I got my first real job because I could play football

I say real job, because I’d been working whilst studying as a dishwasher, packer, waiter, bingo operator, book-binder, and in a bookies. The interviews for these jobs were straightforward, turning up on time and in the right place got you half way there. My first real interview &ndash; way back in 1994 &ndash; was for a graduate statistician position at a big drug company in the UK. They paid my…