How long have you worked at the Uni? What does your role involve?

In May I'll have been at the University for two years. I joined the Undergraduate Student Recruitment team at the end of their restructure. In my role I spend most of my time away from campus, talking to school students about how to choose a course, why university might be right for them, and a little bit about the University of Bath itself.

What would you most like to achieve while at the University?

I think the thing I’d like to achieve most is to make sure that all the students I talk to get the right advice, even if that's sometimes that the University may not be for them. I want them to leave the conversation having learned something helpful.

Name one thing that makes you feel proud to work at the University of Bath?

The thing that makes me most proud to work here is our students. Seeing them at age 16-17 thinking about university, then going on to join the University, then becoming student ambassadors or joining the sports teams, whatever it may be. You see some of the things that they get up to, and it's absolutely amazing.

What piece of advice would you like to give to a student?

That's a very difficult one for me to answer because my job is to give advice to students! However, I would always say that the most important thing is to get involved, whether it be a sports team, a society, a music group or volunteering. If you get involved with things like that you will have a very good skill set when you leave University.

Who was your most influential teacher/educator, and why?

For me it was my Classical Studies teacher at GCSE, Mr Bishop. He was one of the only teachers at my school that you could actually get on with. He was very laid back and treated you like an adult. He had a very good way of making boring subjects interesting. It's nearly 20 years since we first met and I still keep in contact with him. Having an educator like that has been a massive part of my life.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was very young I wanted to be a vet. Like most people, I saw them caring for animals and thought “that is really nice, I can do that”. Then came the realisation that I'd have to put down animals and that put me off! I also used to watch a lot of CSI and wanted to go down the forensic science route, until I looked into the statistics and realised it was very competitive. Now I work in student recruitment, which is nothing like either of those!

What was your first job?

My first job was stacking shelves in Morrisons. I spent eight years working for them, from the age of 16. It was an amazing job. They treated me really well, even though I was a very junior member of staff. They were also very flexible when I went to university, allowing me to move between stores. When I graduated and was thinking about next steps, they also offered me the fast track management schemes to try and keep me within the company. Although a lot of people don't enjoy retail (I worked enough Christmases to know that retail at Christmas is bad!) the way they treated me was actually very good.

If you could start your own dream business, what would it be?

One of my biggest hobbies is playing paintball at a competitive level and being involved in the UK scene. If I had my own dream business, it would definitely be something involving paintball. I'd set up a site somewhere or set up a company that puts on paintball events. There's been many times where my mates and I have talked about it at the pub, but unfortunately it will probably never happen!

Where is your favourite holiday destination and why?

If I had to pick just one place, it would be Iceland. I went there on a school trip for my GCSEs and absolutely loved it. It's a place that I've always wanted to go back to, and I'm still waiting to find the time to do it - hopefully soon.

What’s your favourite book or album and why?

My favourite album is a bit of a weird one. It's called Pop Chop, which is an album where they take lots of different songs and remix them together. When I travel for paintball we always leave at about four or five in the morning, and one time we put it on to wake ourselves up, because it's so weird. Now it’s a long-standing tradition and it’s always the first album that goes on in the car.

If you could meet anyone in the world dead or alive who would it be and why?

It would have to be Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen. Music has always been a big part of my family's life, and Queen is my mum's favourite band. Her music taste is all about rock and that's also what I'm into. I would love to meet Freddie Mercury to tell him what a big influence his music has had on me and my mum.

Which one superpower would you like to possess?

It would be teleportation. Purely because I have spent too many hours in this job sat at motorway service stations, in traffic jams, or sat on flights. If I could teleport it would make my life so much easier!

Tell us your favourite joke

My favourite joke is probably the cheesiest joke that I have ever heard. It always makes me laugh, but it's awful. It's a good old-fashioned knock knock joke:

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Burglar.

Burglar who?

Burglars don't knock.