How Do You Turn An Appearance On A Reality Tv Show Into A... Successful Career?

Judges, agents and contestants reveal if the reality TV circus works for – or against – the pursuit of a dream job...

Rob Mills was singing with a covers band in Melbourne when a friend told him about a brand-new TV show called Australian Idol. He turned up for the auditions after a night when he’d done two gruelling pub gigs.

“I didn’t sleep – I went straight to McDonald’s, then straight there and stood in line for about six or seven hours,” he recalls.

It was worth it. Rob, now 36, came fifth in the mega-hit first season of Australian Idol in 2003 and scored a record deal with BMG.

“I spent the next 12 months putting together an album, writing with some incredible writers,” he says. “Stephen Tate from Network Ten offered me the job of hosting Video Hits. I turned it down. I didn’t want to be the guy who says, ‘Coming up next, my new single.’ I said, ‘You know who’s good? Axle Whitehead.’” Axle finished in the top 20 of Idol’s debut season and got the Video Hits gig.

Sure enough, the following year, Ms Vanity – the first single from Rob’s album Up All Night – achieved gold status.

A little more than a decade later, Lauren Finelli, 34, was at her home in Adelaide with her husband Carmine. She really hated her job and was looking for a new one. “I was actually on [job website] Seek and then I thought, ‘F**k it – I might look for casting calls,’” she reveals. “When My Kitchen Rules came up, I thought, ‘Yeah, might give this a crack.’ I conned Carmine into it, ‘This will change our lives if we get through.’”