The Wrong Job

Alan Taylor

I started in the BBC as a TA.   I actually wanted to be a film recordist, but didn’t know the correct name for the job, so I wrote to the BBC saying that I would like to apply to be a sound engineer.  When I was called for interview, I showed off my technical knowledge and was instead offered a job as a T.A.  It was only when I started the training course at Evesham that I realised I had been recruited into the wrong job. 

To cut a long story short, once I got to Kendal Avenue, if I had completed the ‘C’ course, I would have gone on to become a fully qualified racks engineer, but that wasn’t what I wanted, so I slowed down my progression by applying for attachments to sound dept and anywhere else which would have me. It seemed to be very difficult to transfer to sound dept, even though Colin White wanted to have me.  Eventually I discovered that my line manager in the engineering department was blocking my transfer as a favour to me because he knew that the academic entry qualifications for TAs required A level qualifications, while TOs could join with O levels.  He felt that I was applying for demotion and was protecting my interests until I saw the error of my ways. Once I realised what the obstruction was, I was able to circumvent it and permanently transfer to sound.

Looking back, although at the time I resented wasting several years by doing the wrong job, those attachments to other departments gave me an unusually wide experience of many aspects of OB work, which proved to be invaluable later in my career, especially when I started freelancing and job descriptions were a little more flexible.

 

Roger Long

I too felt I was in the wrong job initially in the Beeb.

At my board they produced the missive I had written at the age of 12 to them. I was fascinated by tape machines, mics, editing and echo devices. (I had an Engineering Monograph on Radio Phonic workshops by Daphne Orram).

I was employed as a TO, perhaps I should have been a Radio SM. I was sent to Bush for on-station training and thence to ETD Wood Norton. The control room work, lines and control bored me stiff.

Luckily, Tape editing came my way and then an attachment to Studio Managing which I enjoyed.

At the same time, a copy of “Aerial” introduced me to the world of filming: I applied to be a trainee Sound Recordist. That was more like it, even if it required base transfer and dubbing work, it enabled life on the road to be revealed and I loved being a boom op.

I did many “Plays for Today” and foreign shooting as an assistant recordist, eventually becoming a recordist in Bristol aged 26. That was an eye opener, much more friendly than TFS Ealing and the travel was amazing in scope and distance.

The Natural History Unit (NHU), Music and Arts, Anthropology, Docs and Drama all came our way.

It did work out all right in the end, it was a mystery sometimes, more of a miracle perhaps.

Alan Taylor

I’m convinced that the reason I was put into the wrong job was due to the recruitment interview board.

I had explained that I was very keen on using tape recorders creatively, had used the school Ferrographs extensively, but wanted a tape recorder which I could use at home.  My parents couldn’t afford to buy one for me, but with my savings and a massive contribution from my parents, I was able to afford a tape recorder in kit form.  I also made minor modifications to it to make it more versatile.

The interview board seemed quite impressed that I claimed to have built a tape recorder and tested me about how things like bias oscillators and how the erase head works.  Obviously I mentioned the hysteresis of magnetic tape and how the bias helps to overcome it.  They seemed impressed, so I carried on in the same vein. …I remember the thing which most impressed the interview board. In order to set up the bias oscillator, the manual recommended using a valve voltmeter.  I didn’t have access to one, but built a simple transistorised device from a design in a magazine (“Wireless World”, or “Practical Wireless”) ….

They completely ignored the fact that I learned how to build a tape recorder because I wanted one to use creatively.  All they could see was that I was handy with a soldering iron and a test meter. My interest was with the operational aspects. The engineering knowledge was acquired mostly as a means to an end, and a general inquisitiveness about how things work.

Chris Woolf

Perhaps because I made the move from staff to freelance at a relatively early stage, I always enjoyed – and still do – the freedom to move between the operational and engineering streams. The “wrong job” didn’t exist for me, and the requirement for engineers to grasp the demands and practicality of operations, and the need for operators to recognise that engineering is what makes our industry work, has always been a splendid duality. Neither branch can do without the other, but both have to run to keep pace with development.

Roger Long

My first board was in 1965 which I passed, but they had no vacancy, they said they would [have] in 1966.

My mate and I worked in the local Ribena factory, at London Rubber cleaning out the French chalk on the Marigold line and also the Durex stress tester rig. We also did a road survey for the MOT for the Severn Bridge crossing flow on the A48.

We went to Newquay in his A35 van, and camped and tried to surf, the locals laughed at our ex WD camo kit. One night after cider at the pub by the old dock slipway, we were awoken by a PC on his bike, and he told me to ring home. My dad was a chief inspector, the Beeb had rung him and wanted me on site 01 September 1965.

I was most impressed they found me so quickly and returned post haste.

The World Cup in 1966 needed TOs for Comms and Communication, we were rushed into operation. I hated footy, we were based in the Langham, a TV feed and a C&C desk with a continuous supply of South American commentators and their mates (mostly pissed) passing through. There was little command and control, they all shouted as soon as the red light came on.

Pat Heigham

It’s inevitable that Tech Ops would be staffed by chaps interested in [building electronic equipment], although I’m slightly puzzled by the guys who reckoned that they were brought into the wrong jobs.

My own experience of the interview boards, after I had written cheekily, to ask, no, demand a job, it was suggested that there were positions available in Sound Radio, would I be interested?

Yep, because I had seen the internal notice boards at BH and realised that one could possibly transfer within the BBC.

I got sent to TV Tech-ops, which suited me perfectly. I never felt that it was a chore to go to work, more an extension to a hobby. (Although I was hauled into Sturley’s office at Wood Norton and invited to ‘pull my finger out’ if I wanted to remain). This was due to my slacking off, as I had just come from regimented education and mentally rejected the return to a classroom environment.

I suppose that if the selection boards got it right, it would be inevitable that people with the same interests would be offered a job.

and finally ….

The Wrong Job – 2

There are times when we see other people making fortunes – using skills that we possess – and makes us think that we are definitely in the wrong job…

Dave Plowman

I’m wondering if it as often seen on Ebay. Out of stock, and simpler to put up the price to one none would pay, than to pull the ad and start it again when stocks arrive?

Dave Newbitt

I am familiar with the syndrome, Dave, but perhaps [it is] not applicable here? Other than Alasdair’s highlighted £36,200 offering, there are featured 4 other cables at £6,200; £4,400; £3,650 and £2,700, and all 5 items are listed as available to order – presumably meaning there are never as such stocks held of any of them, so the idea of ludicrous prices being listed until stock is available seems perhaps unlikely. Maybe they’re just having a laugh and would laugh even more if anyone ever placed an order!

Pat Heigham

For that money I would want the digital recorder on the end (or maybe the whole post production suite!)