Hello to all future graduates, my name is John Bang and I am a graduate of Charles Sturt University (2015) in Wagga Wagga, I graduated in Bachelor of Arts (Television Production) which now is called Bachelor of Stage and Screen (Television).
Rather than doing a day in life of a Media Operator which is my current job title at Deluxe and I have been working for Deluxe for around 2 years now, I thought it would be more useful for future graduates if I told my story on how it all started for me, because I know when I was in my final year at university, all I was doing was contacting fellow students who were above me and asking them about tips and experiences about the industry I was about to tackle, so here it goes.
2015 was my final year in university where at our uni the industry submit was just around the corner, the industry submit is when representatives from varies television network (Channel Seven, Nine, TEN, Foxtel, Fox Sports, NEP, SBS and etc) in Australia come down for two days and offer potential 1 to 2 week internships at their company. To sum it up quick, the whole process was that the students had to write up a cover letter along with a CV and submit them to the networks we were interested in getting an interview and then an internship out of it.
I was lucky enough to get an interview with all the networks which I wanted except for Deluxe, and Deluxe was the company that I even rang and tried to speak to the HR person at the time but couldn’t get through to them. So, when the industry submit day arose, I was really nervous to go up to the Deluxe representatives at the time because when you think about it, here we are bunch of university students and then there were bunch of people from all across the television network, potentially being able to start our dream in working in the television industry, it was really daunting. Even though I was so scared and nervous to go up to the people from Deluxe I had one thing in my mind, which was that if I didn’t go and speak to them I would go on with my life with the idea of what if…I would have regrated it my whole life thinking what if I had just talked to them. In that thought in mind I went up to the Deluxe reps and introduced myself and asked them what I could improve next time on my CV and cover letter as I didn’t get an interview with Deluxe, I even mentioned I rang to beforehand to see if I could get further advice before the industry submit day.
To my surprise, the reps from Deluxe was also surprised that I rang them and made the effort, they said there must have been some sort of mix up so they told me on the spot, you have 30 seconds, sell yourself. At that time, 50 things were going through my mind but I narrowed it down and told him my 3 key attributes at the time.
The rest is history. Its difficult to tell you all the experiences I have dealt with up to where I am now, I told this experience above because this was the beginning to my career and pretty much what started my journey into the television industry and into Deluxe.
So the main point I would take from the story I have told you above is, even though at the time you feel extremely nervous and some what scared, if you see an opportunity take a leap of faith and take it, because at the end of the day the worst thing that could happen is they say no, and that’s far better than making you think what if…What if I took the leap on that day.
The few key tips and advice I can give you from the experience I have had so far would be: