Make your passion projects. I'm a Shooting PD and that's the advice I give to everyone who wants to get into the industry, in the shooting side of things. Just make stuff. It will take you places, at the very least it's more experience, more learning on the job, footage for a showreel. But it can often lead to doors opening, work and even outright offers of money. I've had all of the above from filming my own stuff.

When you're working on a series, you don't always get to make stuff that resonates directly to you and your hobbies and interests. So in your down time - like me and a lot of people had around Christmas (was crazy quiet wasn't it) - make your passion projects.

I'm from Burnley. Very much a working class town.
"You don't still live there do you?" i had that recently from a crew person on a shoot. People have preconceptions about the place, it's never been properly represented in the media and I had a bit of time off between contracts so I made a film about it. The reception has been really great on Facebook so I put it on Youtube too.

Fill your down time with making your own stuff. You won't regret it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBGtpnOorMQ