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How to get ahead...

Some ideas on how to improve your chances of getting a job and then promotion.

1. Understand the industry

Radio is an industry, designed in the main to generate profit for commercial companies. Understanding the industry is vital if you want to progress and stay ahead of the game. So start learning the jargon, who the main players are, what the current issues in the industry are.

Sign up for Radio Academy email alerts, read RadioJam, Media Guardian, The Radio Magazine and Broadcast wherever possible. Attend Radio Academy events when they are in your area, or Royal Television Society events that often include elements to do with radio.

The worst thing you can do is get your foot in the door, only to have it frozen out when you make a faux-pas. Two such examples are the work-experience student who wanted to know when we played the adverts (I was working for the BBC), or the journalism student who didn't know that Radio Five Live existed.

2. Get experience

There is no argument for not getting experience in radio. No matter how good you think you are, until you've got some "flying hours" under your belt no one is going to take you on. Find a hospital, student or community radio, and start with an enthusiastic, but open mind. Better still, get experience at several stations, demonstrating you are versatile and also aware that there are several different ways of running a station.

3. Tape yourself

I am still amazed how few rookie presenters bother to record themselves. It is the most efficient way of improving how you sound, by critically listening back to what you did, and then making an effort to improve it.

I've worked with presenters who have been doing gigs for years who still regularly request RoTs (record of transmission) of their shows so they can hear what they sound like. Stick a tape in every show, and then get into the habit of listening back to it over the next few days and noting the good and bad parts.

4. Be pushy, but respectful

Radio people are busy people, and whilst they will get back to you, they have other, more pressing, concerns. So if you don't hear anything after a couple of weeks it is perfectly acceptable to drop them an email or give them a ring, but don't harass them into answering. The best opening line to ask is "Are you alright to talk now?".

5. Be realistic

Radio presenters have traditionally had over-inflated ego's - but they normally do grow with time. Believing that you are the best thing since sliced bread, or your idea is up their with Einstein's theory on relativity might be seen as enthusiastic, but will more likely be seen as a lack of knowledge about how the industry works.

At the BBC local station I worked for, we used to have one guy who phoned our station weekly, always requesting a meeting with the Editor. He claimed he had an idea that would generate us millions of listeners, that we should syndicate across the whole of the North, and that if we didn't want it he would offer it to TalkRadio. It would require us giving over three hours of programming seven days a week and would get us a "much younger audience". He would present it.

Not surprisingly, we declined his offer. If he had come to us with an idea that would take one hour on a Sunday evening just for our station, and said whilst he would like to present he would understand that we wanted a more established presenter, his idea could well now be on air.

6. Know what you enjoy doing

It is perfectly acceptable not to know what you want to do, but it is bad not to know what you get a kick out of. Why do you enjoy being behind a microphone and talking, is it because you love the music, is it the opportunity to chat, is it the fun of making things sound great?

You'll probably be expected to multi-task wherever you end up, but multi-tasking doesn't mean you can't have a specialism. Whatever you do, don't go to work in radio "because it's radio" or worse still "because I want to work in telly."

7. Stay in touch

If you meet someone, whether it is through a bout of work experience or simply out at a roadshow and you get chatting, make sure you keep in touch with them. Simply two paragraph emails every month or so, just letting them know how you are progressing are brilliant so that when you hit them with your demo tape they know the history behind where it came from. Media people are notorious for giving out business cards - so don't feel bad about asking for one and then using it!