My first job: Lynne Clifton

The temptation of less than $25 a week swung Lynne Clifton towards communications - a business in which she still thrives after 20 years.

The princely sum - "not enough to live on, that's for sure," she recalls - started a journey to her present position as executive director of CAANZ (Communication Agencies Association).

Ms Clifton recalls a difficult decision between a polytechnic course and a broadcasting cadetship, when she was a teenager. After schooling in Taranaki, she had been accepted for Wellington Polytechnic's journalism course.

"My English teacher came blistering into school with an ad from the Dominion for NZBC broadcasting cadets."

Male applicants were given preference because, says Ms Clifton, "it was legal to do so then and there were more positions for males in those days".

Eventually the broadcasting job with its salary of $1296 swayed her.

Plus, she recalls her outrage over the preference for males.

"I remember reading the advertisement and thinking, I'll show them! I became very aware, early in my career, of the disadvantages of being a female in a male-dominated environment."

Her first day was nerve-racking. The sole female reported to work in Waring Taylor St, Wellington, feeling "nervous as hell".

The cadets were moved through various departments to get an idea of how the organisation fitted together. At the end of the year they were assigned to a department.

Male cadets went to technical areas such as camera, floor management and photography; Ms Clifton was assigned to administration.

"Amazingly, the first assignment I was given was in the television advertising department, where my job was to chase agencies for late material, and to take the tapes to film editing so they could be spliced into reels for the ad breaks.

"My current job involves chasing agencies. How ironic!"