A Stress-Less Environment by "The Intern"
A Stress-Less Environment
I recently started my spring internship at a broadcasting company. I can't say I went into it with any real expectations, just to do my job well and learn what it's like to work for TV. And now that I've been there for a few weeks, I'm finally starting to feel comfortable with what I'm doing. Of course, I do the mundane jobs of an intern, I make the coffee, clean up after people, run things back and forth all day because my supervisors don't want to and just help out with little tasks. However, I really feel that my internship is giving me a chance to learn more than the average intern.
One thing the interns do is "pull tape." It literally means to pull the tape that's going to be used for a promo off the shelf. Sounds easy, right? I thought so too. Then I realized that there's about 10 different places this tape could be. I have to do a general search to find it, keep narrowing that search down until I find exactly what my supervisor is looking for, only to go to the place I think the tape could be to realize that it's missing. It's not fun, but it's one of the most important jobs to keep the show running. Working on a live show means always expecting the unexpected and dealing with it asap. So pulling tape may seem like an unimportant job, but when there's less than an hour to put promos together and you're the one who can take care of it with little help, this mundane job doesn't seem so pointless.
Aside from jobs like pulling tape, I've had the chance to do things that are really interesting and that I actually enjoy. Every day myself or the other interns update the links and recipes on our site. Aside from that, I've had the chance to upload slideshows and videos as well. Our Web site is one of the top in the country and is seen by people everywhere, so being trusted to keep up the standard isn't something to complain about.
Something I noticed immediately about my company is that they take everything in stride, and I've truly never seen anyone in my department too stressed or overwhelmed. I'm sure they have been, but my preconception about people who worked as journalists or for TV was that they were always working on a deadline and always stressed and grumpy. In less than two weeks my whole perception had changed. Seeing the people who run a live TV show get a call at 9 in the morning saying that their main guest has canceled and watching them simply work around it is amazing. I've never seen anyone shocked that a celebrity and his two band members were supposed to show up by 10:15 but at 10:30 the band members were there and the main attraction is nowhere to be found because he missed his flight. Obviously they don't have a choice but to deal with it, but the way that things are dealt with keeps the whole environment very calm and professional, and so far it is the one thing that has had the most profound effect on me.
I recently started my spring internship at a broadcasting company. I can't say I went into it with any real expectations, just to do my job well and learn what it's like to work for TV. And now that I've been there for a few weeks, I'm finally starting to feel comfortable with what I'm doing. Of course, I do the mundane jobs of an intern, I make the coffee, clean up after people, run things back and forth all day because my supervisors don't want to and just help out with little tasks. However, I really feel that my internship is giving me a chance to learn more than the average intern.
One thing the interns do is "pull tape." It literally means to pull the tape that's going to be used for a promo off the shelf. Sounds easy, right? I thought so too. Then I realized that there's about 10 different places this tape could be. I have to do a general search to find it, keep narrowing that search down until I find exactly what my supervisor is looking for, only to go to the place I think the tape could be to realize that it's missing. It's not fun, but it's one of the most important jobs to keep the show running. Working on a live show means always expecting the unexpected and dealing with it asap. So pulling tape may seem like an unimportant job, but when there's less than an hour to put promos together and you're the one who can take care of it with little help, this mundane job doesn't seem so pointless.
Aside from jobs like pulling tape, I've had the chance to do things that are really interesting and that I actually enjoy. Every day myself or the other interns update the links and recipes on our site. Aside from that, I've had the chance to upload slideshows and videos as well. Our Web site is one of the top in the country and is seen by people everywhere, so being trusted to keep up the standard isn't something to complain about.
Something I noticed immediately about my company is that they take everything in stride, and I've truly never seen anyone in my department too stressed or overwhelmed. I'm sure they have been, but my preconception about people who worked as journalists or for TV was that they were always working on a deadline and always stressed and grumpy. In less than two weeks my whole perception had changed. Seeing the people who run a live TV show get a call at 9 in the morning saying that their main guest has canceled and watching them simply work around it is amazing. I've never seen anyone shocked that a celebrity and his two band members were supposed to show up by 10:15 but at 10:30 the band members were there and the main attraction is nowhere to be found because he missed his flight. Obviously they don't have a choice but to deal with it, but the way that things are dealt with keeps the whole environment very calm and professional, and so far it is the one thing that has had the most profound effect on me.
posted by Jerry Zurek at
9:55 PM
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