Ilija is a journalism senior undergraduate at the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš. He has been gaining experience in journalism since 2016, writing for Belgrade-based student sports website Sportindeks. In late 2019 he published an investigative story titled "Student Sports in Serbia - Victims of Bureaucracy", as a participant in a project called "The Future of Freedom of Information in Serbia". In 2020, before attending CINS' School of Journalism, he wrote for the website of a local non-governmental organization.