You are going to read a magazine article about people who have dream
jobs. For questions, 1-15, choose from the people (A-D). The people may
be chosen more than once.
Which person…………
1. says their job was more important 7. says they believe in freedom of
than it appears? choice?
2. dislikes working with modern 8. doesn't enjoy one aspect of the
technology? job?
3. took a drop in salary in order to do 9. says they aren't an early riser?
the job? 10. now has another role to play?
4. often has to travel at a moment's 11. suffers from claustrophobia?
notice? 12. finds their job hard?
5. used to do two jobs simultaneously? 13. didn't plan to do this job?
6. has a good relationship with their 14. needs assistance with their
employer? work?
15. has to do some very boring
duties?
Chris Arnow asks people with dream jobs if they're as wonderful as they seem.
A. RAQUEL GRAHAM
Raquel Graham rings from the taxi taking her to the airport. She can't make our
appointment tomorrow because her boss wants her to be in Los Angeles instead. When
you're personal assistant to a pop star, you're expected to jet around the world at the drop
of a hat. Raquel loves her job and gets on well with her boss. There is just one minor
problem - she can't stand flying. 'On a nine-hour trip to California I usually take sleeping
tablets to help calm me down,' she admits. Her worst experience was being on Concorde.
'It seemed so shut in with those tiny windows.' Offices in Manchester and London occupy
her when she comes down to earth. There's some mundane paper work to get through -
organising the diary, sitting in on meetings with solicitors and accountants, sorting out
itineraries and making yet more travel arrangements. She didn't train for the job. A chance
meeting with the manager of a pop group led to the offer of work behind the scenes. Five
years later she was in the right place at the right time when her boss needed a PA.
B. DAVID BROWN
David Brown has been an accountant and a golf caddy, a man who carries a golfer's bags.
On the whole, he preferred the golf. Well, so would you if golf was your passion. There
were drawbacks. However, a small flat fee is on offer, plus a percentage of the winnings.
The average earnings are between £25,000 and £35,000 and much of that will go on travel
and hotels. He was 31 when he first caddied for the golfer, Greg Norman. 'You're not just
carrying bags. You’re offering advice, pitting your knowledge against the elements and
trying to read the course.' European Tour Productions recently recognised his accountancy
skills when they made him statistical data administrator. From cards brought in by the
caddies, he compiles and analyses the statistics of each day's play. Television
commentators, golfing magazines, and the golfers themselves seek after the results.
C. MARTIN FERN
Martin Fern is the editor of the 'Food and Drink' pages of a daily newspaper and one of his
less difficult tasks is to sample what's on offer in the finest restaurants. What does he think
about restaurants that charge exorbitant prices? 'For those who can afford it, it's up to
them,' he says. 'I'd rather spend £ 120 on a meal I'll remember for the rest of my life than
buy a microwave.' It was his talent as a cook that led to the offer of a food column from a
friend who happened to edit a Saturday Review. For Martin, at the time creative director
of an advertising agency, it was a useful secondary income. He was 42 when another
newspaper rang to offer a full-time job. 'It meant a 50 per cent cut in guaranteed income,'
he says. 'But it was a chance to convert my passion into a profession.' He still does all the
cooking at home and tries to keep his waistline under control by cycling a couple of miles
to the nearest tube station.
D. DICK PRINCE
'I started writing children's stories about twenty years ago,' says Dick Prince, one of
Britain's most popular children's writers. 'Before that, I had always loved words and
enjoyed using them. However, my writing had mainly been verse. Then I had this idea for
a story. I had been a farmer, and knew the problem of chickens being killed by a fox. So I
wrote a kind of role reversal story called The Fox Busters, which became my first published
children's story.' Where do his ideas come from? 'Well, it's not easy. I have to work at
them,' he says. 'That is what I usually do in the mornings. I'm not up with the dawn, I'm
afraid. After lunch, I spend another couple of hours typing out the morning's scribbling - all
of which I do with one finger on an old portable typewriter rather than on one of those awful
word processors. I get between fifty and a hundred letters a week and that is the part about
being a writer that I enjoy the most. I do try to answer them all, but nowadays I have some
secretarial help.'
