I was certain my life would take me abroad – and I worked at every opportunity to go. When my university offered me a semester in Kazakhstan and another one in Hong Kong, I already had my suitcase packed. For a few years the university and education bubble allowed me to bounce between various locations and schools, and I loved every moment. Later on, I was teaching English as a second language when the Coronavirus pandemic hit, and lockdown began. Within 24 hours I had gone from interviewing for more permanent English teaching positions to frantically scrambling for a flight home to the UK.

Such a drastic change in my plans, and indeed more importantly the world, forced me to reconsider what I wanted to do with myself, where I envisioned my career going, and what I wanted to achieve. Motivated by my previous lecturers (and perhaps also a collapsing job market at the time), I decided to continue my studies and undertake a masters in International Relations, a discipline I continue to have a real interest in.

While I studied, I worked as a research assistant at my university. Working as part of my school, so closely with professors and faculty, was something I was happily surprised to discover I thoroughly enjoyed. I found it fun to manage relations between various academics and institutions even if some of the work involved looking for a needle within a hay stack of information. But I enjoyed creating reports and working towards projects in conjugation with academics and university institutions.

Much after, during a brief stint in sales, I came to realise the type of skills which I loved to utilise and put into practice, such as working directly with clients and managing long-term relations, and I realised these all pushed me towards PR. But as such a diverse and wide-ranging field, I wasn’t sure where I wanted to place myself.

Finally came the opportunity to work at BlueSky Education – and I could not have said yes quicker. Not only was I getting the chance to learn and develop my skills in PR, but I am working closely with universities and business schools which continues to be a real passion of mine. I am learning hands-on as part of an organisation with rich industry history alongside proven results, and I am looking forward to finessing my skills and kickstarting my PR journey with BlueSky Education.