Laurence Mozafari - Web Journalist (Zoo Magazine)

BA (Hons) Journalism (2010)

Before university: Meopham Secondary School, Kent

Lawrence Mozafari on an FHM photo shoot

I worked as an unpaid intern at FHM Magazine, the day after the Summer Ball. I completed three and half months writing mainly for the web, using SEO, managing UGC, video editing and some magazine work. I also trained with the Royal Navy, did a parachute jump and got kissed by two models for a photo shoot. I came down to the last two for a year-long paid internship at the magazine. I was also interviewed for admin roles and some freelancing, with no success. After finishing at FHM, I freelanced for Heat magazine’s website for one week and was then offered a job at Zoo magazine working on the website, on a rolling 3-month contract. Eventually (!) it will be made in to a full-time role.

I want to be a Features Writer, then a Features Editor on a magazine within the next 10 years. FHM is the magazine I admire the most and I would love to work there full-time. However in the meantime I want to gain as much knowledge about the magazine industry as possible. I also want to get to a stage where I can cover events like the Brit Awards, Glastonbury and E3 (the computer games event in America) for a living.
The course is continually amended to keep pace with the changes in the industry, this can be scary for some students who have to work outside their comfort zone, but you’ll benefit in the long run.

The lecturers and staff are outstanding, with such a diverse range of skills and experience; I think taking advantage of their knowledge with one-to-one sessions is crucial for job applications and planning your career path.
The course and working on StaffsLive were crucial in landing my internship. You have to know the difference between SEO, CMS, KPI and UGC. Any media outlet which isn’t implementing an SEO strategy is behind the times – so you need to know it.
I struggled with video editing at university and ended up cutting trailers and videos for FHM, saving them hundreds of pounds and making myself a very valuable team member. So try and pick up as many skills as possible, whether that’s audio editing, photography, sub-editing, design, shorthand, presenting, HTML or web design.