It may seem like I have had something of a blogging hiatus of late but in fact I have been blogging often, just in other places like here, here and here.

Last time I posted I was nervously awaiting my 30th birthday which I had been dreading for a while. I’d been having a bit of a tough time, unable to get even an interview, let alone a job and I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. My birthday itself, despite the best efforts of dear friends, was a fairly sorry affair culminating in my phone being stolen in Shoreditch at the end of my big night out. To paraphrase a well worn saying, woe was most definitely me. I had just about had enough. After wallowing over the remainder of the weekend and worrying my poor mother half to death in floods of tears I decided to give myself two more weeks in London and if I hadn’t found work by the end of that time I was going home.

It turns out that was the kick up the backside I needed. I knew I had a week’s work experience coming up which I had been looking forward to for ages but beyond that, nothing was set in stone and I was pretty on edge I wouldn’t find something. I had the best week work experience I could have hoped for where I got the opportunity to help out at a production company that makes some of my favourite TV shows. I got to try my hand at researching potential contributors for a show in development, organising contributor release forms, (the forms that give production companies contributors’ express consent to participate in the show) and organising props for a weekend shoot. At the end of the week I amazingly got invited to work on location at the very same shoot I had prepared the props for and it was brilliant! It was a super long day but I got such a buzz out of getting up early and helping out wherever I was needed. I really felt like part of the team and I can’t wait to see the end result when it is released.

On the day before my disasterous birthday I had had an interview for an internship with a documentary filmmaker I really wanted to work with (whose website you can visit via the first link at the top of this post). Interestingly when I applied for the job back in January I didn’t hear back for rather a long time. I knew Helen, the company Director, was filming in Ghana at the time so a few weeks after she returned to London I gave her a call to follow up. No answer. I left a voicemail. The next day I tried again and didn’t get through for a second time so I sent her an email. Fast forward a month later and after two interviews I was sitting in a coffee shop in Dalston with Helen on my first day of work. She told me then that she had received 100 applications for the post and missed mine by accident when I submitted it initially. It was only when I followed up that she decided to give me an interview because she admired the fact I followed up. Thank God I did! I started working for See Change Films on the last day of my two week deadline. Talk about cutting it fine!

After a wonderful 3 months writing and implementing a communications strategy and helping train inspiring young people with stories to tell through film it was time to move on and I finished there just over a week ago. I managed to get an interview with a post production house in Soho as a Runner / Receptionist but alas it wasn’t meant to be and I received the ‘thanks-but-no-thanks’ phone call a few days later. HOWEVER… even though I wasn’t right for that particular job the panel saw something in me and invited me for a trial shift as a Runner. That was last Thursday and at the end of the day they offered me the job. So that’s us up to date! I’m now a 30 year old Runner and I’m having the time of my life! 🙂