peter explained in a slightly guarded fashion how he had been working at a well known firm of management consultants.this was true , although he omitted to mention that his job there had been a temporary one , largely consisting of editing spreadsheets along with other tasks of similarly mind-numbing tedium.he knew from experience that people tended to assume that he had been doing something rather more high-powered.he also omitted to mention how , prior to that , he had dropped out of medical school , tried but failed to become a tv scriptwriter and then re-trained as a teacher , before realising that it wasnt for him.after that , he had worked in a succession of temporary office jobs while he attempted to finish a novel.he was now thirty four years old and no nearer being able to say that he had a career than when he left school .