Video transcript: I finished high school in Warsaw, Poland, and I wanted to study in Britain. I chose Birmingham for its excellence in Political Science and International Relations. 

I was among the founders of the University of Birmingham Polish Society and I know that it’s still alive and kicking, so I’m very proud of that.  And also my final year I was elected to the Guild Council. It’s just an amazing experience, I mean there’s nothing that can teach you more about diplomacy than leading a students’ society committee when you have all sorts of different views and you still need to reach a consensus.

I’ve always been interested in politics and international affairs and it was a natural choice to study that at university level, so it obviously still has impact on what I do because I work in diplomacy at an Embassy here in London.  In my public diplomacy portfolio I’m responsible for promotional campaigns at the Embassy that promote Poland to the British Public. I also liaise with the media, both Polish and British, and I’m also responsible for the Embassy’s communications strategy which some of my friends here at work would equate to tweeting a lot but I’d like to think there’s a bit more to that! 

In my typical day we start about 9 o’clock, we go through our mailboxes and the morning press. If there’s no crisis I then liaise with our partners to prepare various events that we hold at the Embassy. I also file cables to the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw, I liaise with the media on a daily basis – there’s plenty of media enquiries every day both in Polish and in English. The most extraordinary experience on the job was when I got to welcome Jeremy Paxman to the Embassy when he had an interview with our Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski.  That was the first time that the Foreign Minister visited since I had started working here and yeah, before the actual interview for BBC Newsnight, which actually took place in this very room, I had my own interview with Paxo and I promise I did not threaten to overrule him!