Featured image: Tyrese King

Our new Graduate Stories series uncovers the diverse experiences of Manchester Met alumni, exploring the reality of life after graduation and highlighting career achievements. We shed light on the different paths graduates take, share relatable and honest advice, and provide practical tips for students who may feel uncertain about their next steps.

24-year-old Tyrese King, graduated from Manchester Met in 2022 with a degree in English and Multimedia Journalism. After gaining experience working at the BBC while at university, he now works for the BBC through contracts and freelancing.

Tyrese has written music reviews and entertainment stories for publications such as New Wave Magazine, as well as features for BBC Sport, including his piece which facilitated the conversation around the experiences of Muslim women in football in the run up to the Paris Olympic Games.

Here Tyrese shares his experience juggling work experience and placements at the BBC while studying.

What was your experience of working while studying?

In my first year, I was a Gallery Production Runner for the Tokyo Olympics. So, I spent three weeks making teas, coffees and doing breakfast runs in the gallery. In my third year, I did the same thing for the Winter Olympics, but this time as a Studio Floor Runner. I was looking after talent, printing off start sheets, that sort of thing. Because the Winter Olympics was in Beijing at the time, I was working nights. I’d get about three to four hours of sleep a night, for two weeks. Those running roles led me to get a placement a month later. I learnt key editorial skills such as how to video edit, and adopting the right focus. You’re making connections, you’re networking and you’re just getting in the building.

Tell us about your daily life at the BBC.

I’m in editorial now, so I’m mainly on the live news desk. I also do monitoring, which is transcribing live radio commentaries like Radio 5 Live and adding images when someone texts in. On the news desk, we get news stories in and write them up. At the BBC, there’s a lot of different teams, so there’s 5 Live, there’s TV, there’s short form – there’s a lot of different ways to get news. It’s an exciting job, with the possibility for celebrity interviews – we recently did an interview with Tyson Fury. 

What do employers look for in journalism candidates?

I would say soft and hard skills. Generally, they’re looking for someone who wants to learn, someone who’s receptive to feedback. Every media company has their own writing style. When you go to uni for three years, you get taught to write in a certain way, but you’re essentially having to relearn how to write. You’re writing for different audiences and you have to take the feedback. Adapt, be flexible and move on with it. Otherwise, you’re not going to get anywhere.

How did your degree help prepare you for this role? 

I write a lot of long-form content and features. So, especially with writing an essay or a dissertation, there are so many research skills that go into it. That helped prepare me to find the context behind things. Last month I wrote an article on the French State’s hijab ban and how we saw the impact on female athletes who are Muslim. This involved a lot of research and deep diving into French law, the history of France, going back to the 1900s, what the religion means socially, politically and in terms of colonial history and looking into Muslim populations in the country. You can’t write something you don’t understand and you can’t have conversations with people without knowing the facts, especially when they’re trusting you to tell their story.

What’s your experience of Manchester’s journalism scene?

A lot of the media is in London but, in Manchester, you have the BBC and ITV. It does seem like a lot more media is coming up North and the BBC has been the best place for me to develop as a journalist so far.

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