On my first day, I stepped out into the rain. Gradually, as Work Experience was drawing closer to an end, the weather started to change. From rain to shine. I don’t know if that’s good or bad but I cursed at the weather. Even the universe was against me. Angel was nice though. Lots of shops to explore during lunch hour and attractive buildings to look at. The people were nice too, which really shocked me. People? Nice? Yeah, I found it hard to believe too. They smiled at you, you smiled back at them and then they winked. Very nice people indeed.
After crossing a few roads and taking shortcuts through buildings, we were finally there. The new hellhole which would replace school for the next two weeks. I still remember that certain trickle of uneasiness running down my spine as I started to take my first steps inside this new place. The receptionist looked scarier than Hitler himself so I always remembered to avoid eye contact with him. There was a familiar smell occupying this building. The sharp smell of computers. I never get tired of that smell. At least I wont be bored, I told myself. Oh, how wrong was I.
I went into the IT department. They even gave me job title, to make it that little bit more realistic. I was Tina, the Junior IT Support Assistant. Cute. I worked for a company called “Giant UK Services” and I still have no clue what the Hell they do. Something with computers but that’s as much as I know. Shows how enthusiastic I was, eh? Probably because I really didn’t want to go there. I was looking at going in the army, since I am going to serve my queen and country once I turn 16, but that’s an entirely different story. Reason why I went with them was because of my brothers. I have three older brothers – all of them in their 20s – and two of them work there. The oldest, Vas, is a Systems Manager and that’s impressive. He’s as close as you’re ever going to get to a real life Neo [or Thomas Anderson, if you must]. If anyone has a problem, they go to him. If he cannot fix it, then they’re all doomed… that has never happened but hopefully, it will. Something to talk about, I suppose. The youngest is Stef. His job title is Support/Helpdesk and occasionally, Vas’ lapdog. He thinks he knows everything but he really doesn’t, which occasionally made me chuckle quietly in my own little corner.
There were nine of us, including me. Two groups, each with four desks grouped together to make a square. My brothers were together along with two other work colleagues, and they were closer to the door. Bah humbug were the first two words that came out of my mouth, followed by sweat and a quick Hello to all the others. I was the grouch of the millennia and with every reason too. I was dragged out of bed at six o’clock for this.
I was on the other side with three others and I can still remember their names. Mark M. was next to me and he was also new. He’s been with them for around two months. Opposite us were Rachael and Chi, both Asian with both very strong accents that were hard to make out. They also looked the same, which is truly a terrible thing to say, bearing in mind that Rachael was a woman and Chi a man. Someone made a joke about that actually. A secretary came in and was having a conversation with my brothers, one thing led to another and the next thing you knew, they were discussing how all Chinese people looked the same. Looking at the two opposite, I was nodding my head off.
But anyway…the ninth person there was Gareth. He was in charge of all of us but he wasn’t the boss. A chubby guy called Mark was. If there’s an award for the biggest suck-up out there, Gareth takes it with no competition. Every time Mark congratulated someone, Gareth always twitched and you could always see he was green-eyed. But whenever Mark patted him on the back, he showed off. For the whole two weeks, I was laughing at his idiocy…without him noticing. I hope.
You’d think that a 30-something year old man who is married with children would behave like one! I know seven year olds who act better than him. Stef warned me about him. He also told me to not laugh if Mark ever shouted at him for his dim-witted mistakes. I tried, honest to God I tried my best to not laugh…but when Mark went up to him and asked him what he’d been doing for the past two hours and found absolutely nothing…if you were there, you would be laughing like a hyena too. You see, Mark used to be a sergeant. It still runs in him because when he shouts, my God he shouts. I made another mental note; don’t annoy him.
On my first day, I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. From nine till five, I just sat there in front of my computer like a zombie. I had the Internet, heck, I even had broadband but there was absolutely nothing to do. I e-mailed my best friend but I knew I wouldn’t get an instant reply because she was also on work experience. The most interesting thing that happened for the whole day was lunch hour. I went with Vas and we got McDonalds. We both had Big Macs. It was the best thing I’ve ever eaten but then again, even dirt tastes good on an empty stomach. We spent around thirty minutes gobbling the soggy food down so we had time to ourselves. I admit I was miserable and he could probably see that but then again, wouldn’t you be down if you just sat there in front of a computer until your brain turned to mush?
My brother is kind so he took me to a bookshop and boy, did I do well! I went in miserable and I came out beaming with happiness! I bought a Calvin & Hobbes book [I am a huge fan of Bill Watterson…] and a Japanese comic otherwise known as a manga. It’s a pretty popular manga and its called “Blade Of The Immortal”. I needed that particular one to finish my collection and because of that, I went back to the office all cheery and high. Then I sat in front of the computer again and slipped back into my old miserable self…until five. Then it was home time. I was the first one out of there. I must’ve ran faster than a cheetah.
Most days were like that. Everything was just so slow. It was like time never existed but I somehow survived. Stef gave me a website address which led me to a chess site. I played chess with an AI so I was pretty proud of myself whenever I won. I wasn’t supposed to play games though but I honestly did not care. I tried my best to not make every day like the first day. It was that bad and I didn’t want to go back to it.
Eventually, I was given some work and I’m using that term extremely loosely. I had to type a few numbers in Excel then do some filing. We live in the 21st century, at a time where man has gone in space and has created weapons capable of destroying the whole world at a push of a button and still we have to do filing? The world is a cruel, cruel place. On top of that, I had this crazy woman constantly on my back. She was like the librarian from Hell, except she wasn’t a librarian and she was in Islington. I refuse to call her woman. She is not part of mankind.
She screamed at anything that seemed out of place then she would go up to a random person and complain to them. Every time I saw her, I quivered uncontrollably, like some sort of reflex action. If you ever meet a woman – no – thing like that, please stay away from it. That was probably the scariest thing from the whole of Work Experience. Scarier than Sgt. Mark.
Apart from that, I also had other stuff to do. I wont lie to you; I had only three other jobs to do. Altogether, I had five jobs to accomplish throughout the two weeks. The remaining three were making graphics, upgrading computers and sorting out CDs. Quantum Physics sounds more fun.
The graphics weren’t too bad since art is a field I excel at. I don’t mean to brag but I am better at art than the average fifteen year old. I had to make a few buttons and banners to go up on the website using a computer program. There were no problems there. I had some fun making them and they liked the results.
Now, the other two jobs were not as enjoyable. Upgrading computers was just time-consuming and monotonous. I had to stop people from their work, throw them off their computer [not physically, mind you] and sit there for twenty minute while they glare at you with eyes fit to kill. I only noticed that when I looked into the monitor and saw the reflection. It’s a pretty awkward situation since you don’t know them well enough to strike up a conversation. I had to the same thing to about fifteen others. By the end of it, I was the one glaring at Vas since it was him who should’ve done it.
That wasn’t the worst though. Sorting the CDs out has to take the biscuit. It sounds easy but wait for it… I had to do it in the server room. If you’ve ever been in a server room, you would be sympathising with me right now. Servers are huge machines and without them, the computers would just not work. This server was gigantic and there were wires and cables everywhere; it was mind-boggling. Since it runs 24:7, it produces a lot of heat so to fix that problem, they put a fan in the room. It was like walking in a freezer that was inside another freezer. Moscow at winter is warmer than the server room! So there I was, all alone inside this sub-zero prison sorting out hundreds of CDs. I would’ve died of hypothermia if it weren’t for my thick polo-neck jumper with the trouser suit. To make things that little bit more ironic [without meaning to, of course], the boss called me out for ice cream. He was treating us all. Although I was whiter than snow, ice cream is ice cream so I just couldn’t refuse! For payback, I chose the most expensive one. Revenge is as sweet as Walls ice-cream.
The work colleagues were lovely people though. Excluding Gareth, no one likes Gareth. They were the sorts of people I would love to hang around with. They used intelligible words, which is very rare in today’s society! Like all computer geeks, they were sarcastic and most of them were cynical. I finally found people who were like me. They shared hilarious computer jokes and they were all making references to The Matrix. Quite amusing, actually. Most of them dressed like characters from The Matrix. The leather coats, the sunglasses, the gelled hair… some even spoke like them! It was very refreshing to see people with the same interests as me but it was a shame we couldn’t really interact. They actually had work to do and I didn’t want to keep them from it.
The best thing about the whole experience was trying to find the Capital Agent during lunch hour. A radio station called Capital FM has this competition that anyone can enter, if you’re at the right place. They send out a guy to a certain place and if you find him, you win money. Lots of money. To win, you must go up to him and say, “Are you Capital Agent 958”. There’s one catch though. You have no idea what he looks like. So there I was, out on the streets of Angel with my older brother, trying to find a complete stranger. I had to walk up to guys asking them “Are you Capital Agent 958?”. What made it worse was I was dressed in black from head to toe. Even my glasses have a thick black frame. Judging from their facial expressions, they must’ve thought I was going to take them away to be interrogated in an underground, sinister basement inside a top-secret government building. That or me being a total nutcase. In the end, we had to give up otherwise the boss would’ve found out. It was great fun though.
That was the highlight of my Work Experience. My Computing teacher came to visit but the whole thing lasted about ten minutes. She asked me a few questions about the work and I exaggerated a little. If it means me getting a good record, then I’ll lie as if there’s no tomorrow. Fair’s fair.
Apart from all that, nothing else really happened. If I weren’t told to do anything, I would play chess or watch animated stick figures. It’s actually much more amusing than it sounds. I didn’t go in on the last day because I played sick. After all, that’s part of Work Experience. I just wanted it to make it as realistic as possible. What kind of a person doesn’t play sick?
Overall, it was the worst two weeks of my life but at least I know that’s what to expect if I ever go into IT. Needless to say, I am steering well away from it. However, I did get a good report although in my opinion, I don’t exactly deserve it. I didn’t really do anything and I was just getting in the way since they had to really think of a few jobs I could do. I’m just glad it’s all over.
Tina Christodoulou
10A