As Malcolm's time at school came towards it's end in 1958, he had to consider what to do when he left. As he wished to go straight to work and thus having decided against university, he thought about becoming a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm. However, his qualifications were not suffucient so he then opted to become an Architect. To this end, his father approached his brother-in-law, Arthur Greatorex, who was the Personnel Officer for the construction firm of Fairweather Brothers, he being related to the founders family. From his interview it transpired that Malcolm's qualifications were not sufficient for this profession either.

Malcolm applied to the building contractor George Wimpey & Co Ltd. He was called to an interview at their headquarters in Hammersmith and seen by George Vickery, the head of the Central Estimating Department where a program was run to train Quantity Surveyors. Malcolm was accepted without difficulty. The job would be to learn the profession from the bottom upwards which included one full day per week at Building College plus one evening at nightschool. He started wotk inJanuary 1959

Malcolm found that he was getting stagnant at Wimpeys and, in 1970, looked for another job elsewhere. He applied to City of New Sarum District Council for which he was called to interview. In order not to raise suspicion at Wimpeys, he went by car during the daytime as if he were going to site and stopped in a lay-by on the way to Salisbury to change into suitable clothes. He was to be interviewed by the City Engineer Mr.Rackham and Malcolm was warned not to call him Mr.Rackman which was the name of a notorious London landlord who was in the news at the time. He was successful in his application.

The job at New Sarum District Council proved unsuitable as Malcolm had very little work to do and was consequently very bored. In seeking new employment, Malcolm was made aware of an advertisement that Lesser Building Systems were seeking a Measuring Surveyor. They manufactured and erected prefabricated timber buildings and it seemed ideal as their premises were within one mile of his home. His interview was on a Saturday and he walked from home on a wet morning wearing a freshly cleaned white raincoat. As he neared the premises, a lady drove through a puddle next to him and drenched him. She was being followed by the village policeman on his motorbike so was driving cautiously, however, the policeman thought it was funny and laughed.

The interview was successful but it turned out that the post for the Surveyor had been taken so Malcolm was offered, and accepted, a job as a Contracts Executive. The position also included a company car which was good inasmuch as Malcolm was on the verge of buying a new car. However, the benefits of working close to home would be offset by much travelling. Malcolm started on 1 March 1971

When he had decided to leave his job with Lesser Building Systems, he thought to retrain as a progremmer. On seeing an advertisement in the local paper in March 1983, he went along to an induction seminar at Shaftesbury. He was told there that he would be too old to be considered as a programmer but could apply for the Systems Analysis course. As he was already there, he agreed and sat the aptitude test. He was interviewed in Bournemouth on 29 March and succeeded in gaining a place for the course starting in Bournemouth on 17 October. The course was a Training Opportunities Scheme (TOPS) sponsored by the government Manpower Services Commission and run by International Computers Ltd. Malcolm had to become unemployed in order to qualify for the course so he and the family were managing on unemployment benefit.

Coming to the end of his TOPS training course, Malcolm had to find a place for six months with a business who would accept him as a novice, but they would not have to pay his wages. He was not having much success until shortly before the due date when a chance remark with a former colleague found him a place offered with the builders of retirement flats, McCarthy and Stone at their head office in New Milton. They were in the early stages of installing computers so did not have much expertise. He was taken on in the Estimating Department so that if his computer skills did not work out, he could revert to his former skills as a Quantity Surveyor. He joined the company for a twelve week period commencing on 12 December 1983.

Being unsatisfied with his current job, Malcolm started to look around to see what else was available. An advertisement for a business in Yeovil came to his attention so he applied and was called for interview. The date fell in th emiddle of a week that the family were on holiday in Okehampton, Devon so Malcolm came home the night before with the intention of returning to th eholiday after the interview. The premises were on Pen Mill industrial astate. The interview did not start well as Malcolm got the name of his interviewer wrong but that did not stop him being offered the job. The job was to cold call on small businesses on industrial estates and sell them an accountancy software package, install it then never return. Malcolm found this totally unethical and declined the offer.

He went for an interview in Salisbury on a sweltering hot day for a totally different sort of job. It was to manage a team of market survey personnel. Malcolm thought that his organisationl skills would suit but the interviewer considered Malcolm to be way over-qualified to be offered the position.

A position to install the same sort of computers with which Malcolm was familiar came up with Dorset Police. Malcolm secured an interview at their headquarters in Winfrith. He went through a series of interviews and was shown around the premises. The job would have entailed setting up new systems in the workshop in Winfrith then taking them to selected police stations to be installed. The person showing Malcolm around was impressed by Malcolm's knowledge by the final panel that interviewed him rejected him. Malcolm was actually thhrown by that last interview as there were no questions about his technical ability of knowledge but were a series of hypethetical questions about what action he would take in certain circumstances.

Malcolm did find an interesting advertisement in the Southern Daily Echo for a position at Midland Bank. The requirements did not exactly fit his experience but a visiting computer engineer mentioned that the bank did have the same type of Burroughs microcomputer which Malcolm had been working on. Malcolm applied pointing out these facts and was invited to interview which went very well. He was able to deal with all the points raised and it transpired that the skills that he had were about to be required by the bank but they had not advertised them at that stage. He started work as a Programmer on 12 May 1986 in the Business Systems department of the Midland Bank Insurances Services headquarters in Southampton.

Once Malcolm knew that he was to be made redundant from the bank, he approached his contact in the cabling company that undertook much of the bank's work under Malcolm's direction. They did not think it suitable for him as he was used to bigger things.

In 1998, Malcolm responded to an advertisement by Pioneer Shopfitting who were located in the industrial estate at the opposite end of the village when Malcolm lived. It was a small business run by a husband and wife. The interview was casual and Malcolm managed to demonstrate his office skills and his background of building knowledge. Malcolm was offered the job of Contracts Executive but with a salary which was naturally below what he had previously earned for which the interviewer apologised. Malcolm accepted and said that he was happy with the salary as it was a job in retirement.

Cocurrent to the previous job, Malcolm applied for the position of Weekend Library Assistant at Bournemouth University Talbot Campus. The interview was very perfunctory and he was offered the position without too much questioning.

East Dorset DC.