A Cunning look back of 30 days which have changed
my life over the past 30 years
Day 25: 10th
January 2011 – Almost my big break
“The secret of
success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes”
Earl of Beaconsfield
Evening all,
Once i left university with my qualification as a qualified broadcast journalist,
i felt it was natural to try and get my career of to a great start. So i tried
to get as much work experience as i can. This was difficult than i thought it
would be as all i go t was a local placement on a radio station for a week. So
i decided to try my luck further afield in Kent and i got a placement with the
KM Newspapers group based in Maidstone.
It was a good period of time that i spent there and i learned a lot from
the team in Maidstone. But after my placement was over, it was time to continue
to find my own work and i applied for a job as an ITV news trainee – which I’ve
been told is one of the best ways to being a career as a reporter.
However in the past my past applications have ended in defeat – I’ve
also upset a few people as well as one my past applications ended with me
apologising after a 4 word comment was mentioned on Facebook about everyone in
ITV news. But i was determined to overcome this and apply again.
Luckily for me this time i was shortlisted for an interview, i was pretty
happy that i made it this far and i was hopeful that i can do what i need to do
in order to be selected for the traineeship. So i setup a plan to help me with
this.
The interview was going to be held on the 10th January 2011. So
i didn’t have a lot of time to do this. But with a couple of days to go before
the interview, i managed to get a few critiques and news stories for the day itself.
I hope that we will meet again really soon, once I've proved myself.
On the day of the interview, I got to London in plenty of time to have a
look around and try to find the ITV studios in Central London. One i got there
i was pleasantly surprised that i bumped into one of my old friends from the
Nottingham Trent Uni 2006-07 group who was working at ITV at the time. Chris
and I had a nice chat about the day ahead for me and he wished me luck.
After that we were ushered upstairs ready for the day to begin, i had a feeling
that it was going to be a long day but i didn’t know how tough it was going to
be.
I spent the first half of the day trying my hand of organising a structure
of an idea for a news story and also sorting out a programme order for a local
news programme. I felt that i did pretty well in the news story idea; i
contributed a lot and had some good ideas which were well received by my
colleagues in the group. However, the same can’t be said for the programme
order; as a group we failed to come up with a programme in the time allowed and
although i did contribute to the task, i didn’t stand up for what news stories
i believed would make a good local news programme.
After lunch, the tests got tougher as it was time to showcase our general
knowledge and writing skills. I did feel that i did well and both of these
tests although looking back now i felt that some of the answers i gave were incorrect
but at least i tried to answer the questions. With the writing tests it did
take me a few goes just to get it right which i felt did hamper me as i felt
that they were looking for someone who can write news intros in an instant. I can
do it now but i couldn’t do it then.
The final part of the interview was a 2 on 1 interview. I got drawn Richard
Frediani – Ex ITV Granada’s head of news and now ITV News at 6.30 programme
editor – and Phil Braund – Ex ITV Central head of news. I felt that i did have a decent interview with
them. I was given the opportunity to improve what changes i would have made
from my earlier tests. Although i felt that impressed with my critiquing of work
from local news storied across ITV News, i failed to impress them with my story
ideas and other ways which i felt that they were looking for as an ITV News
trainee. After the interview finished it was time to leave.
I left the building, knowing in my head and heart that i failed to get
onto the traineeship, and i only had myself to blame. I couldn’t impress anyone
on the panel that i was worthy enough to be an ITV new trainee. And within a
week i found out that i didn’t make the final 8 for the traineeship.
Although this did upset me at the time i felt that it was time to move
on and wait for the next opportunity – should it come. Although i did take a
small positive from this was that i wasn’t the only one currently in my position.
But it’s what i do next which i feel will help me become a reporter.
To be continued...
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