First time at the BBC

My first experience of working for the BBC was exciting an nerve wracking at the same time. I walked into the induction for Radio Scotland nervously in April 2007 followed by a handful of other jittery students. We were all in the same boat.

We were briefed on interviewing techniques, given a short history of Radio Scotland and much to my surprise, were not told to make coffee for the bosses.

The toothy BBC smile

I’ve always had that stereotypical image of what work experience really entails. Of course starting off in the industry is not easy. A journalist student rarely walks into a top job. You have to work your way up.

Many lecturers at university have told me, it’s not what you know but who you know that counts.

Our roles for the Radio Scotland programme ‘Making an Election’ were to be distributed around Scotland to interview various people from different backgrounds for their opinions of the upcoming Scottish elections.

Myself and a fellow colleague would be sent to Peebles to interview a janitor and then back to Edinburgh to get some quotes from the Scottish Electoral Commisioner.

At the end of the induction, we were told we would be paid for our work which made us very happy.

Then walked in the head of Radio Scotland Jeff Zycinski. He was very friendly despite being the big boss. He gave us all some useful pointers for getting into the industry such as getting as much work experience as possible.

When it was question time I nervously put my hand up and asked if students should try to look for work experience in other fields of the media such as print, and television.

He then said that any practical experience was valuable:

“Soon, ” he said, “you’ll need to be able to find stories, write them, record and edit audio and video, take photographs and get them all of that up on a website before the competition beats you to it.”

And then pulled out a camera and took my picture. Telling me that the picture would go on the BBC website, he left!

My day working for Radio Scotland was the most pressured and hectic time ever. I was dashing around trying to get these interviews pristine along with my university colleague Jenna.

In the end, we met the deadline, did a great job and loved every minute of it. The practical experience is also part of the learning curve and I would recommend getting as much experience as possible to see what the industry is really like.