CQU journalism graduate Heather O'Neill has lost many hours of sleep on the way to her goal of joining the media industry.

Her part-time job to sustain her studies involved a regular 1.30am start, followed by hours of newspaper monitoring (and sometimes radio monitoring as well) for a national agency.

Despite catching only brief snippets of sleep each day, and being a mum, and studying, Heather managed to complete her course and land a graded journalist job at the Central North Burnett Times in Monto.

Her new position will include periods of experience at a sister publication, the South Burnett Times in Kingaroy.

Heather is pleased that she will be handling photography, writing and editing duties to flesh out her CV, which already includes a few paid feature-writing jobs.

"The article I am most proud of appeared in the 'Rugby League Week' in July 2004. It was about a young Rockhampton teenage boy who fought two battles with hodgkins lymphoma," she said.

Ms O'Neill said she decided to become a journalist after 14 years of secretarial duties had turned her job into a chore. She could also see that secretarial jobs were being replaced by technology.

"It's been a degree-driven life change," she said.

"I started with the STEPS program at CQU Rockhampton and then took up the challenge of a degree."