I have worked in radio, Live events, arts companies, and a PR company. At university, I did work experience at the BBC Asian Network, Sky and I was a runner on a shoot my lecturer got me involved in. I worked as a student manager of the university radio station which is Ofcom licensed. After graduation whilst working in retail, I worked as a newsreader for Lyca Radio and also wrote scripts for Westside Radio. I then went into social media and marketing for The London Mela (Asian Glastonbury); worked for the artistic director of London Mela to his company and a fashion show doing social media. I joined a PR agency doing social media for their clients. I now find myself back in radio as a producer of Inspire FM in Luton. It is a community radio station.

1. Don't EVER give up (I nearly did) - I graduated 5 years and have struggled to hold a permanent position in radio. I've either been doing voluntary or freelance whilst working in retail and as time goes by you start wondering whether you'll make it. As my radio work dried up, I started working in social media and marketing and live events to gain other skills but hoping it was another way into radio. Near the end of last year, I started hating social media and mentally was doubting myself. I spoke to one of my old bosses at Westside radio who reignited my passion for radio. I left my social media job at the PR company, started applying for radio jobs, and am currently employed as a producer albeit at a community radio station.
2. Contact or email everyone for jobs all the time, not just once - if you know who the executive producer or the head of a station and email him/her for a job, chances are they won't respond because they are too busy. You need to pester them in a way, you want your name to be stuck in their heads. After a while, they will respond. I've had situations where I've continually emailed asking for a job and months later, they have responded with 'let's have a chat'. Don't send one email thinking or waiting for their response, you need to go again and again.
3. Start a podcast from home, make some noise independently! - It is easy creating a podcast at home with a friend. If you can afford a microphone and an audio interface, all you need to do is connect it to your laptop you're away. Edit it, using any software that you are comfortable with. Once it's ready to upload onto a podcast hosting platform such as Transistor, and they will upload onto Spotify, Apple podcasts, and others. If you don't have a microphone, record onto your phone, or a recording device. When applying for jobs you can say I've got my own podcast, it has this many listeners, and employers will be impressed. If it's really good, it gets the attention of a production company, they might buy it.