A journalism student has scooped a job on the Guardian within days of finishing her course.

Angela Balakrishnan made the move from an NCTJ newspaper course at noSWeat journalism training directly to the national.

Angela

And the sweet smell of success was heightened because she landed the job just a day before her 22nd birthday.

She said: “I opened the paper on my birthday and saw my first article. I couldn’t have asked for a better present.”

The path to a job at the Guardian, just a stone’s throw away from the noSWeat centre in Clerkenwell Close, was a real “roller coaster”.

At first, Angela, an economics graduate, thought she had missed out and would have to take a PR job.

She said: “I got an email saying they wanted someone with a bit more experience. But the next day I got a call saying, ‘We have had a rethink. We are not going with the more experienced person’ – they wanted to give it to me.

“It was a roller coaster, from disappointment to extreme happiness. It took a few weeks for me to take it in. I am looking round and thinking to myself, ‘wow, I’m at the Guardian’.

“Sitting on the tube I see people reading it and it is such a buzz to think I am part of that. Every day is new. It is such a great place to work. It is very intellectually stimulating and I am learning all the time.”

She is also full of praise for the course she has only just completed.

She said: “The reason, on the first day, I could do a story by myself was because I had done the course at noSWeat. I had plenty of experience of writing style.”

Course director Stephen Ward said: “We select our students for their potential to get to the top. Angela obviously has those qualities in abundance. She will go far.”

Angela works on the economics desk under the watchful eye of economics editor Larry Elliott.

Prior to getting the job she had a sheaf of top work experience posts under her belt including three local papers, the Evening Standard, NME music magazine and a further education website.