I am the Senior Designer at Animade where I work on projects big and small, as well as looking after our brand identity, and I help out on some front-end development as well. I studied Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts, and am a self-taught web-developer. I also curate content for our digital design inspiration blog Hover States.

1. Burger King — 2 days in 2004
When I was a teen I worked in Burger King for 2 days. It wasn’t for me.

2. Office – Part-time 2008-2010
Living off a student maintenance loan in London doesn’t get you that far, so part-time work was essential, so I worked as a sales assistant selling shoes. It wasn’t for me.

3. INT Works (It’s Nice That) Intern — Late 2011
I joined INT Works as an intern for 3 months in 2011, just after graduating from Camberwell College of Arts that summer. It was meant to be only a few weeks at first, but they wanted to keep me on for an extended period, which turned into a short freelancing stint. This was the first job which started my “career” as it is now.

4. Freelance — Early 2012
After It’s Nice That I freelanced for a few months, and worked on projects with my fellow It’s Nice That intern James Cartwright under the moniker ‘Official Business’.

5. Animade — 2012-Present
In June 2012 I joined Animade, known then as Chambers Judd. I saw their job posting which read “If you like design and the internet, then come work for us”, which bluntly described me. I also wanted to work somewhere which was small and growing, so Animade was perfect. Since then it has grown from 4 of us to 15 which has been a great experience for me being one of their first employees and watching it grow. My most recent project here has been leading our rebrand, which we handled all in-house. This included refreshing the visual identity and designing the new website, and other internal tools and stationery.

Connect with Mike on Twitter here.

Photo credit: Alex Harley

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.