Looking back at my previous careers, particularly the earlier ones, if I talk to people about them, they would sound pretty cool, and possibly glamorous to some people.
WORKING AT HEATHROW AIRPORT, LONDON
I remember my very first job after I graduated was working at Heathrow Airport in London. My role was a Customer Service rep for a travel agent who's core business was selling flights between UK and Hong Kong. This was a looong time ago when people still buy flights directly from travel agents, and many local Chinese in UK couldn't speak English well. Our role was to help them at the airport. The travel agent had a very close relationship with British Airways, so we were like pseudo BA staff, helping out at the check-in desk. We even had clearance to the airside to help with passenger boarding and arrivals. I love airports and the idea of having access every day to areas only available if you're flying was so cool and glamorous to the young me back then.
Taken on my recent trip at Copenhagen Airport
The only downside of the job was the unsociable working hours. Flights from Hong Kong normally arrive UK early in the morning, and we're talking like 5am here. That means I had to get up very early in the morning and be at the airport before the plane lands. Luckily that wasn't a problem for the young me back then. Then I'd finish my shift around 7 or 8 o'clock, go home and sleep for a few hours till around lunch time. The next shift would start at in the late afternoon when check in starts for the evening flights from London to Hong Kong,
I worked there for three months, till I got a 'proper job' and started working in a boring office. I kept in touch with my airport colleagues for while, particularly when I flew back to Hong Kong for holidays, and they'd give me a free upgrade to business class 😄
PAID TO WATCH TV ALL DAY
A year later I left UK and went to work in Hong Kong. Back in those colonial days in Hong Kong, if you speak good, especially native English, it wasn't difficult to find a good job. I got, what some might see as a dream job. I was paid to watch TV all day!! I worked on the English channel at one of the local TV stations, and my role was to preview the programs before they are aired. The English speaking programs were mainly produced overseas and I had to check the content to make sure they complied with the local broadcast standards. Anything that was out of bounds had to be edited out by the editing team. These were mainly things like adverts, too much violence and sexual scenes, and things that were deemed unsuitable for children if it was to be aired during day time.
Since I had just started, my supervisor, a Canadian woman tend to give me all the boring mundane children programs to preview. And she always kept the best programs for herself!! 😡 Then I got some more variety, my favourite was The Golden Girls. They were so funny.
Source
The best thing about working at a TV station was the opportunity to see famous actors and actresses. One time a few of us wandered into one of the studios to watch people filming, I don't think we were supposed to do that 😃.
THE GLAMOUROUS PR EXECUTIVE
After a few months, being paid to watch TV all day got pretty boring. I moved into public relations. PR is always seen as a glamourous job and highly sought after by many young females because you get to attend all these flashy and fun events. In reality it's nothing like that.
Image by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay
I didn't go into PR because of its glamorous image, it sort of found me. Remember I said if you spoke good native English it was easy to get a job in Hong Kong in those days? PR agencies needed to keep up their glamorous image to attract the best clients, and glamourous PR executive's backgrounds were all part of the package.
Ours was a small PR firm and had four staff including the owner. She was a very experienced PR executive, lived overseas for many years and was married to an expat. Then there was Genevieve, a middle age single Malaysian Chinese woman who was always very well dressed and liked to take off her 3-inch stilettos in the office because they were killing her. She pretended she was 30 and couldn't speak much Cantonese because it's much cooler to speak English. And there was another girl, I forgot her name, let's call her Lisa. She had just graduated from overseas like me. I think her family was pretty well off and her grandfather used to be the editor of the local English newspaper which would have been a pretty big deal in his generation. Lisa was really nice, down to earth and we got on well together. Then there was me, a BBC (British Born Chinese), I think I just made the cut 😅
Being the two junior staff, Lisa and I got to do all the shitty work. We used to spend hours each day ploughing through all the newspapers looking for any mention of our clients and doing newspaper cuttings. This is what PR executives really do in their worklife. Plus Genevieve loved to boss us around!
One time, the company was bidding for a new account and had to submit all the staff profiles to the client. It was so funny when Lisa and I read our own profiles. We had become experienced PR executives and all the stuff they said we knew and had done was a glorified version of what we really knew and did. Morale of the story? Never believe half of what the PR agency tells you!!
My PR life was over after a few months as I had to go back to UK. Sometimes I wonder, if I had stuck around, would I become another Genevieve?
WORKLIFE COMMUNITY ON HIVE
The WorkLife Community is the latest community that I am involved in. I'm supporting @whangster79 in building this community which I think is a great way to have some fun on Hive. WorkLife doesn't have to be boring and mundane, you just need to look for the fun in it. Check out the community introduction post here, and ....
https://peakd.com/hive-195880/@whangster79/introducing-worklife-and-community-guidelines
What an interesting story!
It reminds me about my music classes when I was a schoolgirl. I played in school orchestra. Once in a while, we performed at the local philharmonic or even drama theater. And the backstage access for very young me was like ... to look beyond the heaven's door 😇😊 A romantic and mystery )
And ... I agree that many jobs looks much attractive until you try it. But it can be vise versa as well 🙂
This looks like a great new community!
The advantage of being young is that we can afford to dream and do all these unrealistic jobs to try it out, better to find out the reality early on in life!!
Yes, we're hoping the community will take off, do far the response is good
We'd never stop dreaming and trying new things. Although when we grow up we are more strongly bound by responsibility and risks.
I've been thinking a lot about professional burnout in the last year. And I understand more and more people who, at the peak of their career, leave it and start everything from scratch in a completely different area. Maybe I'll even write a post about it in this community.
What a CV! You've had a lot of really cool jobs. If someone paid me to watch TV right now, that's exactly what I would do, especially since I haven't watched TV in 10 years.
The Worklife community is a new addition to the Hive. I try to be as active there as I can because it deserves it. I can't find anything to write about my own worklife, but I've already referred a few friends to write there. I'm going to give my girlfriend a recommendation to write there too. You and @whangster79 are doing a great job!
Thanks @incublus. I'm sure every WorkLife will have some fun aspects, we've started some weekly writeup prompts, maybe you'll find something that relates to you and write about that
Yes, I'll write a post in #worklife tomorrow. You will learn about my dreams haha.
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @mypathtofire ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
Hi @livinguktaiwan,
Thank you for participating in the #teamuk curated tag. We have upvoted your quality content.
For more information visit our discord https://discord.gg/8CVx2Am
Hey check you out, mingling with the celebrities on that TV channel. I loved the bit where you walked into a live recording that reminds me of when I walked in backstage during a live gig at Hammersmith Apollo, in London.
I think we should all do a post like this. Mine would be long though!
how did you manage that?
Well, you know what our WorkLife Community motto is.... Got a story to tell about your job? Tell us all about it in WorkLife. Bring it on!!!!
WorkLife. Ooh that’s a new one on me. It’s quite a story, I’ll do a post about my old career with Londons music scene!
Very interesting! It sounds like you have had quite the experience. I think it is cool to hear about all the things we did that led us to where we are now. I had some really interesting jobs in my past too.
That's the reason we created this community as I bet we all have interesting stories to tell about our WorkLife. Would love to hear yours Bozz. You work in education if I remember correctly?
Yes, I have been in education for just about 20 years now. I had a couple other interesting jobs before that. Mostly retail and service.
Oh, cool that we have this new community, thanks for letting us know. 🙌
P.S. Seriously, you were paid for watch the TV all day?
Yeah, I can imagine it can become boring after some time. I don't even watch it... maybe I should ask someone to pay me for that activity 😅
Yup, no kidding, paid to watch TV all day, it's a real job!!!
We're hoping lots of people will share their WorkLife stories, I'm sure with so many of us around the world all in a different line of work, it's going to be fun.
I remember when my eldest sister used to work at the dxb airport. Her story is similar to yours, in the way that she never really had "normal"working hours. I think the airport jobs also have some glitter and shine attached to them just like PR does, maybe on a smaller scale. Even after climbing the ranks and having a very good position she later quit. "flexible" hours and weird shifts got to her.
I think in the long run the weird shifts really affects your whole family and social life, but sadly it's a fact of life for many, especially the key workers, but then I see those on a mission to serve and support others.
@livinguktaiwan wowow that is so cool and interesting. You had a tons of fun in your work life. Airport job is a dream job for many, even I used to like it alot when I was working in Pakistan Airlines Customer Service Department. You have a wonderful experience and things to remember from your past jobs. I really like the way you tell us about your past jobs.
Thank you for sharing and making us smile while reading your article!!!!
Customer service is a difficult job, always dealing with grumpy customers. Did you come across any bemused cases, let us know in the WorkLife community!
@livinguktaiwan yes, it was and will definitely share soon......
Being good in speaking English is really an advantage. This reminds me of my Boss, she is always amazed of those who are good in this language either verbal or written. She even wanted us to speak the language during working hours😅.
I think English is always going to be the global language so I guess I'm lucky to have that natural advantage. Speaking it at work will definitely help but I do find it a bit weird to speak English with other Chinese when English isn't their mother tongue and I could speak Chinese to them perfectly
Interesting job, @livinguktaiwan they always say as long as they pay well, all work is good, I say both things that they pay well but that the person working does not get bored and feels happy, who says it is me, who celebrated his 70th birthday yesterday, September 25, and understands what it is to work with courage, passion and joy. Success in your publication.
Happy belated birthday!!
You're absolutely right, enjoying the work you do is very important otherwise you just become a machine in life. Unfortunately that's what many of us end up, some out it necessity, and some because they're not willing to let go of the big fat wage packet.
At your young age 😉 I guess you must have so much work experience behind you , please feel free to share in the WorkLife community some time!
Thank you @livinguktaiwan for your congratulations, I will be very attentive to share in such a distinguished WorkLife community, I hope you will observe and analyze my publications on yoga and contribute some suggestions. I wish you much success, from Venezuela.
A good way to get fat, did they give you free pizza?
Sadly not, and no beer nor coke either
LHR is better than LGW.
Golden girls were fund too watch.
Gatwick is a lot smaller especially now Heathrow has five terminals and it's location is much better.
I must dig out the Golden Girls to watch again sometime
Dear, @livinguktaiwan
May we ask you to review and support our @cryptobrewmaster GameFi proposal on DHF? It can be found here
If you havent tried playing CryptoBrewMaster you can give it a shot. Our @hivefest presentation available here on the YouTube with a pitchdeck of what we building in general
Vote with Peakd.com, Ecency.com, Hivesigner
Thank you!
Nope. I don't think you'll become another Genevieve. I can't imagine being in 3 inches stilettos and not falling flat on my face.
Maybe that's why she kept on removing her shoes on the office!
While I don't think I'd enjoy doing any those jobs myself, I found it interesting to ready about them. It has been such a variety of jobs, too.
It's so true, there's always that one (or in a bigger office more) who seems to want to show that they are the boss. For some reason they seem to think it makes them look important, but really it makes them look pathetic that they have to be so bossy. It's like they have to prove their worth to everyone else, but it gives the opposite impression.
Actually it's not only bosses who do that, sometime even the most junior staff have power, like the guard at the front door or even the cleaning lady who cleans the toilet. If they say you can't enter then you cant, doesn't matter if you're desparate to go to the toilet. They have the power to control if you pee or not!!!! 🤣
Very true. They have to show you that they have some sort of power over you, so they are important. I'm not saying everyone does this for that reason, but many of them do.
I don't mind a take-charge person, but when they become bossy, that's when you wonder about their self-esteem.
Airport jobs can be tough that's why I am currently avoiding jobs at Schiphol airport. Some people like to work there but I don't like to be there especially after seeing all the news about the airport. Tv station jobs seem kinda good to me as I am a boring person and I love doing office work... Though I don't know what I am gonna do if I get to see a kid's show all the time... I always wanted PR Jobs or something related to management and I did in Ukraine but unfortunately here, I still need to wait for some time to get a job like this...
I always enjoy Hive Life but now I don't get much time to spend on Hive...
Your post inspired me to write about my job life as well :D... Maybe in the future...
Maybe writing will take your mind off things and back into another world in the happier days...
Hopefully that will help?
Ya, writing always makes me happy, Hive is a relaxing and peaceful place for me. I write whenever I can but yes, as you said, I need to divert myself sometimes to give myself peace. Perhaps, I will start keeping a diary as well.
It is interesting that many of us went through different work till maybe some settle but some still looking for. I always wanted to work in Airport to meet people and guide them but also the feeling of travel and adventure. Maybe that is the reason why I love the movie "Terminal" with Tom Hanks.
I been meaning to watch that for ages, Tom Hanks is very good.
Airport are funny places, back in the old days when communications like videos calls or even long distance calls weren't that easy ( I'm showing my age now 🤣) airports were either very sad or very happy places. As once a friend or family departs it would be a very long time before you would see or speak to them again
Glamorous jobs indeed! Mine haven´t been so glamorous. Did some (movie) translation, staff writing, copywriting, a bit of customer support long time ago... But before that, during my studies, I tried a variety of summer / part time jobs and gigs and some of those were really fun. Tried everything from helping at a construction works site and garden center to being a football commentator :)
Still hoping though that my most glamorous job will be the position of a fulltime Hiver here on the chain hehe :)
A footballer commentator!!! Now that's an interesting one! I always wonder how they can quickly recognise the players and comment on who passes the ball to who and if someone pulled someone's hair or kicked someone all within that split second.
Well, the job that I did was much easier with only several phrases to repeat as it was for some international betting companies (in Singapore I guess) and it was done through a phone call but we still had to be very observant and report every important situation (goals, cards, free kicks, corners etc.) asap since being timely was absolutely crucial :)
That sounds like a great idea for a community. I imagine it would be fun for people who have shared similar jobs to look back at the experiences or for someone who have never worked a certain job to read what it was like for someone else. Or simply to have a laugh or remember how it was :)
That's pretty much what we had in mind, for people to share fun WorkLife stories or even to discover new jobs that we hadn't realised existed and get an insight into what it's like. Hive is so diverse hopefully we'll get to read plenty of them
Wow! Cool. Did not know this part of you. Really cool experiences!
Also, an interesting new community too! congrats!
Hello ! livinguktaiwan
It seems you regularly kept changing jobs in your early work life.No doubt it's really fun to work in different enviornment everytime.You had very impressive starting👌👌. I hope now you have stability, don't change job in a regular basis.😂😂
Thanks man for sharing your job experience.
Interesting!!! I was just laughing and smiling at some point, I totally enjoyed reading this and knowing more about your work life. Working at the airport would be fun for me too because I have never been to the airport once, I know I will be like a baby who sees people moving in a box, lolz.
Watching TV will be a little difficult for me because I don't really enjoy looking at the TV for too long but the aspect that I get to see some renowned celebrities makes it sound fun, hehehe.
Oh PR was not so bad but having a bossy boss is really something that makes working fees tiring sometimes. Well, I'm not sure you would have been like Genevieve, I'm very sure you will have been better because you would have been YOU, smiles 😊.
Like I said, I totally enjoyed reading through, I love how you invited me in so warmly, I guess you are still a PR executive even though you no longer do that, hehehe.
Wow wow 😳😲 this is🙂just wow, this is quite a beautiful and exotic experience you got there, you have virtually enjoyed all there is to this jobs, working in an airport as a customer service, I know how hectic that can be lolz, anything that has to do with customer service is always hectic down to waking up before 5am to meet up with flights is quite a lot and not just for one shift but also in the late afternoons Lol 🤣🤣 you have indeed done a lot sir...
Imagine being paid to watch television all day long, how did you cope with sitting in a place all day in front of screens, that is new to me and even if you enjoyed yourself, there were also some things you didn't like, like when you were given kiddies movies to preview lolz 😂🤣🤣...
I can boldly say that your English has taken you far places than you expected, I think I need to work on my English too lolz if I am going to ever travel down to that part of the world 🌍..
Being a PR was a quite a lot and I also enjoyed you bond with Lisa, I guess if you had your way, you will love to be in Hong Kong and not move back to UK...
This was indeed beautiful to read and I enjoyed myself 😂😂✌️✌️✌️🔥❤️❤️, I read your post witj a popcorn by my side heheh because it was beautiful ❤️🥰❤️
Wow so the fact you are able to speak good English gets you a job😳. That’s nice I must say.