Finishing university was a daunting limbo between life as a somewhat carefree student and becoming an adult.

I spent the best part of the first six months working at a café and meandering around Wollongong trying to figure out what kind of journalist job I wanted, but I soon found out first hand it’s an industry where beggars can’t be choosers. Around this time last year I landed a position writing and reading news for i98FM in Wollongong. It was a job I guess you could say I sort of fell into – I had a friend who worked at WIN News [owned by the same company] and he mentioned i98 were looking for a casual news reader.

But that’s not to say I didn’t work hard to get it – I did four months’ unpaid training before they officially offered me a job, and throughout the four months I didn’t know when or IF a job would even be offered to me.

But that said, I’m extremely grateful I had a boss who saw something in me and was willing to put in the time and effort to mentor me. 

I think I learnt more in that four months of training than I did throughout my three years at uni. 

I’ve been lucky to have a supportive and honest boss and colleagues, who aren’t afraid to tell me what I’m doing wrong and how to fix it – it keeps me on my toes and keeps me always wanting to do better.  While I’ve been working at i98, I’ve also been interning at Harper’s Bazaar Magazine - cue The Devil Wears Prada references.

While both jobs are in the media industry, they could not be on further ends of the spectrum if they tried.

While the novelty of having your voice on radio is wearing off slowly, I still get a kick out of people saying “I was driving along today and you came on the radio! You sound like such a newsreader!”. I guess I’ve finally found a use for my annoying, theatrical voice and over-pronunciation of my words. 

The more I learn at each the harder it is to decide what exact career path I want to go down.

Even though radio wasn’t the industry I pictured myself getting into initially – I’ve really taken to it and I’m intrigued and excited to see where this job can lead to.

At this stage of my one-year-old career, I’m keeping my options open, and I can’t wait to see where I finally find my feet.