Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

Choosing and copy-tasting foreign news stories from wire feeds for publication in multiple daily newspapers including the pseudo-nationals that are as close to national as papers get in New Zealand. Editing them for angle. Sub-editing and designing broadsheet newspaper pages. I also production co-ordinate regularly, which involves managing a large team of sub editors across the country to ensure all dailies maintain excellent standards and hit deadlines spread throughout the night shift.

It's fast-paced and current, I work under pressure and with interesting stories, and I have a high level of responsibility in approving material for publication.

Liaising and negotiating with masthead night editors regarding coverage requires diplomacy; and making sure all our stories are as up-to-date as they can be before print deadlines means lots of pressure. In the digital environment it's also now a challenge to run material that won't be out of date by the time the newspapers hit the stands in the morning. That means thinking hard about the angles we use - often prioritising in-depth background or colour pieces people wouldn't see online (or wouldn't bother to read online) - and being aware of how a story is likely to develop overnight, so our printed stories don't end up looking silly.

My University of Sheffield Journalism Studies degree and National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) preliminary reporter qualifications and National Certificate of Excellence for Sub Editors have all been invaluable.

I had a couple of shifts of training on how to use the company systems.

February 2008 to May 2010, junior sub editor then sub editor at The Reading Chronicle (Berkshire Media Group). I studied for and passed the NCTJ NCE for Sub Editors while working here, on a group of regional weekly newspapers. I started working for the Chron freelance while still studying at Sheffield - I would take the first train down to Reading on a Monday morning and come back up the same day. It was knackering but I had the support of my tutors and ultimately it was undoubtedly worth it to secure a full-time post immediately after I graduated. And I still managed a first!

May 2010 to September 2011, senior production journalist at Northcliffe North's then production hub in Hull. I was working on The Hull Daily Mail, The Grimsby Telegraph, The Scunthorpe Telegraph and The Lincolnshire Echo, which at that time were all daily papers. Moving from weekly to daily newspapers was a natural progression, and my learning curve (which had been plateauing) leapt upwards again. At Northcliffe I improved my skills greatly because it was a bigger company and there were more people in senior positions who I was able to learn from and then cover for when they took leave.

September 2011 to May 2012. I left my perfectly good job to travel through Latin America! I thought I might have been throwing away a lot of the ground I'd gained in my career by doing this - but I chose to do it anyway, and it turns out my career wasn't adversely affected by this choice at all. While I was travelling, I taught myself Spanish from scratch, and picked up some really unusual career-related experience that I now think stands out on my CV and makes me memorable. For example I did some copy editing for a news website in Panama, and for a magazine that supports development NGOs in Guatemala, and I proof-read the first English translation of a Chilean author's book. Stands out, huh?

May 2012 to September 2012, I ran an 80-bed backpacker hostel in post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand. This was my first experience with "management" as such, and with hiring, training and firing staff: things that have translated back into my journalism career well along with leadership and decision-making skills. It was also REALLY fun.

October 2012 to present, senior sub editor, Fairfax NZ Ltd. I started working for Fairfax as a copy sub working on two of the group's Australian daily newspaper titles, and progressed to production co-ordinator for those papers before moving into the NZ team and my current role.

I've recently started up a collaborative blogging website aimed at young female expats (www.subequator.com) and although it's still very much fledgling, I'd love to develop that further and branch into the digital world professionally. I've also been mulling taking a masters degree in politics.

Don't discount the value of starting at the bottom. My grassroots training, working up from a trainee sub on a weekly paper, has given me the best grounding I could ever have hoped for. I've also worked with a lot of extremely talented people along the way - learning from them on the job is the best training.