Koceila Lassal - It's not rocket science

Koceila Lassal signed up to the Media Trust's Queen's Young Leaders programme with dream results after support from industry mentors.

'This is the accumulation of all the things I’ve been working towards'

Three years ago I didn’t know what a runner was; now I’m working at the BBC.

I mean, that wasn’t exactly my fault. Before that I had wanted to be an engineer. My dream job was actually at NASA or the Large Hadron Collider. I was on the verge of taking an engineering degree, but as I filled in my UCAS form I thought of other jobs that would excite me more – in TV – and I didn’t post it.

Growing up I had always liked making films with my family, and alongside physics and maths I took media studies A-level.

This extreme gear change at 18 pulled me from a secure future to risk it all for my passion (which didn’t go down well with my parents, I must admit).

So I chose a degree in TV and Radio at Salford University. I was ignorant to how competitive the industry is, so much so that the first job I applied for was as a camera-operator at MUFC TV, an ambitious and unrealistic move. It was hard.

I studied the industry, which gave me an understanding of it but no access. I tried repeatedly to gain that access and eventually landed my first real job (ever) as location marshall on the set of a major feature film, Genius, staring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.

Arrogance set in, and I thought ‘should be easy from here’ … Nu uh!

A few daily shifts won’t pay the bills, no matter how much you want them to. It came to a point where I had to get a job in retail to earn money, but that stint only made me realise how badly I wanted the media. I knew I had to make something happen, so I did.

I sought help, in the form of the Queen’s Young Leaders Programme, to help plug me into the industry I’d flirted with for a while. I needed reassurance, guidance, and to show my parents that the risk I took was worth it.

My mentor Aaron Nelson at ITV got to know me and helped me through some tough times. At a QYL masterclass held by BBC Outreach in MediaCityUK I met Nicola Stead who helped me focus my CV.

Turns out my previous research as well as my trial and error phase weren't for nothing, and after a dozen or so changes to it and studying hundreds of CVs on Facebook groups, I had the CV to take forward to the BBC talent team. My CV was in front of the kind of person I thought was a myth. I got an interview, and Aaron helped me prepare.

And then the BBC phone call – I had landed a short contract as a Correspondence Assistant with Blue Peter. It’s a dream job – in the team that handles thousands of letters a week where every child must feel special in our reply.

It’s weird looking back; weirder than it is to look at the present. How could a wannabe scientist unaware of the TV world go from some work experience to a contract at the BBC in two years?

The answer is a will to not give up, seek help if needed and try. Just go for it! Risk it all for your passions and stay creative. That’s probably the most scientific outlook at things.

Plus I had help from some great people, and this is the accumulation of all the things I’ve been working towards. I’m really thankful. Hopefully this is the start, and I can push on to become the film or TV director of my dreams, the one who has been waiting inside since I was a kid making short films with my family.

Koceila is taking part in the Queen's Young Leaders peer mentoring programme run by Media Trust and supported by BBC Outreach and other industry operators.

BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community support and staff volunteering.