Temporary Jobs

I know there are a couple of employee's within TV networks here so I thought I would ask this question.

Is it possible to get any temporary jobs within TV or radio?

I hope to get into the journalism side of things when I'm older so I would like to get some experience (any my foot of a rung of the ladder)

I'm 16 and have just finished my GCSE's and have 10 weeks to spare.
I would personally do anything, they say that many people start off making the tea and I am willing to do anything!

Do TV and radio companies take people on temporarily or part time. As I going to college I may have time to spare at the weekends (and possibly at other times)

As I say, just experience of working within media would be very rewarding for me!

I hope your not doing media at college otherwise you'll be bored out of your skull like me! It's ok for the first 6 months, but then your workload dwindles into nothing, and you end up having to go in for just 2 days a week!

If anyone else is planning to do National Diploma Media - then make sure you know what to expect. Colleges differ from place to place, so you might be lucky! After this media course, I might study another course such as history or Entertainment technology.

Thats my problems aired

Best of luck to you James, and anyone else who is forfeiting 6th form to go to college, or even into a job!

I'm not taking media studies as to the college I am going to doesn't do it! They only do film studies!

So I might take Politics instead and I'll have Andrew Marr's job.

Politics eh?

you might be Prime Minister one day then?

Blair is the 51st PM - so you might be the 54th in around 20-30 years time??

I do politics at college and it is very very very dull, but employers in the journalism business prefer it to Media Studies or Journalism A Levels and degrees. I think a lot of people our age do media and journalism thinking that it will teach them everything they need to know about writing and presenting, but this is not the case. You obviously need the knowledge of the subject in the first place, so politics, economics, law, these would all be good choices.

As for work experience, try your local radio station. I know someone who did work experience at Rock FM, which is based here in Preston, and one of the things she did included presenting a sports report. Something like this would look very impressive to employers, even if this isn't exactly what you want to do. If you want to aim higher, contact your local BBC or ITV company and see if they offer anything, but don't gt your hopes up too high.

I think I need to do all this as well, because we both seem to be going into the same industry James!

Excellent!

What exactly does politics entail?

I've always actually been quite interested in politics and how it all works.

Politics, oh, where do I start?

Right, we started off with a bit about pressure groups (groups who campaign for different causes, eg Greenpeace), and we have also learnt about the changing UK system (different voting systems, devolution, House of Lords), the government (Prime Ministerial power, the cabinet, accountability, civil servants, the judiciary (judges)), Europe, the UK constitution (people's rights and that), and we've just started political ideologies (what parties stand for and how, for example, Conservatives differ from the idea of conservatism).

It is all very interesting, but both of our teachers are quite dull ('what shall we do this lesson? I know, let's write notes!')) which is kinda off-putting! I suppose I would recommend it if you fancy a career in journalism. I saw an interview with a man who's very high up at ITN, and he said that he prefers potential employess to have studied politics or some of the areas I mentioned on my last post.

Hope that helps!

(Edited by Big Phil at 4:59 pm on June 20, 2001)

Cool!

I think you may have convinced me but I will have to see on induction day, just to make sure.

I did a Btec ND Media for 2 years and it was great.

I chose to go to one that meant a 4 hour round trip by bus every day, because the facilities at my nearest college had no comparison.

You should go and check out the facilities at your chosen college. Mine had fully working TV and radio studios and I spent a lot of time doing stuff with sound and pictures.

If you pick the wrong college, you'll end up doing mostly theory, which is very dull

I had to do some obviously, but not as much if as if I'd gone to that other college.

Ah, never believe what they say on induction days! They'll say anything to make the college look good!

Good luck, though. You'll learn a lot from politics and believe me, it will be valued later in life!

i have a GNVQ in Engineering (advanced level) and qualifications at 2D and 3D AutoCAD. Can i get a job working behind the scenes at all???