Make your own stuff in the role you want to do. If you want to be a director - direct something - make it yourself however you can. Then you have something to show future employers that you can do it. Same for anything. If you want to art direct or do make up, find a freebie music video that needs cheap or free crew.

Getting a promotion within a returning series you’ve previously worked on / at a company already familiar with you.

In my career to date the most obvious role jumps have been achieved by either sticking with the same company or programme or working in a particular genre for a period of time, so that you are recognise for being experienced in that type of show. Ok occasion I have seen it work where people go for a promotion by working on a lower budget show or for example moving from lots of prime time to working on a daytime show.

I've been talking about this a lot recently (and hoping to put together a panel session on it). Everyone I've spoken to that has made the leap has approached it differently, so be wary of anyone telling you there is one way of doing it. If you are an AP and want to be a PD think of the skills you need that you don't have (self-shooting, edit time, script writing, directing crew etc) and then breakdown how to get those skills. I know some seem impossible, but ask for help - ask the PDs you know and ask your peers (someone you know might have a camera you can practise on). Often working on the same series or for the same company helps as they know you and your strengths, but sometimes moving to a new company or new series might work because they won't pigeon-hole you as an AP. It's not always easy but keep looking for opportunities to learn new skills and swapping notes with fellow APs till you get there.

Working on a number of consectutive productions for the same production company. Make yourself indispensible to a returning series, that way a promotion can be the condition of you staying and the production company retaining your knowledge and experience of how it works. Getting a new production team to promote you is a much tougher sell.

Hi Sarah, all PD’s have made the jump at some stage. It might work best to get onto a production where there are a few PD’s working on different episodes. A lot of house build, and property shows will have PDs working across different episodes. It should take the pressure of on your first role as you will not be the only PD on the series and you can work along side other PDs and learn from the different approaches. Good luck with the move.

In my experience, the best (only?) way to step up is with a company who know you and have seen you working above and beyond your existing level. Each move up the ladder for me has been with a returning series of a show I'd previously worked on. The higher up the ladder you get it seems the harder it is to make that step up, AP to Producer is proving particularly tricky as there are fewer roles to compete for against people with far more experience.

Sadly being a man statistically seems to work in your favour. I would say that showing confidence shooting and jumping on opportunities to be dropped in at the deep end definitely helps. The new commitment from a lot of companies to employ 50% of female PDs is definitely creating opportunities right now for female APs who’ve been so far kept down.

In my experience this is often a tricky step, but on the shows I have been the Exec the most effective method has been to become an Edit Producer first. Edit Producing is a great way of learning programme structure, narrative story-telling and writing, skills you will need as a PD. It also where you can learn edit procedures, and a golden opportunity to learn what shots you need to create sequences. There's no better way to prepare for future shoots than to be in an edit and discover you don't have enough close ups or are missing a covering wide. Those frustrations of not having what you need will serve you well when you are out in the field directing. I also recommend that APs wanting to make the jump also create some short films, 1-2 mins, can be on your phone, whatever, the technology is not important. What is practicing creating narratives. Because storytelling is a critical skill in Producer/Director roles. Good luck. let me know if I can help more.