Lucy and Aled interview Gadget show, djkit, NEC 2011

0:01 Hello at Stuff Magazine and Stuff.TV

All right, we're good to go. And what's your name? I'm Lucy Hedges. Hello at Stuff Magazine and Stuff.TV. And you are? My name is Alan Higgins-Jones and I work on the Christmas show for Radio 1. Okay, first of all, ladies first, how did you get to where you are now? Well, I did a lot of voluntary work for online magazines. I got myself out there as much as I could. I did some writing for News of the World, The Daily Star. Fantastic. Unfortunately, it's just down to who I knew, really. Some people showed me the right paths, I took them. So a bit sort of foot in the door kind of thing? Yeah, a little bit, but don't get me wrong, my degree helped. All the work experience that I did definitely helped me out. Do you think as well, it's a very good idea if you've got a certain goal,

1:11 The big secret for me was work experience

To stick at it, even if people say you've got no chance. Because when I was working volunteers for a year, I got five pounds a day, you know, that didn't even cover my travel. Even my parents were saying loosely, give it up. And I said, no, I want to be a journalist. Leave me alone. And here I am. Brilliant, because the mind's a very powerful thing. Put your mind into it, do anything. And Aled, we worked together for a little bit of Radio Caridigion. Can you explain to everyone? So you went from Radio Caridigion, you went to London and... The big secret for me was work experience. Work experience was amazing. I did as much work experience as I could, I did two lots of work experiences on Radio 1, I did some stuff at TV Centre with the BBC and just trying to learn how it worked really so when a job became available I was able to talk the right language, say the right stuff, know what they wanted to find and then I got my job at Radio 1. Fantastic and again I presume you've... Did you actually set

Did you think of a certain level or a goal? Or was it sort of a natural progression? I never thought I'd be able to achieve Radio 1, so I never tried to have that as my goal. I wanted to work within the BBC, so I did work within the BBC and did as much as I could there really. I worked in Hospital Radio, Roger Cledigion back in Mid Wales. We're doing student radio, hospital TV. So again, like Lucy, as much experience and as much work experience as you can get under your belt. Then when you're sat in front of the buses in a board meeting somehow, being interviewed, then you can reel all the experience off and that really gave me my opportunity. Fantastic. So in other words, it is true. If you want to get into a certain trade, it's a good idea to start down here.

Get as much experience and then like you said, when you're in that meeting you can say well I've done this, this and this all the different levels because they like that don't they? It's quite painful how many people ask me how do they work on The Chris Mort Show or how do they get a job there so I'll say well you know what's your basic stuff, what have you been doing? Yes. Oh nothing or you know they've worked in accounting or something and they just want to start doing it because it's showbiz. You can't do that. Well yeah but you'd be extremely lucky if you manage that. You need to be able to find what you're talented at and make sure you keep working at it to give you We're at the Gadget Show Live 2011. Where would you want to be five years from now? I do a lot of video stuff and this is the first time I've ever done something presenting live.

3:08 Yeah, it's really kind of developed a bit of a hunger for me now

Yeah, it's really kind of developed a bit of a hunger for me now. I don't know, I wouldn't mind doing TV, but ultimately I still love writing. Gadgets is my forte, so I just still want to stay in the realm of technology and gadgets. I've got such a knowledge. Because you two work so well together out there. It was good fun. It was brilliant. No, it was brilliant. It was brilliant. And Aled, okay, you've got very far, which is fantastic. And I must say... A lot of people think if you're from a small little village, a little town, you'll get nowhere. Aled is from Aberystwyth and Aled's got where he was because he put his mind to it. So where do you want to be in five years time? Well I had good teachers you see. Oh yes! For me five years time, working on the Chris Moore Show.

Brilliant. You can't get to the breakfast show on Radio 1 and then find a job that's bigger, it's as good as it'll ever get. Fantastic. So I want to work on there for as long as I can really. Brilliant. Alright, I've got a saying that's known around the world, it's called practice and enjoy. The philosophy is very simple, practice and practice because a lot of people they practice and then they get something wrong and they don't enjoy their mistakes. The philosophy behind practice and enjoy is enjoy your mistakes therefore you have a positive attitude so practice Thank you for watching.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.