Breaking into Broadcasting

Please welcome guest blogger Zachary Rees 

Zachary  has been working in the media industry for a few years now after graduating from Mount Royal University with a diploma in Broadcasting. He's currently finishing up a 2-year contract as a Videographer as well as working as a freelance host, voice-over artist, video editor, and volunteers as the coordinator for the Media Tent at the Calgary Folk Music Festival.

Breaking into Broadcasting

In school hey taught us a few key points of getting started in the Broadcast industry:

1. “Get started ASAP” - they told us right as we started school that we should be looking for jobs in the industry and ideally be working by second semester.
2. “You’ll most likely have to move” - it’s basically been drilled into every young broadcaster’s head that they’ll probably have to move away to a small market to get their start. That is, if you are attending school in a large market like I did, in Calgary, AB in fact.
3. “You can make money, but it’ll take awhile…” - money is afterall, the ultimate reason why we all seek employment, correct? So, unless you can live off of $30,000/year you might want to start looking for a part-time job. “But, don’t worry in about 5 – 10 years you’ll be making good money.”

Now, don’t get me wrong there are exceptions to these standard points everyone in this industry has probably heard a million times. But, as time goes on I am unfortunately starting to learn that these points are in fact, pretty spot on.

Luckily, I listened to the advice and got my start in the industry in my second year of university by working as the manager of our school’s radio station. Then, went on to my first one-year contract as a videographer, which then became a two-year contract that is now reaching its end in just a short couple months. Needless to say, I am just a little scared/nervous/worried about finding a new job.

Literally applying and searching for jobs daily, the job search has been… okay. Which, I’m not going to lie I was thinking/praying/hoping it wouldn’t be. I think everyone in this industry has that one thought in the back of their mind that they’ll beat the system and they’ll be a different case. I am victim to this as I have worked in the industry in my city, but now that I’m trying to find work once again… it’s definitely a struggle. So, here I am now applying for customer service, retail, and banking jobs on top of industry jobs.

The silver lining is… there’s always freelance, there’s always gearing up and moving to that small town, and there’s always time! One day, it’ll happen, I’m almost sure of it. I believe if you keep pursuing the dream, one day someone will be looking for someone exactly like you.

​To summarize, yes the struggle is real… real difficult and exhausting. But, what job search isn’t? When you finally get that interview or even those couple of freelance opportunities it’ll all be worth it and remind you why you got into the industry in the first place.

Zachary Rees
@ZACHARYLREES (Twitter)
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