I’m one of the directors of Make Studio, a Glasgow based design practice. Before that, I had a lot of jobs…

For the sake of brevity I’ll leave out jobs I had as a student, and cover the first 5 I had after leaving GSA in 1999.
Also, for the benefit of any students or recent grads reading this, none of this is on my extremely creative CV. None of it…

1: Bartender. I was a bartender at various points in my life, from 18 – 28. I’ve lost count of the number of bars I worked in, but Nice n Sleazys was the first, Mono was the last. It’s easy to get caught up in the lifestyle of bartending, and I did. It was a huge amount of fun when I was young, but I don’t miss it.

2: Cook / chef: This was the natural progression from bar work for me. Chefs are paid more and generally get left alone. Again, I’ve lost count of the number of kitchens I’ve worked in, but at one point I was considering giving up any hope of getting a creative industries career, and just accepting I was a chef. If this all goes skewiff tomorrow, it’s what I’ll be going back to.

3: Bouncer: Or for the sake of political correctness, “Door steward”. This was my evening job, since bartending and kitchen work are generally minimum wage gigs. I worked doors at bars and nightclubs, and it was by far the easiest job I’ve ever had in my life. While it lasted. Every bouncer talks about what will make them give up the job, the “one big scare”. Mine was a man I’d knocked back from a bar coming back for me with a 2 foot machete. I quit the same night.

4: AV technician – CCA: How I got this job I don’t know. Amongst other things, I’m a web designer and front end web dev (I wasn’t then, I was learning), and somehow I convinced the CCA that being able to layout a grid and write css translated to setting up sound desks and projectors. It didn’t, and eventually they stopped giving me shifts, which was fair enough really.

5: First design job – Skratch Design (Now Graphical House): I’d gone back to college to do a course in digital design (My degree is in fine art). I was about 27 by the time I got a design job with Skratch, which was a tiny operation back then. They ran out of cash and couldn’t keep me on in the end. From there it was a string of walkouts at various notorious studios until I went freelance for three years, then went to work for Design is Central. After two very pleasant years there, Central decided to focus more on software and development, and so I started Make Studio with Lyn Cunningham.

What the future holds I don’t know, but I’m an optimist.

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.