By Stephen Moss

I was at university in the 1970s， when people were less likely to have a holiday job. I remember signing on but never got offered any work. Reading about the summer jobs makes me feel I missed out—I could have done with a few of those lifeenhancing experiences rather than lying on the sofa watching cricket on TV or idly flicking through textbooks on Anglo-Saxon history.1 Even if you hate your holiday job， its still worth doing because， as one student who is about to embark on2 his second vacation job told me recently， “Holiday jobs might not be good at showing you what you want to do in life， but they can be brilliant at showing you what you dont want to do.” As some of the writers below discovered.

Jess Phillips

Every summer while at school and university， I worked in local pubs. I collected glasses， and worked in kitchens and behind the bar. Those work taught me to hold my own in a masculine environment and not to take any crap from people who deemed me inferior.3 In one pub， there was a huge mirror behind the bar， and I would constantly get caught out by it as I turned away from customers who I was placating4 with fake laughter， only to pull a face or roll my eyes as soon as my back was turned.

Working in the pub was where I fell in love with my husband， who was also a seasoned barman.5 We dream of buying a little pub and going back to one of the best jobs we ever had.

David Lammy

My dad left when I was young， leaving my mother on a very low income to support the family. Understandably， she was constantly fretting6 about money. So from about the age of 12， I was aware that I had to work every holiday. I did so many different jobs that its easy to lose track.

One of my longest-lasting jobs was the paper round7. I delivered newspapers for several years. My mother and sister would muck in8 when necessary. I was paid by the batch9， so it was vital to deliver every paper. Another summer job was at KFC. As well as showing me how to fry chicken， Bibi Pillay， my brilliant West Indian boss， taught me how to be nice to people， even when I wasnt in the mood.

It was the people I worked with who made my summer jobs worthwhile. Missing a father figure， I sometimes looked to them for guidance. In summer 1988， I worked at a clothing company. My role involved boxing and stacking10 clothes， which sounds repetitive， but for me it was a fascinating job. This was mostly because of the brilliant conversations I had with my supervisor， Simon， who was three or four years older， and had a cool demeanour.11

Later， in my university holidays， I worked night shifts as a security guard on the construction site on Fleet Street.12 Most of the men I worked with were first-generation immigrants in their late 40s. As a young student， I surely stood out. But they were not afraid to share their rich stories. They taught me so much about the world. My summer jobs made me an adult.

Magid Magid

For about 10 weeks in 2009， I worked 12-hour shifts at the Next distribution centre in Wath-upon-Dearne， just outside Sheffield. I used to get the bus to the station， the train to Swinton， then another bus to the warehouse13. It was the year before I went to university and I needed money to do some travelling.

The job involved the most mundane14 tasks—picking the orders out and putting them in boxes. What was great about it was the people： I worked with quite a lot of Indian international students who I bonded with15. And I got a 20% discount. The canteen was really good， too—dinner was the main event.

You used to be able to listen to music while you worked. I would transport myself to a different world in my head and fantasise16 about my travels， what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it. It used to carry me through. Then they banned headphones—a lot of people were kicking off.

It gave me discipline. I always think that if I want something， then Im willing to really graft17 for it. It also gave me the skill of dealing with really boring stuff， of just getting on with things. That helps now when Ive got lots of emails that need responding to—sometimes people ask the same questions again and again， but I know it needs to get done.

Tamal Ray

I did my six years of medical school in London， which basically ended up as six years of financial struggle. My student loan was only enough to cover my rent for the year and， as my parents couldnt afford to help support me， it meant that all my living money came from my summer and part-time work. During term time， I worked evenings in a clothing shop on Oxford Street18. But during the summer， I worked as an office temp19 for a big mobile phone company.

The work was the usual office spreadsheet juggling，20 but the people I worked with were a lot of fun. The company had a real ethos21 of treating its staff well and was always putting on after-work drinks. It was also sponsoring a big reality show at the time， so we would get visits to the office from some of the contestants.

Working in the corporate world of mobile phones hasnt got much in common with what I do now as an anaesthetist in the NHS.22 But that summer job still has an impact on how I think about work. It showed me what a large organisation can do when it has the resources； striving for efficiency in the NHS is pretty meaningless when you dont even have functioning IT. It also taught me that poor work conditions and low morale arent things that should be allowed to perpetuate； they harm the individual and the organisation.23

Im so grateful to have had the job. I met some amazing people and the money was a life-saver. Am I a more rounded24 person， though， for having worked during my summer holidays？ I have no idea. Would I have learned as much if Id spent my summers vomiting cocktails up on a moonlit Thai beach？25

1. 瀏覽暑假兼職的信息讓我感到自己錯過了些什么——我本該參加一些豐富人生閱歷的社會實踐，而不是躺在沙發(fā)上看電視上的板球比賽，或是隨意翻閱幾下關于盎格魯-撒克遜歷史的課本。life-enhancing： 增加生活樂趣的，改善生活的；cricket： 板球；idly： 漫不經(jīng)心地，悠閑地；Anglo-Saxon： 盎格魯-撒克遜人（或其語言、文化）的。盎格魯-撒克遜人指自公元5世紀起至諾曼人征服時止移居并統(tǒng)治英格蘭的日耳曼民族。

2. embark on： 從事，開始（新的、重要的或艱難的事情）。

3. 那些工作教會我在充滿男性的環(huán)境中毫不遜色，而且絕不受那些低看我的人的氣。hold ones own： 與……相匹敵，毫不遜色；masculine： 男性的，男子氣概的；not take crap from sb.：不容許某人侮辱自己（或對自己不公平）；deem： 認為，視為；inferior：（地位、等級等）低下的。

4. placate： 安撫，使息怒。

5. seasoned： 有經(jīng)驗的，老練的；barman： 酒吧男招待。

6. fret： 煩惱，發(fā)愁。

7. paper round： 送報工作，挨戶送報。

8. muck in： 一起干活。

9. batch： 一批。

10. stack： 整齊地堆起。

11. supervisor： 主管，指導者；demeanour： 舉止，行為。

12. night shift： 夜班；Fleet Street：（英國倫敦的）艦隊街，曾以報館集中著稱。

13. warehouse： 倉庫，貨倉。

14. mundane： 乏味的，平凡的。

15. bond with： （與某人）培養(yǎng)一種特殊的關系。

16. fantasise： 想象，幻想。

17. graft： 努力地工作。

18. Oxford Street： 牛津街，是倫敦著名的購物街。

19. temp： 臨時雇員。

20. spreadsheet： （計算機的）空白表格程序；juggle： 同時處理（多項工作）。

21. ethos： （某團體的）精神特質。

22. anaesthetist： 麻醉師；NHS： 即National Health Service，國民保健署，英國政府管理下的綜合性公共衛(wèi)生機構，根據(jù)1946年國民保健署法及以后的立法而建立。

23. 這一實踐經(jīng)歷還使我認識到，簡陋的工作環(huán)境和低落的精神狀態(tài)都應該盡快得到改善，這兩者無論對個人還是集體而言都有極大的損害。morale：士氣，精神面貌；perpetuate： 使繼續(xù)，使長久（尤指不好的事物）。

24. rounded： 發(fā)展全面的，完美的。

25. vomit： 嘔吐；moonlit： 月光照耀的；Thai： 泰國的。