Interview With Neil Jones, Marketing Manager, Cambridge City Council

My role is essentially to look after the Marketing and PR for all Cambridge City Council's entertainments - this includes maximising attendance and Press & PR for over 200 events at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, for the internationally acclaimed Cambridge Folk Festival, the city's programme of outdoor summer events and other miscellaneous events including Children's and Senior Citizens events. I also programme events at the Cambridge Corn Exchange.

Since joining the company my job has doubled following a restructure - I was originally employed just to look after the Cambridge Corn Exchange but a restructure in 2003 led to a larger department and a larger team for me to manage.

I was attracted by the mix of events that the Council puts on and the varied programme that I get to work on. I originally saw the job advertised in the Guardian and landed it following a 2 day interview process. Gruelling!

A toss up between the varied events that I get to work on and the opportunity to programme and run events on a large scale.

The sheer volume of it - we are always 'fire-fighting' which reduces strategic planning time.

To be honest I would always like to do something similar - either that or to be paid well enough to be able to do my own radio show (outside interest) full time!

The biggest advice I would give would be to get stuck in and do work experience or voluntary work in the sort of department that you want to work in. Get as much experience on your CV as possible, get your face known as it's the sort of environment where opportunities can easily arise. Also consider working in a Box Office as a starting point to get your foot in the door within an organisation - and once there take an avid interest in other departments. Is it glamorous? Well, you get to work with 'famous artists' but the buzz soon wears off - believe me, if you could see the state of my office whilst typing this, you probably wouldn't apply the word 'glamorous' to the job !!!

• Press Officer for a large scale venue and numerous Arts Festivals.
• Marketing Officer for a Theatre
• Theatre Marketing Assistant for a Theatre
• Box Office Assistant at a Theatre.

On a personal level - the Cambridge Band Competition - 5 weeks of events, in 2 venues which saw one of the largest crowds for the event in over a decade. On a team level - the Cambridge Folk Festival - one of the most acclaimed folk festivals in Europe - and a pleasure to work.

To sell my flat - it's been on the market for nearly a year!

In no particular order:

1. Lots of random brochures
2. A rubiks cube
3. Diary
4. CDs
5. A large marble (I have no idea why it’s here but is blue tacked to my PC!)
6. A small figurine of Slipknot
7. LOTS of used mugs
8. Some drumsticks advertising the show 'Stomp'
9. Lots of overdue invoices
10. Lots of business cards from people I barely remember