The Industry

     Yesterday I mentioned that today I would talk about how I format my prep… I lied. No, something better came up. I have been asking the people I know in the industry to share their story and one of my great friends Joanna jumped at the chance. Quick! Backstory time.

Joanna and I went to BCIT together. She has a job. I do not.

Told you. Quick. Here is Joanna’s story:

“I thought I would give some insight on my job here.  I’d love to say it just fell into my lap but I think it was one of those right place right time things.  I had a simple focus - when I was done school I planned to do production or promotions.  I was really looking forward to working with my promotions manager at JACK [Vancouver] as I heard he was pretty awesome to learn from.  I checked Milkman everyday just to see and a few weeks prior to school ending 2 promotions positions came up.  One in Calgary and the other in Grande Prairie.  I applied for both - I didn’t have much confidence in myself.  I really thought it was a long shot for both. Calgary was for 3 stations while Grande Prairie was only one, it is a medium market and I knew it would be different than Evolution [BCIT’s Station].  I had also opened my mind - when the producer position came up in GP I didn’t think about applying because I refused to be back in winter…I’m talking too much!

Basically advice I can give - keep an open mind.  Small markets are a great starting point.  You get to make mistakes and try your hand at a lot of things.  I put together proposals, run events, do live cut ins, schmooze with clients and they are working on building up my personality.  They want to make me famous in GP!  Hahaha.  Moving to a small city is hard but it’s a lot more fun AND traffic is less and people are friendly. Always have a goal - if you know you’d like to be back in Vancouver one day then make it a goal.  Work on perfecting your skills in the smaller market for a max of 2 years and then get back to the big city.  With opportunities all over the place (not just Canada), we have the ability to be where we want.  I wouldnt recommend sending out 100’s of applications.  Know what you want and go for it. I emailed my PD directly before applying online - AND KEEP IN TOUCH WITH PEOPLE!  My previous years at SONIC [Edmonton] has helped me immensely - a lot of people I know have worked here and others I have worked with have moved onto bigger things and gave me great references.  Burning bridges is a terrible idea.
 
I LOVE MY JOB!  And the people I work with are great - it barely feels like work and I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

<3 J”