Getting a job as a researcher deserves a chapter all to itself, because it’s different from getting any other television job. Here’s the first and most important difference: you can target individual producers. Never underestimate the power of these words: ‘I love your programme’.

Say them again: ‘I love your programme’.

Do they give you a warm fuzzy glow? They do? That’s amazing, because you haven’t even made a programme yet. Now imagine you are a hard-working producer, sweating blood and tears to make great television. In your average day, you – as a successful television producer – are faced with many headaches and heartaches: your budget is blown to smithereens, your presenter hates you, and your ratings are rubbish. It’s your job to encourage your staff and make them feel good about themselves. But nobody ever says a kind or encouraging word to you. Until one day, a letter lands on your overflowing in-tray. It starts with the magic words: ‘I love your programme ...’. Wouldn’t you – as the hardworking, misunderstood producer – like to meet this person?

Of course it’s not quite as simple as that – it’ll take more than a bit of shameless flattery to secure your dream job – but showing a genuine interest in someone’s programme is an excellent way to start. And it makes a refreshing change from most of the letters and e-mails that producers receive, which tend to concentrate exclusively on the many talents of the writer.

WRITING A GOOD LETTER

The point of your letter is to get you in the door. Once you have secured yourself a face-to-face interview, your natural charm and enthusiasm will have a chance to shine. But until then, you’re up against stiff opposition, because most producers get several letters a week from educated, bright young things who want to be researchers. So, how to make sure that your letter stands out?

A good letter should be four things:

• specific
• short
• well written
• enthusiastic.

Let’s look at those in order (see sample letter page 50.)

Point one

By specific, I mean that the letter should be tailored to appeal to the person who’s going to receive it. This may seem blindingly obvious to you, but you should see some of the letters that producers get.

Here’s my top letter-writing tip: it’s better to write three or four well-researched, well-thought-out letters to particular producers, than to send out a blizzard of standard letters to everybody who ever made a television programme. And it should go without saying that you never, ever, ever write a ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ letter. Always write to someone, make sure you spell their name correctly, and give them their proper title.

Point two

Next point: short is always good. Don’t waffle. And please resist the temptation to talk yourself up (I know you wouldn’t do anything like that, but it’s worth saying anyway). Producers have heard it all before – whatever it is.

Point three

Your letter must be well-written. If you do get a job as a researcher, you will be expected to be able to write: letters to contributors, briefing notes, treatments, billings, and even scripts. A clumsy, badly punctuated letter is not a good advertisement for your writing skills.

Point four

And finally, be enthusiastic. Science producers are looking for people who are passionate about popular science. Documentary producers want people who are passionate about documentaries. Children’s producers want researchers who are passionate about children’s programmes. Communicate your passion!

All these things are true for e-mails too.

BUILDING A GOOD CV

What qualifications do you need?

Whatever kind of programmes you want to make, it’s good to have an academic degree. Any degree – zoology, French, physics or history – would be just fine. But you should know that not all producers are keen on graduates with media degrees.

Before I explain why, time for a quick digression: do you know the difference between media and media studies?

• ‘Media studies’ is an academic degree, where you analyse media in all its forms (if you’re interested in where Channel 4 gets its funding, or you’re keen to examine the symbolism of the pub in Eastenders, then media studies is for you).
• ‘Media’, on the other hand, is a completely different sort of degree, which should teach you professional skills like how to edit television programmes, or how to write for magazines. So media studies is supposed to be a theoretical course, while media is supposed to be a practical one.

So is a degree in media a good thing? Yes, maybe and sometimes. If you’re going for a job as a camera operator, it’s good to have a degree in media, because you’ll know one end of the camera from the other. But getting a job as a researcher is different. Producers are looking for bright people with lively, inquiring minds, who will eventually make their own programmes. And making programmes is not about television, it’s about reflecting the world. Some of the producers I spoke to when I was researching this book seemed slightly suspicious of graduates who had chosen to do their degree in media or media studies, for three reasons:

• A degree in zoology, or French, or physics shows an interest in the world, whereas a degree in media shows only an interest in television.
• A media degree is perceived to be easier than a physics or French degree, so it can look as though media students are opting for a lazy way to get a university education.
• Media degrees got a bad reputation during the 1990s, when the academic world went mad for media courses.

Some universities and colleges were so keen to jump on the bandwagon that they ended up offering poor-quality courses, that produced poor-quality graduates.

The good news is that things are changing. There are some excellent courses on offer now (see Chapter 5 for information on how to find them), and there are plenty of well-respected people working in television today who came from a media background; their influence is bound to have an effect on the bias against media degrees. And it has to be said that there are two big advantages to doing a media degree: the good courses will help you organise your work experience at a television company; and you’ll get useful experience in operating cameras and editing equipment (see Technical Knowledge, later in this chapter).

But all producers like researchers with a broad, well-rounded education. So if your main degree is in media, you may have to work extra hard on the rest of your CV to make sure that your interests don’t appear to be limited to television. (See sample CV page 57.)

SPECIALIST SKILLS

Journalism

Journalism is a great way into TV. There are more news programmes than ever before – it’s one of the few thriving areas in the industry. You can make a life out of television journalism, or you can use it as a stepping stone towards working in other areas. I started my TV career as a regional journalist, and it’s interesting to reflect on what’s happened to the people who worked alongside me at the time:

• B runs a successful independent production company
• P is a hot-shot international executive producer
• R is the managing director of a network television company
• M is head of regional programmes at a network television company
• H runs a thriving documentary department (at, yes, you’ve guessed it, a network television company)
• T is a producer at ITN.

Which perfectly illustrates my point: journalism is a fantastic way in to TV, and great training for whatever you want to do when you get there. Working as a journalist will teach you four important skills:

• How to spot a good story
• How to write for television
• How to think quickly
• How to shoot and edit your own stories.

The last point is a new development. Once upon a time, not too long ago, all TV journalists covered their stories with the help of a camera crew, then came back and put the piece together with a video tape editor. But that was before the advent of the VJ, or video journalist. This new breed of television news-gatherer is trained to do the whole thing all by herself. She writes the script, she operates the camera and then she edits and dubs her piece ready for transmission. As with all changes in the TV world, some people think this is the best thing that ever happened, while others think it’s the worst. Whatever, VJs are here to stay. Of course, television newsrooms won’t be entirely staffed by them – some stories are too big, too complicated, or simply too important to be covered by just one person. For the items that require a bit more finesse, there will always be a need for reporter-presenters, specialist news camera operators, and picture-editors.

How do you get a job as a television journalist?

Right now is a great time to get into television journalism. ITV has a new, year-long traineeship scheme, covering basic and advanced skills in voice and presentation; reporting; compliance and law; bulletin-writing; and editing. Every trainee has a ‘home’ region, but they’ll all get the chance to work in another area for a few weeks, so they learn how to handle different ways of doing things – every newsroom has its own house-style and personality. And all trainees will get the chance to work at ITN for two weeks. To apply for this scheme, you’ll need either: a qualification from an NCTJ course (National Council for the Training of Journalists); or a degree in Broadcast Journalism from the BJTC (British Council for the Training of Journalists); or some ‘equivalent experience’ – this covers a wide range of things, from website-writing, through doing a stint in local radio, to running a community newspaper or magazine. But most importantly, you need to have a passion for telling stories.

Two more things to say about the ITV scheme: the first is that it’s hoping to recruit trainees from culturally and socially diverse backgrounds. And second, you’re not guaranteed a job at the end of the course. But you will have had 12 months of top-notch training, and the chance to make excellent contacts in TV newsrooms across the company, so it’s safe to say that the good people will get good jobs. You can find out more about the ITV journalism training scheme on the company’s website: www.itvjobs.com. ITV also runs a bursary scheme, sponsoring several students every year through a BJTC-accredited course.

The BBC runs a broadcast journalist trainee scheme too, offering on-and-off-the-job training in news and current affairs. Details on the BBC’s website, or you could send your e-mail address to bbctrainees@bbc.co.uk, to sign up for the quarterly BBC trainees’ newsletter.

If you are interested in journalism, a vocational course is useful, because you need to know specific things to be a journalist, such as how to avoid contempt of court, and how the libel laws work. There are hundreds of journalism courses available: print journalism or broadcast journalism; degree courses or post-graduate ones. But here’s some advice from another ex-colleague who’s now in charge of regional news programmes for a large broadcaster: The best way in to TV news for most people is to do an NCTJ or BJTC course, then get a job in local radio, before applying for a newsroom job at your local ITV or BBC TV station. If you’re serious about becoming a journalist, you’ll need a good grounding in law and local government. And it helps to have a strong knowledge of local issues.

Details of NCTJ courses on www.nctj.com/courses. The BJTC has a list of its courses on www.bjtc.org.uk – you can contact them for details of ITV’s bursary scheme.

Other skills

Almost any hobby or interest can be an exploitable skill:

• Perhaps you’re passionate about politics, and you helped out in a campaign office at the last election. Use your knowledge, and your contacts, to get yourself a job on a political programme.
• If you’re a French graduate, contact producers of education programmes to see if they can use your language skills.
• If you’re a sports nut, try for a job as runner or junior researcher on a sport programme.

You may be surprised at your marketable skills. I know a producer who got into TV on the strength of his Nintendo expertise – his first television job was as a researcher on a video games show.

Technical knowledge

When I got my first job, the idea of a researcher operating a camera would have been as shocking as, well, a completely untrained person doing something she had no talent for. But things have changed, and nowadays there are lots of reasons why researchers may be asked to use a camera: undercover filming; low budgets; the interviewee can only do the interview today and you don’t have a proper crew; the director wants to see what a location looks like and she can’t come to the recce; and lots more things that will happen to you that I can only dream of. But you won’t be expected to do anything complicated, and the equipment will be easy to use. It’s also possible that you may get to do some editing, but again, all you’ll be expected to do is to stitch some shots together, and stitching shots together is not really editing.

If you can operate a domestic camcorder, you’ll be okay with the camera side of things (by the way, you may be surprised to learn that the hardest thing about self-operating is getting good sound!). And if you can operate a word processor, you’ll quickly pick up how to edit a basic sequence. Look at it this way: it’s not learning to use the equipment that makes camera operating or editing so hard to master. Just as being able to use a word processor doesn’t automatically make you a writer, and passing your driving test doesn’t make you a grand prix winner, being able to hack some shots together or shoot a talking-head interview is hardly editing or camera operating in the true sense.

Other things that make you special

Your CV is not just about academic qualifications and specialist skills. It should also reflect the fact that you are a bright, interesting person with a lively, inquiring mind – just the sort of person, in fact, that every television producer is looking for. On your behalf, I asked some top producers what would impress them, and they were pretty much unanimous: they’re always impressed by someone who displays:

• enthusiasm
• an intrepid spirit
• and a willingness to learn.

You can make your CV shine by doing something unusual that you are genuinely passionate about, like spending your gap year in Africa, helping volunteers with a baby vaccination programme. Or working at an American summer camp. You don’t even need to leave the country – take up the saxophone, or learn white-water canoeing, and you will instantly sparkle in a sea of lacklustre candidates who don’t seem to have any interests at all (other than TV).

WRITING YOUR CV

All the usual CV rules apply: keep the information clear, uncluttered and short – don’t waffle. Say whether or not you have a full driving licence. And don’t leave any suspicious holes in the information.

‘I’m always wary of a CV that doesn’t have any dates,’ said one producer. ‘It makes me think that the writer is trying to hide something.’

One more absolutely vital tip: make sure your CV has a phone number where you can be contacted in six months’ time, even if it’s your parents’ number. And if you change your mobile phone, call all the producers who’ve got your CV, and let them know the new number. Think how awful it would be if you missed out on your big TV break because they couldn’t find you ...

GETTING WORK EXPERIENCE

Now you’ve got your excellent letter and CV, it’s time to get yourself some work experience. Work experience used to be an optional extra, but nowadays it’s essential. And because work experience has become a prerequisite to a TV job, getting a placement has become a serious business – expect to be interviewed, just as if you were going for a real, fully-paid job. (By the way, if you’re under 18, your chances of getting work experience are slim.)

If you’re not on a media course, you need to organise your own placement. Here’s how:

• Decide which company you’d most like to work for, taking two things into account: first, you’re not going to get paid during work experience, so somewhere close to your parents’ home or near where you’re studying would be best. And second: check that the company makes programmes that interest you. There’s no point in applying to a science producer if your passion is for the arts. Working in regional programmes gives you the chance to handle lots of different types of stories – the BBC makes the biggest range of regional programmes.
• Meanwhile, put your name down for work experience with the big broadcasters. Details of ITV placements are at www.itvjobs.com. You should also be able to set up a ‘jobs account’ at this website, which means that you’ll get an e-mail when an opening comes up for a placement or a paid job in your area of interest. ITV can offer around 1,000 placements a year across the company, but don’t expect more than a couple of weeks’ work experience. If you live in Scotland, you can find out about placements by visiting www.scottishtv.co.uk. BBC work experience places are advertised on the BBC’s website: www.bbc.co.uk.
• But don’t sit around waiting for someone in Human Resources to get back to you – get in touch directly with producers whose work you admire. (Don’t forget that researchers can get valuable experience, and make excellent contacts, working at an independent production company.) Send your CV and an enthusiastic letter to the producer you would most like to work for, explaining why you love her programmes, and asking if you could have a five minute meeting with her to talk about getting some work experience.

Next comes the tricky bit – this is where your training to be a researcher really starts – you have to get yourself in the door. My advice would be to follow your letter with a phone call, make friends with the producer’s assistant, and ask if you can talk to the producer on the phone. If it’s a bad time, find out a good time to call back. You must be determined, but sensitive – don’t become a pain in the neck by phoning up every day, but on the other hand, you really need to get yourself a face-to-face interview. It could be that the producer refers your letter to her executive producer. If so, make friends with his assistant too. While you’re making friends, you should ask for a couple of tapes of the producer’s programmes, and perhaps some of the other programmes that come out of the department.

HOW TO SHINE AT YOUR INTERVIEW

It worked! You’re waiting outside the producer’s (or executive producer’s) office for your informal chat. It doesn’t feel informal – you’ve never been so nervous in your life! Take some deep breaths, wipe your sweaty palms and concentrate on these five useful tips for getting through your first interview:

• 1.Have some interesting things to say about the producer’s programmes, or if you’re seeing an executive producer or head of department, have an opinion on the output of the department (this is where those tapes come in handy – the ones that your new friends sent you). Be honest, but also positive. Think of constructive criticisms. Frankly, being a Smart Alec won’t do you any good at all. The fact that you’ve watched the programmes will win you instant brownie points. The fact that you’ve thought about them, and have interesting things to say, will make you even more popular.
• 2.Sparkle. The minute you walk through the door, make eye contact and smile. Make sure your handshake is strong and firm. Sit forward on your seat, don’t lean back. Remember, producers are looking for enthusiasm. Here’s what one head of department said about some of the people who come through his door wanting work experience: ‘They’re so laid-back they’re almost horizontal. I feel as though I want to poke them with a cattle-prod! I’m looking for zip and zest and passion – I can’t be doing with wallflowers. I want people with personality in my department.’
• 3.Have some interesting programme ideas, and share them. There are people who believe that you shouldn’t tell anyone your ideas before you’ve got a job because some producer will pinch them, use them himself, and you’ll be left jobless and idea-less. This is nonsense. It just doesn’t happen, and here’s why – if your ideas are really that good (good enough to rip off) the producer will want to hire you. It’s possible that the producer may already be developing an idea that’s similar to one of yours, in which case he’s going to be even more impressed by you, because your mind is working along the same lines. You can’t lose by sharing your ideas.
• 4.Read Chapter 6 for tips on how to be a good researcher before you go for your interview. Your understanding of the job will be impressive.
• 5.Listen, ask questions, and interact with the producer. Working in TV is all about interacting, having conversations, and bouncing ideas off other people. Producers are looking for evidence that you’re easy to get on with – a large part of your time will be spent on the phone, interviewing people and trying to persuade them to help you. Don’t worry about looking nervous (in the words of one seasoned executive producer: ‘All the good people are nervous – it shows that they care!’), but don’t let yourself get so paralysed with fear that you can’t have an interesting conversation.

Finally, some quotes from producers, executive producers and heads of department on what they’re looking for in a would-be researcher:

‘Someone who’s forever curious, and interested in the world around them.’

‘Someone who has an interesting way of talking about the mundane.’

‘Someone who is serious about making good programmes, but always fun to be with.’

‘A team player with bags of character and personality.’

DOING WORK EXPERIENCE

You’re not going to believe this, but some people don’t make the most of their work experience. In fact there are people who, having landed a fantastic placement, sit there reading the paper all day. Work experience is:

• your chance to shine
• your chance to share your ideas
• and your chance to take on as much real work as you possibly can.

So, ask questions, make yourself useful and offer to do anything that will help the other researchers and producers. And whatever you do, do it with enthusiasm, and to the best of your ability. Turn up early and stay until everyone else has gone home. Look keen. And when your work experience is over, send a handwritten thank-you note. If you do all this, you will be remembered as a fun, enthusiastic, hard-working, interesting and nice person. And next time there’s a vacancy for a junior researcher or runner, on a short-term contract, your name will be on everyone’s lips.

TRAINING SCHEMES

The BBC’s scheme

Most researchers learn on the job. But every year, a few lucky ones get the chance to start their TV careers on entry-level training schemes. Currently, the best of these are run by the BBC, and the corporation’s flagship scheme is called the Production Trainee Scheme. It lasts for 18 months, during which time you get the chance to work in radio, television and new media, doing editing, research, script writing, web production, and working on live studio programmes. You have to sort out your own position at the end of 18 months, but most trainees walk into a production job. Sounds wonderful? It is. But there are thousands of applications for a handful of places. The good news is that this famously ‘Oxbridge-only’ scheme is trying to attract trainees from culturally and socially diverse backgrounds. The Production Trainee Scheme is advertised in the spring. More information on the BBC’s website, or e-mail bbctrainees@bbc.co.uk to sign up for the quarterly BBC trainees’ newsletter.

The ITV scheme

Until recently, training in ITV was an ad hoc affair – companies recruited fresh faces when they got a few programme commissions. But all that is changing with ITV’s new, joined-up approach to training. The new-look ITV is developing entry-level training schemes for researchers, camera operators and sound recordists.

Places on these schemes are limited, and according to one trainer, they’ll go to applicants who can ‘demonstrate their passion’. She went on to explain: ‘We expect to see CVs that reflect a wide range of non-broadcast experience: working in hospital radio and on regional radio programmes; writing for university newspapers; lobbying for community groups and other things that show a commitment to the business of communicating.’ All these new training schemes have one thing in common: they’re looking to recruit a wide range of trainees from different ethnic and social backgrounds. As one trainer put it: ‘We need to widen our pool, which has been traditionally white-middle-class. But that doesn’t reflect the audience any more, so we’re looking for trainees with different stories to tell, and different points of view to contribute to the company’s future.’ Details of training schemes on ITV’s website: www.itvjobs.com.

OTHER WAYS TO GET YOUR FIRST RESEARCH JOB

There is another way to get your dream job, but it’s not for the faint-hearted: take any job you can get in a television company, and work towards your goal. Here’s a story about someone who did just that.

One final thought about becoming a researcher – it’s not like getting a regular job. Most researchers work on short-term contracts, on a programme-only basis. Once they’ve proved themselves, they get longer contracts which can last for six months to a year. But very few researchers working in television today have staff jobs, and in the future there will almost certainly be no staff jobs at all. Use this to your advantage by getting as much experience as you can, on different types of programmes. And don’t worry about where your next job is coming from.