During his professional life, Jake is proud to say that he has interviewed a few cult footballers, and has managed a team of ten writers on a huge content project.
“We covered 2.5 million words in two months that helped push the site onto the first page of Google for our most prominent keywords terms,” he said.
Jake, from South Shields, says it was important that he made the correct decision when choosing which University to attend.
He explained: “As a Journalism student I wanted a course that could give me both theoretical and practical based experience that I could take forward in my career. Many of the lecturers on the Journalism course were all working Journalists and media practitioners who could offer expert and proven knowledge of the industry.
“In addition to this, the course also offered me the chance to gain an industry recognised Journalism qualification (NCTJ), and establish contacts that ultimately led me to securing internships at the Shields Gazette and The Independent.”
Asked about who influenced him most at the University Jake commented: “Asides from the expert level of industry knowledge that was provided on the course, it was probably lecturers Alistair Robinson or Neil Macfarlane who showed me that journalism and learning didn’t necessarily need to be straight down the middle and boring.
“Also, as a local lad the University offered me a chance to meet like-minded people from my area and afar and this helped develop my work and fall into a number of different interests and topics that have influenced the freelance journalism work I’ve previously done and the style of writing I use today.”
As someone who spent a year working as a freelance journalist on a part-time basis while working in bars/supermarkets and other jobs on the side following graduation, Jake advises recent students entering the job market to work hard and to be honest with what they want to do.
He said: “Leaving university and trying to pan out what you’re going to do with your life is daunting. University is probably the biggest opportunity to flourish and test the waters you’ll get before things start getting more direct and financially bearing.
“Take advantage of the contacts you will make at university, work hard and explore new ideas and projects and try and build up a professional portfolio that will help when applying for graduate jobs. Overall, just work hard and be honest with what you want to do. Opportunities will come along if you’re pushing in the right direction, irrespective of what people say about the job market or economy.”