Kick start your media career

 

"We are delighted to offer you a placement here at Channel 4"

 

  

It's no secret that as a first year undergraduate of 'Advertising & Media', there is a burning ambition to successfully thrive after graduation. The degree title itself, paints a glorious picture of an attractive and promising career prospect, idealised by many, who day dream of writing content for highly sought after magazines or news articles, or perhaps creating award winning films, or even breaking the casket on the next big online viral sensation.
Yet, increasingly there is a wealth of graduates who support the pessimistic claims that this saturated and competitive industry, contributes towards a progressive preoccupation where the vast majority will fall by the wayside and give up on their aspirations.

The key point to make here, with regards to becoming a media graduate, is to do it the right way, a graduate who showcases promise and who will be more likely to succeed.

 At the core of this hyperbole from April 2012 came Glynn Ryland, the industry talent manager at Channel 4, who preached to us through his glossy 4Talent presentation, that if you position yourself above the uninspired and invisible masses, then your prospects get infinitely brighter. Granted, if you can research, be specific about where you want to be in the industry and create your own opportunities, then you can leapfrog thousands of rivals who are looking to climb the media ladder.

This was a portrayal of what was going on in my head right about now...

My enthusiasm to work at Channel 4 was instantly elevated

.

 

 

18 . 02 . 13

C H A N N E L 4 / Application.

After a lengthily debate in my own head, one year on from Glynn's inspiring lecture, I took the plunge and began to submit myself to the online 4talent pool, an invaluable platform with which to express yourself and your talents. I spent enough time getting myself acquainted with every open ended question and engaging with every 'ticky' box. I had so much determination not to be one of the infinite, bland clones who lacked individuality, clogging up their responses inbox.

12 . 04. 13

C H A N N E L 4 / Judgement Day.

It was judgement day and I was feeling sceptical. There was no life within my inbox, at times it would have seemed that my phone was almost surgically attached to my face and admittedly I was just
 steps away from resorting back to the drawing board.
Needless to say that as the day dawned on me; my afternoon was quickly consumed by copious amounts of time and effort spent emailing any kind of 4Talent recruitment team address available. At the time I was by no means an expert or even slightly knowledgeable in the field of firing off emails to industry professionals, however I was taking no prisoners. I'm a big advocate for Twitter, I believe that creating online presence is absolutely paramount and tweeting is perhaps most essential, so at the time it didn’t hurt to tweet @Gylnn4Talent, I realised if I didn’t do something conventional about the matter at hand I was going to be disappointed. Shortly after I tweeted about how I was willing to embark on a work placement...

 

the unthinkable happened.

The subject box read: 'Work Placement: Open day invitation' with a bundle of itinerary emails to follow, as I absorbed this wave of excitement, I recall reading the closing statement, the kind regards of "Congratulations once again! Have a great weekend." I could not have felt happier. 

Guess it was time to develop the mantra that patience is a virtue.

Next stop, Channel 4.