a volunteer at Public Radio 2XX in Canberra in the late 1940s justbefore the War. It was a hotbed of Ideologically Sound Lesbian Hijinksand I discovered that I have a natural affinity for radio (as I do for many things). I have a deep, reassuring and mellifluous radio voice which made me a favourite among Canberra’s burgeoning Thrash Metal scene, all of this achieved in spite of my debilitating speech impediment.

Nicolas Bradley, Work Experiencer I’ve spent my last week or so on the leading edge of journalism; a modest publication you may remember as Crikey. So far I’ve made a twitter account, done a morning coffee run, dug up dirt on the shady Greens, written a Crikey wrap, compiled a media brief and re-dubbed articles for aggregation with extremely humourous and massively witty titles, all whilst smoking cigars and drinking heavily (nothing like a glass of scotch in the morning to wake you up). Aside from picking up bad habits from these journalism types (too late now) there’s still much more to be done… Wish me luck!

Nicolas Bradley