Tuesday 6 March 2012

My BBC work experience

Through my university we were given the chance to participate in a scheme in which every two weeks we went to help out with BBC radio Lincolnshire's radio show.
The jobs I had included taking phone calls from listeners, bringing guests in and out of the studio, making hot beverages ,helping the afternoon show book guests and I general helped out where I was needed.

I started on the 17th October and finished on March 6th and would start work at 6:30am and would finish early morning. Which meant I was up at the lovely time of 5am to get ready.

The skills I learnt from this experience was how to operate the BBC's phone system and how to interviews in a quicker more concise form. For example when a caller phoned up to comment a story I had to quickly extract a quote for the morning presenter to use and ensure I obtain contact details if the caller is suitable to ring back and have on the show. This also helped me put my shorthand into practice and learn how to make frantic note taking legible.  

Though it may not be hugely superior skill I learnt how to make tea and coffee. I don't like hot drinks so I've never had to make one so it was a skill I had to quickly pick up and it also serves as a great extra skill which might get me noticed since most people like to drink tea or coffee.

I also received a basic understanding of ENPS which is the software system which is used to organise a radio broadcast. This was extremely helpful as it helped me understand how the run down of a radio show is done and how to centralise and all your content and planning together.

Now looking at the bigger life skills I've obtained which will help me along my with my career. I learnt how to communicate more effectively with people who I may encounter in my work from the elderly community that rang in on the phone to council officials we had as guests and even a Take me out contestant who was by far one of the most polite guests we had.

I found that even though this a media outlet it worked like any other workplace. People formed working relationships and worked around the problems they encountered like malfunctioning technology and problems presented with staffing and all dealt with coolly even when things went very wrong.

Either this placement has been so helpful to me, the professionalism of the BBC has rubbed off on me slightly and I've had a peep of what lies ahead of me if I take up my chosen career path.

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