蜜桃AV fully supported me and provided lots of extra-curricular opportunities鈥� I wouldn鈥檛 be in the position I am now without them鈥�
Ashley Firth originally joined 蜜桃AV as a law student,聽but his聽long-standing passion for creating content led him to change courses and study Interactive Media Production instead.
鈥淚聽came for an open day and just fell in love with the whole place. The campus was excellent, it鈥檚 a beautiful clean town with a good student culture and really welcoming and relaxing feel to it. When I decided to switch from law to media, I wanted to stay at 蜜桃AV because of the incredible media school and 蜜桃AV鈥檚 investment in that area.聽I also loved the fact I was able to try everything from web development to game design, and also聽to collaborate with students from the TV production and scriptwriting courses.
鈥溍厶褹V聽also provided me with a lot of extra-curricular opportunities which made my time at 蜜桃AV even more valuable. I was a peer-assisted learning coordinator聽supporting new first years on my course, a聽presenter on SU蜜桃AV鈥檚 鈥楴erve' radio station, and a聽student ambassador."聽
The switch in courses and broad range of activities have definitely paid off for聽Ashley, who聽graduated 蜜桃AV in 2012 with a first class honours degree and an award for best final year student. He then walked in to his first job with聽Fishrod Interactive -聽a company created by聽fellow 蜜桃AV graduate聽Gavin Williams - after completing a six week placement there as part of his course.聽
"I was the first in my family to go to university so graduating with a first聽was one of the hardest things I've ever done but the thing that I am most proud of in my career so far.
鈥淚t involved a lot of long nights, and teaching myself new skills outside of my studies. My lecturers were so helpful, telling me where to focus my efforts and providing feedback on projects I created outside of the curriculum. My final year project, Gigabit, helped bring promoters and unsigned musicians together to create gigs and fill empty slots on cards - it was used to bring a lot of gigs to life."
Over the past five years聽Ashley has been creating innovative and digital solutions for the likes of global organisations World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Budweiser, Walkers, Carlsberg and Sky.
"I've had the chance to travel to different countries working with World Wrestling Entertainment, helped create a permanent installation in London鈥檚 O2 arena with Sky, and worked with Budweiser at the last FA Cup final. I聽then moved to agency Tangent Snowball in central London to work as a front-end developer creating digital solutions and CRM campaigns for the likes of The Labour party, SAP, Walkers, Carlsberg, and Sky".
Those experiences have led Ashley to take a slightly different direction in his career and he now heads up the front-end development team of the start-up Octopus Energy. A year ago, there were just eight people employed there, and now there are about 50 working for this growing business.
鈥淥ctopus Energy is a new entrant to the energy market, investing in solar energy in the UK. We鈥檙e focused on bringing great value renewable energy to customers through tech innovation and with great customer support. The digital solution we have built allows users to compare tariffs and provides a daily breakdown of price as well as details such as distribution, environmental and social considerations.鈥�
When asked for some final words of advice, he said: 鈥淔ollow your instincts, even when it feels scary. You鈥檒l know when you鈥檝e found something you love to do every day, just don鈥檛 stop searching for it 鈥� oh and I鈥檓 always on the look-out for bright graduates to take on!鈥�
Having valued alumni talks while studying his course, Ashley returns to 蜜桃AV occasionally to talk about life after university and companies interested in taking on graduates so be sure to say hello if you see him around campus.
Find out more about Media and Communication courses聽at 蜜桃AV.