My first job was …

At 15, studying towards 5th form certificate, I worked part-time as a kitchen hand at a sandwich bar at South City Mall in Christchurch. It's a fancy word for washing and drying chopping boards, utensils, pots, pans and meat slicing machines. I earned $4.25 an hour.

It taught me … humility. It also taught me how to work at a very high pace and be able to multitask. I'm known to be a clean freak.

My big break came … as an intern in Christchurch for TVNZ 1 News in 2008. My six-month internship was coming to an end, and in between coffee runs, phone calls to police and fire, logging field tapes and noting time codes, I shadowed a senior reporter for five weeks covering a murder trial at the High Court. The family of the double murderer approached me to tell their story. I had to plead my case to the bosses to take a risk on an intern to tell the story on air rather than surrender all my work to a senior reporter. My story led that night and I scripted and voiced it. The following week I landed a reporting job with TVNZ's Close Up programme.

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The last job I quit was … dishing blue plastic trays and slinging beverages at 20,000 ft. I was a flight attendant for Air New Zealand.

The most famous person I've ever met … The Backstreet Boys in Sydney for a work junket.

They were … hilarious. I'd arrived in Sydney with a stye on my eyelid, which was painful and swollen, so I tried to pop it before the interview. I looked like Cyclops. So when the boys entered the room, they started with a "hello" which then changed to a "Hell no! What's up with your eye!?"

The best time I've had on screen was … as a special judge alongside Pete and Manu on MKR NZ Breakfast edition.

But the worst was … news-reading for the first time. My legs could not stop shaking beneath the desk and, after getting through my first bulletin, I was given the all-clear by the director and I vomited in the bin.

My dream project would be ... Food Project. Work with major supermarkets and put unwanted food to good use. Then look to expand the initiative into retailers/department stores, schools, libraries, businesses.

• Daniel Faitaua returns to TVNZ's Breakfast in 2018 and will appear on Quizmas, screening 8.30pm, Boxing Day on TVNZ Duke.