Featured image: Hannah Ewing
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.
Having graduated from Manchester Met in 2006, Hannah Ewing worked for UNICEF for 12 years and has since become a Senior Producer for Voltage TV. Her extensive career history serves as a comfort to those who are unsure about their next steps and don’t have a defined career path in mind. Hannah proves that it’s okay to have a varied career and to not be entirely sure where you’re going in life.
Tell us about your career journey.
When I graduated from MMU, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my English degree. I did my English degree with Spanish as well, which was helpful. I had travelled to Spain a lot. I did the Erasmus Scheme, I was really lucky and it was one of the best experiences. It made me fall in love with the degree that I was doing.
I loved International Development and it’s what I’d always been passionate about since day dot. I very much wanted to go and do aid work so I began looking for an internship at UNICEF and other charities. I worked for them for six months as a volunteer. And then after six months when it was coming to an end, they offered me a job as an assistant in the corporate team.
What are the stepping stones to career success?
In a lot of cases, particularly with the UN, you have to have a degree to be able to get to the starting point. That definitely carried me through the interview process. To solely focus your efforts on one thing, to be dedicated to it, that process is really helpful because it just makes you more determined. Skills like this help you fit into the real world when you finally graduate.
My English degree helped because I was writing a lot of fundraising proposals, helping to write news reports about where money was being spent, writing stuff for the website and pitching documents.
How did you get into TV production work?
I got into TV through my charity work. TV wasn’t what I went into immediately after university but it’s allowed me to have two very different and amazing careers. As well as Voltage TV, I’ve worked for another production company called Appeal TV. They specialise more in charity documentaries, raising awareness around certain charities and trying to raise funds through appeal films and documentaries.
What are some employable qualities that you look for in candidates?
I think the main things I look for when employing someone are hard work, dedication and discipline. Creativity is really helpful, particularly in the kind of industry I work in now. I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m a particularly creative person, but I think creativity comes out of people in various forms.
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