BBC Radio Lancashire:That aside, I spent the bulk of my two weeks delicately negotiating the fine line between not being a wallflower but not annoying people by asking for stuff to do too much.
In the main I spent my two weeks at the radio station shadowing the news readers, show producers and broadcast journalists. As you’d expect the BBC runs a tight ship so there was never an option for me to be reading the 10 o’clock news or writing a breaking news bulletin.
However, I did get to write show scripts, book guests for shows and sit in on broadcasts. And I did a lot of vox pops. (If you’ve ever been to Blackburn you may sympathise on how difficult that was. Not a chatty bunch.) Those vox pops taught me a lot about how to put questions to people not necessarily willing to offer information.
And on my last day the producers I worked with assured me my willingness to go out and do stuff that, apparently, many others deem to be below them had impressed them. Off the back of the placement I was put forward for a BBC recruitment day at Media City in Salford so I must have done something right!
Best piece of advice for working in a small office though – take a delicious food gift in on your last day. If they remember you for nothing else, a homemade carrot cake should do the trick!
To say I was a small fish in a big pond on work experience would be an understatement.
Arriving at the offices of The Independent on Sunday was intimidating enough, but coupled with the fact that I was an hour and a half late on my first day (thanks to the London Underground for that!) meant I started my first week as I meant to go on… a little bit tearful and very overwhelmed.
My first lesson learned from work experience was to set off early, wear a watch and wear shoes you can run through tube stations in!
My first few days were spent researching, researching some more and researching again for the senior reporters. I had to contend with ten other work experience people for the few scraps of written work that came our way, and try not to be embittered when I saw Facebook statuses about my coursemates interviewing the likes of Professor Brian Cox and Kenny Dalglish on their placements while I had to be content with one ‘Additional reporting by…’ byline.
Not to be sniffed at in a national mind…
It wasn’t all bad. At all. My second week was considerably better and all the time I’d spend silently seething the week before I soon came to realise was a ‘learning curve’. I offered my own story to the editor – about two ex-convicts and recovering drug addicts who have become the first ex-prisoners to become paid employees of the prison service – and was entrusted to spend four days interviewing, researching, writing and re-writing the story for the paper.
I was warned on my first day that I would probably be told my work was “frankly, a bit shit” but nothing prepares you for the first time copy is thrown back at you.
However, writing and rewriting a piece doesn’t just teach you about your own journalistic skills (what questions you should have asked in interview) and writing abilities (concentrate on the what of the story and let the who, where, when and why write itself).
It toughens you up against criticism, much more of which I’m likely to face in my future career, and teaches you the delicate arts of perseverance, confidence in your story, how best to pitch your story and how to hold back the hot sting of tears in front of a big shot journo.
Great article, Katie. Love the helpful tips, too. So thank you! x
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