I think I have been lucky in these situations, in that I have come across people who are willing to listen and then judge a person on their merits. Other people, I know, have not been quite so fortunate. In a sense it is frightening, the jobs were either foisted upon me or picked at random from a newspaper. So easily it could all have gone the other way. I could have met inflexible interviewers and become discouraged, ending up back in a factory-style job. Instead, I was lucky to get jobs that helped me develop and gave me vital experience which would come in extremely useful later in life.
At the end of my talk Mr Hatch sat back, slightly shell shocked.
“It’s unbelievable that you should ever have tried for this job. It strikes me that you’ve got no talent at all, but, on the other hand, you’ve obviously got something or you wouldn’t be here. Well…I’ll risk putting my nose out of joint with the other directors and give you the job.” I was happy, believe me, but I think poor Mr Hatch was in a state of some confusion!
I found that learning to be a telephonist was easy. By the end of the first week, I had managed to memorise all the numbers. It was a good position because I was at the centre of things. Everyone would say: “Go and see Chrissie. She will know who deals with that.” Before long, I was given the chance to learn the basics of design and layout and thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.
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