Unsolicited advice to youngsters from a grey beardDate: 6/30/2016 I had a distinct and unique pleasure this past weekend of being asked to speak at the scholarship presentation by the Valley Press Club.
The club, of which I’m a proud member, raises funds and organizes an annual effort to award four scholarships to area young people who are planning a career in mass communications. Besides our own scholarship, The Republican and WWLP also graciously sponsor a scholarship, as does the very first scholarship recipient Al Jaffe.
Jaffe recently retired as senior vice president for talent negotiation and production recruitment at ESPN.
I have been mulling over what to tell these kids and decided to try to tell them things that perhaps their guidance counselors and their journalism professors would not speak about.
Some of it is good advice for most high school seniors, in my humble opinion.
I told them not to pass up any opportunity they came across during their college career to hone their craft. Take internships or freelance assignments or part-time jobs.
Look for an internship that is less about flash and more about substance. Working at “The Today Show” may sound glamorous, but it won’t give you hands-on experience a student needs.
If you call yourself a writer – or a photographer, videographer or podcaster – then do it. Practice your craft.
I also explained how their extracurricular activities don’t mean much to potential employers. It’s your efforts to advance your career that count.
Then I launched into a litany with tips for young journalists. I explained this is a difficult job, as you’re the ultimate insider and the ultimate outsider all at the same time. The people who whisper things in your ear may also be the people who snub you the next day.
The only thing you can do is to be as honest as you can in presenting all sides of a story. I told them there are elected officials I know who will take “negative” press because they know you’re doing your job as fairly as possible.
I explained about the need to do research before you go to an assignment and the positive impact of appearing you know something about the issue.
The importance of having good working relationships with public relations people was also something I covered. I explained the they do a difficult job in attempting to fulfill the needs of their employer while at the same time doing the same for the reporters who contact them.
I also told them to wear sensible clothing. Too often I’ve seen TV reporters wearing shoes that aren’t the right footwear for construction sites or muddy fields. It’s important especially for those in TV to look good – I noted that print reporters such as me are allowed to resemble a sack of potatoes – but few videographers will photograph their feet.
I also shared the tip from one colleague to have a variety of outerwear in one’s car. It is New England after all.
I’m not sure if anything I said resonated or not. After all I said in my introduction to them that I was just another older adult offering unsolicited advice to high school graduates and I didn’t have the courtesy to give them a gift to ease the pain of listening to the advice.
I hope they understand, as all of this year’s high school graduates should do, the stakes are much higher and the demands are far more immediate than when I walked down to receive my diploma in 1972, when dinosaurs still roamed the grounds of Granby Jr.-Sr. High School.
Today’s technological advancements are rapidly changing much of the nature of career and work in many fields, which require much more from young people today than certainly from my generation.
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