For my final blog of the semester, I have decided to mix things up a little bit. Throughout this blog, numerous Westminster alum have taken the time to tell me how my broadcasting skills will transfer over to various fields of work. In this blog, I am going to discuss how I incorporated these skills into landing my summer internship.
This summer I wanted to gain some actual real work experience. I am currently a broadcast communications/public relations double major. With that in mind, I wanted to find an internship that effectively blended the two fields. After searching with little to show, I happened to stumble upon the Pittsburgh Zoo’s website. The zoo offered a number of internships including a marketing/public relations position. I decided to apply to see what would happen.
Eventually I woke up one morning to a voice mail asking me to set up an interview with the zoo. It was at this interview that I realized how transferable my broadcast skills truly are. The first thing I noticed was how surprisingly well I was able to conduct myself in the interview setting. Trust me, I was dying on the inside. But thankfully due to my time as anchor I was able to put on a smile and keep my composure.
Next I realized how important my overall communication skills were. Throughout my time as a broadcast major I have interviewed dozens of people. Now I was one being interviewed. Still though, I had no trouble formulating my answers to their questions. I believe I spoke both fluently and collectively. This is a skill that I really believe my broadcast background has truly impacted.
Buy the skill that I believe really set me apart from the other candidates was my technical background. Through my double major I have picked up skills from the both PR and broadcast side of things. I know how to target an audience while being able to create an actual audio or visual piece to correspond with a set objective.
One of the zoo workers interviewing me loved that I knew so much about incorporating multimedia into a project. He asked about what video editing programs am familiar with, if I knew how to write for the web, and how adept I was with a camera. I truly believe that these broadcast qualities set me apart from many of the other candidates.
So when I finally got the call a week or so ago telling me I had received the position I was ecstatic. I guess my time in the dreaded newsroom has really paid off. The skills I have gained while working for Titan Radio News and The County Line really are transferable to almost any field I could possibly imagine.
No comments:
Post a Comment