Your first job in Coventry

My first job in Coventry was at Brico Engineering in Holbrooks I started there around 1972 and was made redundant about 1982, When I started there was about 1200 people working there and when I left there was about 200. Just shows how the engineering industry in Coventry was decimated. It was a great company to work for though made lots of mates and had some great times out of work as it was more like a family than just being workmates, we went for meals overseas trips to the beer festival in Belgium. Anyone remember BRICO ?

My first job on leaving school in 1959 was as a young postman. I didn't stay long. I then got a job at Sibley Hindley - a film processing house on the corner of Winifred Ave and Albany Road. I processed the films (mostly from roll-film box cameras in those days) 40 at a time. For a few days at the end of the Coventry holiday weeks we were processing 1000 rolls of film a day. The place was run by John Currall who lived in Allesley, and he did most of the Wedding Photography. The print room girls were Stephanie and Cynthia. Though Cynthia was double my age my heart raced when she smiled. I left there after about 18 months in search of more money. After a couple of short term jobs (Co-op Drapery and Tile Hill Pharmacy) I joined the army and was back to my beloved photography.

It's fascinating isn't it to read about everyone's first job, and it's like a snapshot of the period before the arrival of computers and automation and the unstoppable change in working philosophy practice and skill sets that this brought.. "apr

Fabulous story, thanks for sharing Jeff My sister was a "comptometer operator" at the Standard-Triumph before she got married, I used to think it a very grand job title.

to follow up my previous post I met my wife in the wages office of the C0-0P and we have been married for 48 years and she has daily advised me on a how to be a better husband and person!! to no avail I have to add..a triumph on her part of hope over experience! she too was a comptometer operator

I was a comptometer operator in the 1960's at the EMEB in Sandy Lane, did your sister Tony and your wife Keeepa go to the Comp training school in High Street ? One of the jobs I had to do was check the invoices. Murphy invoices were the worst. I never thought that when we had to work out at school about 2 men digging a hole 2ft x 6ft x 6ft deep in clay I would ever need to use it. The invoices were hand written in lines about 1/8 inch. Saying that I loved that job.

I think she still has the Simlock(?) certificate

Sumlock Keeepa. I don't think I had a certificate, I only did the three week course just learning how to add, take away, multiply and divide. I think you only got a certificate if you did the full course and learnt al, the clever stuff. I did have to learn this though, but it came in very useful when we decimalised Decimals of a pound

I also went to the comp school in High Street. The name Felt and Tarrant School comes to mind. However, at the end of the first week I was asked to leave as I hadn't made the grade.

I'll ask her next time we speak Anne. As for "Decimals of a Pound"...

Emeb With you mentioning EMEB Sandy lane Anne I wonder if you worked in the office block situated on the corner just behind Merrick Lodge? As a telephone engineer I spent many happy hour there but one day while working in the computer room my work colleague and myself thought the day would end in tears. It all started ok, just another day at the office so to speak we arrive at the main desk and signed in as per usual ( all visiting contractors had to sign in so the company knew who was visiting and were they would be in case the building need to be evacuated ) we settled down to do the job in hand, the area was not too noisy, ( in them days the main frame Computers used big spools of magnetic tape to store data and they did make a bit of noise) the Halon gas was turned off just in case we accidentally set it off. All was going well until we heard an alarm going off, we could just about hear it in the background "bet it's a fire drill we thought" we carried regardless, not too long after the alarm was sounded two Switchboard operators walked passed us on their way out of the building, we thought it was a bit strange that both of them were taking their tea break together? ( we were not aware they were going out of the building at this point) being British we carried on in the face of adversity ( but we did not know at that point we were in mortal danger) Anyway the Girls on the Switchboard would have let us know if we needed to evacuate , now this may sound like a sexist comment but I think They had other things on their minds at the time because as they clearly saw us in the computer room they made no attempt to warn us or instruct us as to what was going on? It must have been about half an hour passed when we heard someone knocking on the window! We both turned round and in horror we saw a Fireman standing on a ladder beckoning us to open the window, we both stood up and ran to the window, opened it only to be shouted at by the Fireman " what the bloody hell are you two doing in there don't you know we have a fire on the first floor? " well as you can imagine our answer was " no we did not know and if we had of known we would not be stood here talking to you, we thought it was a drill, nobody told us it was for real" " get out now the fireman bellowed " we did not argue, we were gone but to our embarrassment as we stepped out of the doors into the street we were greeted to a rapturous applause from all the gathered staff assembled on the street. The moral of this storey is, don't ignore any alarms, if unsure get out then ask, we have to take some of the blame for being complacent, it was a good lesson learnt. After being grilled by the Fire service and the management of the EMEB we were allowed to return to the building, the fire turned out to be a copying machine overheating, and was soon dealt with (could have turned out so very different ) not too sure but I think the EMEB security officer had his legs slapped. I am still here boring everyone with my tales of mishaps . As a final note, guess how the fireman knew which window to knock on? Yes you guessed it it was the switchboard operators, so they did care, or perhaps they were cold and until everyone was accounted for they could not return to their warm office, just an oversight, I think . Colin

Hi Colin, Glad to see you back, you don't seem to have been around with your stories for a bit ! Yes, that is where I worked from 1963 to 1972. You must be talking of around that time as the computers eventually moved to a central computer in Leicester. I don't remember where the magnetic tape were, My first job there I was in customer accounts and I pulled the punch cards that corresponded to the payment stubs. I then used to go into a computer room to put them into a machine which added them up.The computer in those days were big mechanical things, the programme boards were about a yard wide. The girls on the switchboard were probably a bit laid back as we were always having fire alarms. The engineers had a room in the building and as it was manned 24/7 they used to have a toaster and tea making facilities. consequently they were always burning the toast. I loved that building and I am glad it is still there now as it survived the blitz when the rest of the car factory was destroyed. I hope they have kept some of the features.

My first job in Coventry after army service was officially called an 'Holder Upper'.

Yes Anne it is good that the building is still in good shape, just thought I would fill you in on the location of the Computer room I referred to, as you look at the front of the building from the road as you may remember there was a drive to the left of the reception , the road fell away to a lower level , the Swbd overlooked this road and that is why the fireman needed a ladder. As far as I can remember the computer room was just behind the Swbd, a long time Ago. Nice to chat to you again, I still keep in touch with Josie down under. Colin

Yes, RKid, all those holidays you have been having this year have rejuvenated your memory cells, thank goodness. So.......What's new then ?