Here's a sampling of some of the various job shadows done by you all. Take a look and see what you can learn from everyone's visits. There's a lot of good stuff here to help you decide what you want to do with your lives; what you need to be doing to get there; and what to expect when you do get there.
We will add more job shadow reports to the blog as they are completed. Please give each one of these a quick read, will you?
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I spent my day job shadowing Anne Runkle
newspaper reporter for The Oakland Press, and the Macomb Daily. In Anne’s 15
years, she has covered school and environmental issues.
On Monday, July 10, I spent the day with
Anne reporting on a local L’Anse Creuse School District school board meeting. I
met Anne at Harry L. Wheeler Community Center and Administrative Offices in Clinton Township where L’Anse Creuse has all their
meetings. At the school board meeting Anne recorded some of the meeting by
voice memo and took video footage. Anne also took pictures she could later use
for the newspaper story.
After the meeting I asked Anne some
questions like what is a really fun day on the job and what is a terrible day.
Anne said a really fun day means being out with people. Anne said, “A terrible
day on the job is you feel like you have way too much to do and not nearly
enough time to do it. It's a difficult time to be in the newspaper business.
There are constant threats of layoffs. There is the ever-shrinking newsroom.”
Anne said newspaper reporting is always
changing and you are reporting on something different everyday which I would
enjoy. Anne said she recommended writing for a college newspaper or trying to
freelance for some publication. She said this is a good idea even if you aren't
planning a career in newspapers and intend to pursue a career in public
relations, corporate communications, technical writing or a related field.
I most likely will not write for a
newspaper as a career. Anne mentioned how job security is an issue writing for
newspapers. I would much rather be reporting on camera for sports, but I would
consider writing for a college newspaper or starting off in newspaper.
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I have been an avid Pistons fan
since a young age. I remember being so intrigued by the team when I first saw
them win an NBA championship back in 2004. When I decided to take the
journalistic route I knew it was to make writing about sports my focus,
specifically the Pistons and Lions who I have been both watching for as long as
I can remember. I follow all of the websites that report the latest news on
Detroit sports and for this job shadow opportunity I approached David Topham a
staff writer for Pistons Powered a website dedicated to all news regarding the
Pistons. I was up in Lansing multiple times this summer and David is from
Saginaw which is a shorter trip from Lansing then my home town.
It was easy to
set a meeting up as David was more than willing to give me the opportunity to
watch him brainstorm and write an analysis of an offseason move the Pistons
made to resign Andre Drummond. We met at a Starbucks as Pistons Powered does
not have an operating office as all their writers contribute from their own
space. It was extremely interesting to watch David go about writing his
analysis. He let me know that everyone has their own way of approaching a
journalistic piece and that my approach would my different. During the few
hours I spent with David he dedicated it to gathering statistics on Andre
Drummond from the past season in order to argue why Drummond was worth the max
extension the Pistons had just signed him to.
In all honesty this was an amazing
opportunity to see what I could be doing in the next year. David or any other
of the contributors do not receive money for their pieces and do it strictly
for the love of the team. If I hope to get somewhere writing about the teams I
love and earn a living doing it I need to start somewhere and David gave me a
lot of encouragement to start now. He told me to pick a topic regarding the
Pistons and submit a piece to Pistons Powered and see how people like it.
A
valuable lesson David really preached was this is not easy and that sometimes
people will not read or particularly enjoy a piece you worked really hard on.
However I think I am committed to this field in my life and this fall when the
Pistons begin their long season again I plan to contribute for Pistons
Powered.
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James Edwards has been working for
the State Journal for about three years, including while he was still attending
Michigan State. Now he works as a full time high school sports writer,
sometimes traveling around Michigan to cover young athletes and their matches.
Edwards also covers other local
games. He covered the Lansing United soccer team on June 19 when they hosted
the Columbus Crew College Program.
Before going to any event, he always studies up on the histories of both
teams and how they are currently doing.
Arriving an hour before the game, Edwards has the chance to interview
some public relations people.
Next he finds his seat and watches
the game, while also taking notes. He
might write down something about a foul that took place that was extra hard, or
he might write something about how the referee is doing. After the game,
Edwards goes down to the field to interview the players. By the time he leaves he will have plenty of
information to work with in order to write his article. Edwards says that he tries to write six
articles a week. They vary in length and cover any number of sports-related
topics.
I think that working as a high
school sports writer would be a great and fun fit for me. It would give me a chance to stay relatively
local and meet many people around the community, which is what Edwards says is
his favorite part of the job. I love
anything to do with sports or competition and being a sports writer just seems
like a perfect fit for me. However, I
always thought that covering professional sports, especially the NBA, is where
I want to end up. So maybe local sports
is where I should be starting in order to prepare for the higher levels.
I stepped into the Hangzhou Radio & Television Station
building and met with Nan Yang. She has been a professional journalist in
Hangzhou Television Station for five years. Most of her time for this job is
looking for valuable news in this small city. At the beginning, she led me to visit
some studios and office.
When we walked into the studio, there was a recording in the
studio. The presenter was trying hard to give audience a good show. However,
the office is pretty busy. It is full of workers walking around, answering
phones, taking notes, etc. I saw a journalist running out of the office with
his camera in his hand. “Why is he so rush?” “Because he’s trying to catch an exclusive
news before others do”, Yang said.
After this brief conversation, Yang took her camera that is
kind of heavy and told me that we are going to look for news, too. We walked
out of the building and she drove us to the destination. That is the most
exciting interview I have ever seen. Yang spoke confidently with slightly smile
all the time.
When I was just a kid, every time I saw the reporters on TV,
I would admire them. Because no one else can be so wise and confident just like
them do. Talking about why Yang chose journalist as her job, she said, “I just
think I can do nothing better than being a journalist. I mean I like talking to
strangers and I’ve never worried I would be rejected by strangers.” For me,
being a journalist would be such a challenge, not only because I know I’m shy
and I always need to struggle talking to strangers, but also I’m a non-native speaker
and less competitive than native speakers. However, to be a journalist, I can
learn more such as “don’t be afraid” or “concentrate on something”, that’s a
way to make good effect on my whole life.
On Tuesday, July 19th,
I spent the day shadowing Kim Kadel, who is a publisher for the Coral
Springs/Parkland Sports and Activities Directory. Kim Kadel is also an
Ambassador for the Coral Springs chamber of commerce.
On the morning of July 19th,
Kim Kadel invited me to attend the chamber of commerce, located at the Carolina
Country Club in Margate, Florida. We arrived to the Country Club at 8:00 am and
she introduced me to a couple of the guest speakers such as, Jim Dunn, the Vice
President and General Manager of JM Lexus. Jim Dunn was informing me about how
important advertisement is today and that being able to buy and sell
advertisement will help magazine companies tremendously. After Kim Kadel
introduced me to the guest speakers, we sat down at a table and listened to
them talk to about 50 other business people who were attending the chamber of
commerce. Once everything was over Kim Kadel started to show me how the
business side of journalism takes place with her job. She talked to a few
companies about wanting to buy ads to place in her magazine, it was very
interesting to see that even an occupation such as publishing even has a
business side to it. Finally, after Kim Kadel mingled with the other business people
at the chamber of commerce we sat down for about a half hour and she briefly
described to me how it is to be a publisher for a community magazine.
Prior to setting up this job
shadow, it didn’t even cross my mind to be a publisher for a community magazine.
I have always been interested in a position at ESPN for broadcasting on
SportsCenter. However, after Kim Kadel described the benefits of being a
publisher for a community magazine such as, knowing of all the events that will
be happening locally, it made me more intrigued to this type of job. Overall I
don’t see myself being a publisher in the future, but I definitely wouldn’t
count it out.
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