Nice work, if you can get it

"Yeah, I was punched in the stomach once in Brixton, and another girl got spat at," Mikayla says casually when I enquire if people ever get nasty towards fundraisers.

There are three of us around a watercooler "talking shop".

"Not to me, maybe 'cause I'm a guy," says Rory.

A twenty-something, red-headed Irish guy, Rory is an old-hand as a clipboard-wielding fundraiser. You know, one of those people who stand on the street and ask for 'one minute- just one minute!'
He used to work full-time for another fundraising company but they wouldn't let him have Saturdays off to play Gaelic football, so here he is with me, trialing for another company.

We've just completed a half-hour stint on the street. We had to stop and ask people for their top five favorite films. Apparantely we're not being tested on how many people we get to stop, but how we get them to stop- how we 'engage them'.

"The trick is not to ramble on about the charity. You've got to gain their trust, befriend them, get them to trust you. The longer you get them to stay, the more likely you are to get them to sign up," Rory tells me.

See what I mean about an old-hand.

Mikayla swore she wouldn't get back into fundraising after losing her old job. But the money is too good and the hours too flexible.

"I would ring up and tell them I was hungover and they'd give me the day off- and they'd pay for it too," she says.

The company we're trialing for today is offering 350 pounds for a 40 hour week, which will increase to about 500 pounds after we've been with them for 12 weeks. That's about $1000 a week. Definitely enough money to minimalise the pain of being in one of the world's most hated professions.

You have to meet quotas though, surely?

Apparantely not, Gerald, the company's recruitment officer tells me.

He says if you focus on trying to get numbers then you tend to rush people through the process of donating and it's more likely they'll change their mind. Or complain.

There are lots of complaints.

"I nearly got fired because there had been some complaints about a guy named Byron, and they assumed since the names were similar, that it was me," says Rory.

Mikayla agrees, "I signed someone up to two different donation programs so they thought I was pulling a scam and I got suspended."

By the end of our chat Mikayla and Rory were both gainfully employed. I however, was not.

Something about seeing a crowd of people and looking petrified.

Well, it's not for everyone. But it's a fascinating job. Nice work, if you can get it.