dazed and confused

[princessob]

I have been working as a radio traffic reporter for a year and a half and feel like I'm not challenged enough and that I can do better. I'm nervous about going further into the broadcasting field such as radio/television news reporting which is what I thought I ultimately wanted to do. I worked at a radio station a year out of college and hated it. Now I feel unqualified, as if I've lost my skills. I am not sure if this is normal and I should just go head first into a job or what? Anyone got any advice? If you're in this field, let me know what you think!
Thanks!

[LMY]

This is easier for me to say than to accept but I think you're lucky that you seem to have gotten a job that you went to school for. That seems rare. I really know nothing about broadcasting, but I'd say go for it. If you've got a chance to try something out, do it.
On a sort of related note, I've found that certain companies (or maybe just the people I come in contact with) don't want to take a chance on someone who knows what they're doing but doesn't have the experience to back them up. I hate it when I know in my heart I could so do a job but I'm not given the time of day.
If you have someone willing to try you out, even if you feel unqualified, try anyway. If it falls apart, I would hope that the people you worked with would remember you as a "trier" and would call you back later on.

[beau]

Hey, obprincess -- just tried to send you a private response but I'm not sure if it went through, so I'll reply briefly here...

I'm the recently promoted news director at a public radio station in Pennsylvania. I'm only 23 and so not too distant from the world of looking for first jobs... coming now from the hiring side, you should know that while the combination of (a) radio industry knowledge, (b) job-specific (reporting) skill, and (c) public broadcasting familiarity is best, when I'm looking at resumes, I'll certainly consider people who have only one or two of those.

Most of us in this business know taking bad jobs are part of the process, and I think you'd find plenty of potential employers who would look past the fact that you haven't done news reporting/anchoring in a while, becuase conversely you've stuck with a job in the radio world (you could have gone into print or -- gasp -- public relations by now.

We've got an opening, incidentally, though it's part time. Drop me a note at beau (at) broadcast (dot) net if you're interested in knowing more.

Good luck.

[Mermaid]

Hi Princess,

I worked in radio briefly some years ago, and it was both a learning experience and a hellish one. /phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif I found the field to be very political and there was an intense amount of back-stabbing and two-faced behavior. It wasn't for me -- at least not the major-market station I worked at -- but I suppose it all depends on whom you work for and the working environment they try to create.

I'm also going through some career-related soul searching; I've been in the music industry for several years, and it's quickly losing its luster.Being a record executive isn't as glamorous as people think (unless you're one of the old-farts at a major label, and that's a journey that's unpredictable and definitely doesn't end while one is still young). I'm no longer sure its where I belong, so I'm feeling a bit unsettled (and that goes for life in general, not just my career!). You're not alone.


_________________
-Mermaid-

"Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite." (Kahlil Gibran)

"She knows she's been here too few years to feel this old." (Rob Thomas)