The first job I loved
I have no words to describe how it feels to get paid for doing what you love.
Two months after I started studying BA (Hons) Film Practice at LCC, I was just learning about the Arts SU (called SUARTS at the time), and as soon as I saw the job offer on Tumblr saying that they were looking for a student to join their team, I knew it was for me.
I had experience working only in customer service, and my mind was asking me desperately to get into something more creative (having undiagnosed ADHD made it even more difficult, as non-creative jobs can make me feel extremely bored and apathetic). Working as a Communications Assistant at the Arts SU sounded so amazing, creative and fun, that I was dying to get the job. But when I first saw the advert, my first thought was:
I am not good enough.
It took me a while to get myself together and fill in the application form as everything I wrote sounded like I was making it up just to get the job. But I was just highlighting all the things that I was proud to have achieved, and basically wording, in the most professional way I could, how excited I was to get the job. I also gathered the courage to ask my tutor to write a recommendation, and when I got the interview I tried really hard just to be myself and show them how much I had to offer. And let me tell you, when I got the phone call saying that I got the job, I think I got something stuck in my eye, if you know what I mean.
And since my very first day working at the office in Holborn I have loved this job every single day. I have written articles, I have gone to amazing events, I have taken pictures, I have searched for GIFs, I have interviewed really cool people, I have had really nice food and drinks, I have filmed, and I have been part of a really nice team. And I canāt describe how incredibly it feels to be paid for doing something you love.
(And Iām not even mentioning how it feels to be awarded for doing something you love!)
And I am taking so much with me. Now I am looking for a job, the kind of job that will be the thing I do the rest of my life, my career, my dream. During my three years at UAL I got to know myself better and I have learnt that I want to be a film editor. Thanks to have been working for two years and a half at Arts SU, I feel confident enough to continue my career and I am aware of my value.
Thanks to this role I am proud to say (and I did so last week at an interview for an editing job) that I filmed and edited a very important event that took place at the British Museum, and the museumās management liked the video so much they didnāt even ask for any changes. I can show all the amazing pictures I had the opportunity to take during events such as āThe Other Garden Partyā. I can even say that thanks to my article āBeing an International Student at UALā two people contacted me to tell me they were inspired by it, and they were going to start new degrees, thanks to my article.
I couldnāt be more grateful, and, hoping that the next Communications Assistant can learn and get even more than I did from this great role and this wonderful team, I say goodbye, for now. My graduation ceremony will be happening soon and I am very excited about it, so Iāll leave you with my favourite picture from the ones I took when I covered the Graduation Ceremonies last year at the Royal Festival Hall:














