Sink, Swim or Float

Hi there, I’m new here 🙋‍♀️

I’ve recently graduated from a degree in TV and Radio Production. It’s actually been almost a year since I graduated but I’m not dropping the recently bit just yet, I’m grasping on to the final bits of graduate life.

Graduating from uni is both amazing and terrifying, you’re filled with so much pride about your achievements of the past 3 years and still riding high on the (very) last of that sweet sweet student loan, and (if you’re lucky) you’ve got a whole summer ahead of you to enjoy.

Once the reality sinks in that it’s finished now, you’ve been kicked off the life raft and you’re left to sink or swim - or even worse, float into a job that you don’t care about and don’t particularly want that much.

All of that said I’m totally grateful for all the jobs I’ve had up until now; they got me through uni, allowed me to travel and got me to where I am today equally as much as my degree. But... radio is my THING! And I really wanted to give this my best shot. Up to now I’ve been given some amazing opportunities in radio and met people who have given me some invaluable industry advice, and experience so...

🎓 I’ve got the degree

👍 I’m getting the contacts

🚀 I’m gaining experience

🎙 I want to make amazing audio!

Let's see if I can figure out how to steer this in the right direction!

I’ve been freelance since January and it’s been a strange transition straight from being a student and having to create your own schedule and discipline for doing work... yep freelancing is very similar in this way, staying motivated during the day, finding the work, finishing the work, making invoices, getting my head around taxes - it’s been a learning curve for sure.

So why am I doing this when the alternative is a secure income with somewhere to be every day 9-5?

What really kicked this off was an idea that stemmed from my final university project, which has amazingly been commissioned by BBC Radio 4, which even writing that is complete madness to me but it has lit something inside of me and now I want to put my heart and soul into it and go at this freelancing gig full force, say yes to as much as possible and get a real taste for this medium that I fell in love with as a shy pre-teen.

This will be where I’ll try and keep a record of what this journey of starting off as a newbie freelancer in the audio industry is like, warts and all, although I’m keeping my fingers crossed for sunny days and plain sailing.