After studying English Language and Linguistics at Sheffield University I worked for 5 years as a Managing Editor at a publishing house in London. After that time I decide to take my interest in animation and film further and also to experience life in a new country.

I graduated in 2010, at the height of the recession and things were looking bleak for graduates, previous years still had not fond jobs and one in five people my age were unemployed. I managed to gain experience volunteering for a charity making stop-motion animations and eventually became their Relationships Manager in 2011.

In 2012 I started working for a legal publishing house in London as a sub-editor in the production department. By 2015 I was the Managing Editor of a series law journals and would lead a team of production assistants making sure they went to press.

In 2016 I volunteered to help teach staff design skills in for a charity in Cambodia. I spent two weeks in Mondulkiri province helping them with their projects.

In 2017 I decided to move out of London and am now in Vancouver, moving my animation and design skills from hobbyist level to professional standard with actual training.

In the future I hope to be working on some films or tv shows, and to have made enough contacts to have help starting some of my own film projects.

When approaching work in the publishing sector be prepared to doing some example editing as part of any interviews you get. Practice on your own and your friends' work and obviously do not send out CVs with any mistakes on them at all. If you can't find opportunities in a particular department that you want to go into, don't be afraid to apply to other ones, people do move sideways around inside organisations and by that point they will know you are reliable and skilled.

For film and animation it is about the showreel. Show only your best work and have clips that show how well you do specific things. Do not send a general reel, companies hire people they know are a master in one area.

Volunteering is always a good way to get good experience (often in areas you won't always expect, for example they need designers too). It is also a good way to show you are proactive and always find a way to be productive.

I'm always happy to be contacted about any of the things I've done since I left Sheffield. I'd also like to point out that its never too late to change your mind, just make sure you are enjoying what you are doing right now, even if you might want to change later.