What skills do you use every day in your job?

My degree was in physics with astrophysics, and it has been hugely valuable to me throughout my career. Although I have never worked as a professional scientist, the ability to understand complex mathematics and scientific concepts has made me better at my job. In order to communicate a subject, you have to understand what you are communicating. By having a scientific background, I am equipped with the skills needed to ask the right questions of scientists and understand what they are talking about. My degree has also added to my credibility when communicating science.

But studying physics has also provided me with many other skills, which I still use to this day. These include team work – developed through years of group work and doing labs at university – as well as the ability to communicate complex scientific topics and ideas to others, a skill I developed thanks to group work during my undergraduate studies.

What do you like best and least about your job?

What I love most about my job is the opportunity I have to inspire as many people as possible about space. Be that through social media, partnership with organizations and companies, hosting events, television shows, radio shows or books. My audience is a mix of people who are interested in space and want to learn more, and those who don’t necessarily know a huge amount, but who I get to inspire about how space is shaping their lives. It is a privilege to help explain to as many people as possible the importance of space exploration.

The second thing I love about what I do is the travel and the opportunity to work with incredible people. I have travelled the world filming and giving talks about space exploration and I have worked with the likes of Buzz Aldrin, Jeff Bezos, Chris Hadfield to name but a few. I have appeared on screen in Times Square, New York, hosted events in countless countries and been fortunate enough to see several space launches.

However, what I do involves long hours and extended periods of time away from home. It also involves being a self-starter and an element of hustle, developing new ideas and projects, which may not be for everyone. Added to that is rejection; it’s a natural part of working in the media and you need to have thick skin in order to be able to deal with this element. Overall, though, I think that I have the best job in the world, and am always exited to be playing my small part in helping humanity continue to explore space.

What do you know today, that you wish you knew when you were starting out in your career?

I wish I had known to aim higher. One of the phrases that frustrates me the most is “manage your expectations” – I heard it a lot in my early career. My advice to anyone starting out in their careers is to follow their dreams. However, don’t do so blindly – think about what you want to achieve and the skills you need, and work towards developing them. Have a plan in place, but don’t stick to it rigidly. Early in my career I also didn’t really know of anyone who did the type of job I wanted to do, but it is really important to find mentors and look at what other people are doing. I wish I had known more about how to find a mentor. It is so important to research who is doing the type of work you want to do and then reach out to them and ask questions. The worst that can happen is that they will say no, but most people are keen to help.

The other thing I wish I had known when I was starting out is that time is your friend. It can sometimes be frustrating; you don’t think you are getting where you hoped you would be. Nothing happens overnight. You have to be patient and keep working consistently hard, that is the key to success. And sometimes you will fail, but failing or getting rejected isn’t always a bad thing. Instead, the most important thing to do is to embrace failure and learn from it. Failure doesn’t define us, but how we react to things not going as planned does.