All my fears were soon allayed as I was introduced around the offices. With an office canteen the size of most offices the sheer immensity of the organisation became rapidly apparent. With alcoves of free coffee machines, speakers in the ceilings and an average of four monitors per computer this was clearly techno-paradise. It wasn't long before all my dreams of a week of decadence and glamour were ended when the time came when people in suits have to do what people wearing suits have to do, call their accountants! My first job was filing, followed by photocopying. My heart leapt - all I would have to do would be to file, photocopy, and drink coffee - what a life.
As the first week progressed several things became abundantly clear. First, work does not consist of filing, photocopying and drinking coffee; it involved calculators, computers, pieces of paper and thought - but every so often I was permitted to go and ride in the lifts on the pretence of going to the graphics department. Second, the reason I never see business men on the tube in the morning is because they are all in the office by the time I usually get out of bed. Once the initial shock of working wore off I began to appreciate just how much information there was to deal with in financial markets, and how much work needed to be done to accomplish this. Since I was only doing a fraction of the others around me, city salaries almost seemed justified.
By the time my last day arrived I was looking forward to a slow wind down to the week, requiring minimal effort from me. Instead I found a pile on my desk that almost dominated the office skyline. Then before I even had time for my customary early morning coffee, I had to jump in a cab and courier a phone to the airport, and all before breakfast. This was a welcome end to a fortnight of long days, short nights, and an eye-opening glimpse into a future that could well happen.
Nick Moodie (Liddell's)
However, it wasn't quite like that. Three months later, when no placement had been found for me, my dreams seemed shattered. A few days later it was. I was to work in an investor relations firm.
The day after school finished I set off to work at eight o'clock in the morning, ready for a hard day's work. I arrived at 9:30. My presence was announced to the staff and I went on a tour of the building. 'So what's my first job?' I asked, eager to get going on the multi-million pound deals. 'Filing,' came the reply.
Dismay. My dreams shattered as I spend the whole day filing. I don't know if it's possible to be more bored.
The next few days showed an alarming trend towards filing. Not a good sign. However, four days into the job I attended the results presentation of a major construction company. Progress! I then spent the next couple of days doing work in relation to that company. The next day was quiet as it was just before Easter. At least I got to go home early. Three days left. I discovered that there were rather a lot of charts to do, so I spent the remaining few days making charts and looking up company's details for the records. After celebrating the end of work, a few days later I weighed up all the costs and benefits. Was it worth having to work two-thirds of my holidays? The answer is, quite comprehensively, yes. I doubt that I could have learnt as much anywhere else.
Weng Yu (Busby's)
Work-placement with the Political Editor of The Guardian was absorbing, especially as the first day that I was there was not only the day that Parliament was prorogued but was also the day that The Guardian fired its pre-election broadside over sleaze at the Conservatives. This meant that my first impression of their work was of knuckle-biting anxiety, caused by one simple question; would the Tories attempt to raise a question in Parliament before it was too late and they had to leave. Even after the Speaker relayed the wishes of the Chancellor to the Commons, we were not out of our anxiety: up stood a senior Conservative MP and... thanked the Speaker.
With such an exciting start to the week, it would have been unsurprising if the rest had been a slight anticlimax. However it was nothing of the sort. That week I went to press conferences at both the Labour and Conservative Headquarters, saw Margaret Thatcher go on a inspection tour of the Conservative campaign, attended an 'off the record' meeting between The Guardian staff and Labour spin-doctor Peter Mandelson and, most importantly, organised The Guardian Political Library in the House of Commons office.
All in all this experience was highly rewarding and if I have one complaint it is that after this tremendous experience I am not sure whether it is preferable to be a politician or a journalist; both jobs seem fascinating. I would like to take this opportunity to thank both Michael White for putting up with me for that week and David Hargreaves for giving me the contact.
Tom Balogh (Dryden's)
After spending a week with friends in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem (including Yehuda Amichai), I moved on to Haifa (on Israel's Mediterranean coast), where I assisted in Mrs Guttman's preliminary doctoral research.
The work involved observation of cellular and complete organism activity of heteroxenia under adverse conditions (in the dark and in presence of a photosynthetic inhibitor), genetic work to attempt to quantify diversity between populations of colonies of heteroxenia and dendronepthia, and attempting to culture blood cells from botryllus.
I found my time at the institute highly rewarding, and I would like to say that I was struck by the warmth of my hosts, extending my thanks to Jacob Douek and Hagar Guttman.
Jacob Kenedy (Dryden's)