After Mayfield I somehow managed to get into Exeter University as my grades were borderline. I had a great three years studying Classics which was simply the only subject that interested me and managed to get a 2:1. This set me up well for the working world, even if it was an unusual subject for business.
I did some work experience for the press including The Telegraph & Times Arts desk and then managed to get my first job in the magazine publishing house, Conde Naste as I knew the celebrity world interested me more than most things. However, it was a steep learning curve and I don’t think I was quite ready for the reality and responsibilities of getting a proper job and not pulling sickies after partying all night in London! So I went travelling around the world for a year – some of it on my own and grew as a person, got most of my hunger for travel, adventure and excitement out of my system and met my future husband skiing in New Zealand (who was from Kent)!
When I came home, I thought I wanted to become a travel journalist, and managed to secure my first proper job on the Sunday Telegraph Foreign Desk, as the News Desk assistant working in Canary Wharf. It was enormously exciting going to work on the 14th floor every day – very glamorous surroundings and I still remember the nerves on my first day. Ironically, a few months later, the 2003 Iraq War started and it became a full-on role! I was thrown in the deep end, providing first-hand support to the journalists in Iraq and around the world. I managed critical and life-threatening situations, often getting them out of dangerous countries immediately, arranging flights for them all over the world at very short notice, juggling visa requirements and assisting them whenever they were in trouble in very hostile environments.
Lucy won the runner‐up award for UK Best Newcomer VA 2017 at the Be My VA Awards in March this year.
Your Virtual PA
My main problem leaving school was not having any direction or particular calling ‐ I wish I had been like my friends who knew they wanted to be a vet, or big in the City, or in the Navy. I was indecisive even at GCSE level – because I was average at most things at Mayfield I just couldn’t find a direction.
The Old Cornelian SUMMER 2017
Once a reporter and photographer on my team were arrested in South Africa under the Mugabe regime. They were due to be executed in a week’s time. It was a terrifying ordeal for all concerned and I managed to arrange flights out for their families and liaise with the diplomats and Foreign Office who were trying to find a peaceful solution. Luckily, at the last minute they were released – much to everyone’s relief! I found out early on what it is like to work under serious pressure and very long hours! I also saw that the journalists and photographers were being sent out to Iraq without equipment, NBC suits and flak jackets, helmets and without warfare training. With a brother in the Irish Guards fighting in Iraq, I knew this was not right so I appealed to the Editorial Board of the Telegraph Group to get funding for these essentials and won my case.
For this I was promoted to Foreign Desk Manager in the first few months and I stayed there for four years as I loved the news, the buzz of Canary Wharf, and the adrenaline rush of the job!
After leaving with a glowing reference from the Editorial Director, I decided I would like to try my hand as an Executive PA as I heard there was more money to be made by going down that route than in journalism. I applied for a job as PA to the Chairman and MD of a property recruitment company in Mayfair. It was glamorous, and great fun, with a young team. We had a work hard/play hard ethos which was good training for the future. I wore so many different hats in that job and had to be everything to everyone, extending my experience to HR, and assisting in the opening of offices around the word as they became a global AIM listed company. For perks, I got to travel all over Europe, and eat at all the top restaurants but for this, incredibly long hours and responsibility were expected. It was amazing training and I also became an adept events coordinator – arranging very large events abroad and in London.
...I WAS THROWN
PROVIDING FIRST-HAND SUPPORT TO THE
JOURNALISTS IN IRAQ AND AROUND THE WORLD.
15
IN TO THE DEEP END,
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