It may seem unfair that getting a research job gets a section all to itself, whereas getting a job as a camera operator has to share a chapter with sound recordists, floor managers, editors, PAs and dubbing mixers. I mean no disrespect to these distinguished careers, it’s just that there are lots of common factors to getting these positions. We’ll deal with the similar bits first, then look at specific tips for the job that interests you.

First, a warning – you really should know which job you’re aiming for, before we go any further. If you still don’t know what you want to do, go back and read Chapter 2 again, and keep reading until you feel inspired. I don’t want to be boring about this, but TV bosses really dislike letters that start: ‘I want to work in television, and I’ll do anything...’ They’re not looking for jack-of-all-trades. They want young, passionate people who are burning with the desire to edit, or operate camera, or floor manage, but not all three. One powerful head of department who hires everybody from camera operators, through floor managers to carpenters, told me:

‘I’ll-do-anything-letters show a distinct lack of commitment on the part of the writer – why do they want to work in television if they don’t know what they want to do? As well as being irritating, these letters are also insulting. We’re a network television company, for goodness sake, not some hick operation where jobs are interchangeable.’

You have been warned ...

THE THREE WAYS TO GET INTO TV

Once you’ve decided what you really want to do – and it’s not research – there are three ways to get into TV.

• 1.Get yourself a job – any job – in a television company. Insiders have a huge advantage; lots of TV jobs and trainee places are only advertised internally. One way to get a foot in the door is to take a job in the post room. Traditionally in TV, the people who deliver the mail are waiting for a chance to become a runner, with a view to training as a floor manager or an editor. ‘It’s an excellent way to make contacts within the building, and you may get the chance to ”shadow” in different departments,’ said the head of training at one of the big network companies, adding: ‘Normally, post-room people move on within 14 to 18 months.’ If you don’t fancy delivering the mail, you could try an administration or secretarial job – this is a good way in if your aim is to become a PA. Also, some television companies recruit department runners, as distinct from runners for particular shows. So if you’re passionate about working in drama, you may be able to get yourself a job as a drama department runner. Doing work experience will also get you in the building – we’ll look at how to organise work experience in a moment.
• 2.Get on a specialised trainee scheme. Both ITV and the BBC have recently confirmed their ‘commitment’ to entry-level training schemes. Which is a jolly good thing as they’re the only companies producing a broad enough range of programmes to offer fully-rounded training for jobs such as camera operator, sound engineering, production assistant and floor or unit managing. Since ITV started to become one big company instead of lots of smaller ones, it’s been developing a raft of entry-level training schemes for various craft and crew jobs, including 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 added: ‘We expect to see CVs that reflect a wide range of non-broadcast experience: working in hospital radio; writing for university newspapers; lobbying for community groups and other things that show a commitment to the business of communicating.’ These training schemes are not specifically billed as graduate schemes, but most people who get places on them will have a university degree. However, ITV is also setting up an apprenticeship scheme for electricians and craft jobs. The BBC operates entry-level trainee schemes for floor managers, sound recordists, camera operators and editors. Traditionally, most of these trainee places have been in London. But the corporation’s plans to move some programme-making departments up to Manchester will mean more traineeships in the north. Both the BBC and ITV are looking to recruit a wide range of trainees from different ethnic and social backgrounds. To check out the latest news on training schemes and apprenticeships, set up a ‘jobs account’ at www.itvjobs.com, and e-mail: bbctrainees@bbc.co.uk to subscribe to the BBC trainees’ newsletter.
• 3.Get on a ‘technical operator’ scheme. This is an old BBC idea, currently enjoying a revival at some of the ITV network companies as part of their satellite channel and regional programme output. The idea is that you take on a bunch of enthusiastic young people who want to work in television, and put them to work in rotation, doing different studio-based jobs, so they get a feel for all the jobs, before specialising in one. At the BBC, tech ops only do technical jobs, but in ITV they also floor manage – in fact, some companies have run satellite channels staffed almost entirely with trainee technical operators. It’s an idea that some people love, and others hate. Advocates of the tech op schemes say they’re a great way for young people to get a feel for all the TV jobs on offer, and decide which one they’re best at, with the added bonus that the tech ops actually get to do some proper television work right away (unlike trainees who tend to train for months, or even years, before they get their hands on a camera or a microphone). Critics of these schemes say they’re just a cynical way to get cheap labour, and that anybody worth having should know what they want to do, anyway! Two things are for sure: good people on technical operator schemes do get the chance to learn fast, prove their worth, get noticed, and move on to specialise in the job of their dreams; and tech op schemes are here to stay – they’re the only way to budget low-cost, studio-based programmes. (Here’s an important thing to say at this point: ‘I’ll-do-anything-letters’ don’t go down well with recruiters of technical operator schemes, either. The way to play it is to say that you’re interested in sound recording, camera operating, or whatever, but that you would like a broad training before you decide which discipline you want to specialise in.)

Whichever way you choose to make your grand entrance into the television industry, there’s one thing you just have to do first: get yourself some work experience. Work experience used to be an optional extra – perhaps something to wile away those long student holidays – but nowadays it’s a crucial step towards getting a job in TV. Requests for placements hugely outnumber the places available, so you need to treat your application for work experience as seriously as you would treat an application for a proper, full-time, paid-up job.

GETTING WORK EXPERIENCE

If you’re going for a camera, sound or editing job, a media degree is a good thing to have, as long as you’re aware that the currency of media degrees has been devalued over the past few years. Everyone has one these days, so you need to do something extra to prove your passion and commitment – like make a film or put together a portfolio of photographs. The great thing about media courses is that the good colleges and universities will help you organise your placement (see Chapter 5 for information on how to pick an industry-approved media course).

If you’re not planning to do a media course, here’s how to go about organising your own work experience. (By the way, a few of these tips overlap with the advice on how to get a research placement in Chapter 3).

• First, decide which company you want to work for. You won’t get paid during your work experience, so probably somewhere close to your parents’ home or near where you’re studying would be best.
• In the meantime, put your name down for work experience with the big broadcasters. ITV’s website www.itvjobs.co.uk has details of placements. You should be able to apply for one, and also set up a ‘jobs account’ on this site – which means you’ll get an e-mail when an opening comes up for work experience or a paid job in your area of interest. ITV offers around 1,000 placements a year across the company’s regional centres, 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 a website to get back to you – go out and find yourself a mentor. Track down someone whose work you admire, and ask them about getting work experience. Whether you want to be a vision mixer or a unit manager, watch the credits, note down names and then get in touch with some real, live people. They’ll be flattered by your interest, and they’ll be able to give you inside information about opportunities for placements.
• Prepare your CV or application form. The two most important things to do at this stage are: highlight your particular interest; and show what you’ve done to further that interest. For instance, if you’re a would-be camera operator, talk about your enthusiasm for photography. In the words of one BBC trainer: ‘We need to see evidence that the applicant has gone beyond just doing a media course. We’re looking for passion and drive, and a real commitment to the job they’re being interviewed for.’
• Some more useful tips on preparing your application form: keep it simple and straightforward, don’t waffle. Write neatly; TV bosses get hundreds of these forms, so they’re looking for an excuse to put as many as possible in the bin – don’t lose your chance because your form was illegible. And please don’t talk yourself up – be honest, they’ve heard it all before. Whatever you do, don’t send an accompanying CV printed on lime green paper to make yourself stand out. You will stand out all right, but not in a good way. It’s fine to have a wacky CV or website once you’ve established yourself, and won the respect of your peers – but when you’re just out of college and you have no reputation, it makes you look a bit, well, dorky.
• Send your application to the appropriate person. Make sure you spell their name correctly, and check their correct title. Never write a ‘Dear Sir/Madam’ letter – they go to the bottom of the pile, along with the ‘I’ll-do-anything-letters’.
• Send off your application in plenty of time – if you’re looking for a summer work experience placement, start organising it the previous October.
• It’s fine to phone up every now and then (but don’t become a pain in the neck!) to check how your request for a placement is progressing. But never, ever, ever allow your mum or gran to phone up on your behalf. I know you wouldn’t do this, but it’s worth saying, because personnel people complain bitterly about the astonishing number of bolshie grannies they have to deal with every year when work experience time comes around. If a member of your family does phone up on your behalf it causes bad feeling, and your request could find its way to the bottom of the pile, next to the ‘Dear Sir’ and ‘I’ll-do-anything-letters’. If your granny is a meddler, tell her to back off!
• If your request for a work experience placement at the TV station of your choice is turned down because all the slots have been taken, ask if you can come in and ‘shadow’ for a few days. With your charm and personality, a few days might be just enough to make an impression ...

If the idea of phoning up a television company and actually talking to someone fills you with dread, then take heart because you’re in good company – everybody thinks that’s a scary idea.

MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR WORK EXPERIENCE

I said this in the last chapter, but you probably didn’t read that bit, so I’ll say it again: some people don’t make the most of their work experience. Amazing isn’t it? Believe it or not, there are people who – having landed a fantastic, to-die-for placement – sit around drinking coffee and skiving off on fag breaks. Work experience is your chance to shine; your chance to show just how capable you are. So, ask questions, make yourself useful and offer to do anything that will help the rest of the team you’re working with. And whatever you do, do it with enthusiasm, and to the best of your ability – even if you’re asked to clean the studio, file some tapes, or make the tea. Turn up early and stay until everyone else has gone home. Look keen. And when your work experience is over, send a hand-written thank-you note to the head of department. 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 trainee-whatever-you-want-to-be, your name will be on everyone’s lips.

QUALITIES AND QUALIFICATIONS

Expect to be interviewed, even if you’re going for a work experience placement. Here’s a detailed, job by job breakdown of what TV bosses are looking for when they interview you.

CAMERAS

A degree in photography, film and television, or a media degree from a respected university, will look good on your CV (you’ll need at least 3 Cs at A-level to get onto a good media course – see Chapter 5). When you turn up for your first TV interview – either for work experience, or for a trainee post – you must be able to display a good knowledge of lighting, optics and electronics; you’ll be asked questions like: ‘What is meant by ”depth of field”?’. But it’s your personal qualities that will set you apart from the hundreds of other candidates who have all the same qualifications. Here are the four secret things that your interviewers will be looking for:

• application
• attitude
• commitment
• and enthusiasm.

Being a camera operator can be physically and mentally exhausting, so you must appear to be the sort of person who can work well as part of a team when the going gets tough – and still respond to the director’s demands, and still deal politely yet firmly with difficult artistes or presenters. As one TV boss told me:

‘You can teach just about anyone to frame a shot, but camera ops need tact, diplomacy and discipline in spade-loads if they’re going to be any good at the job.’

So, here are a few things to bear in mind when you’re preparing for your interview:

• Think about times when you have displayed good team work – perhaps there was a time at college when a project went wrong and you all had to pull together. Jot down some notes about how you coped, and work this story into the conversation.
• Show your absolute, rock-solid commitment to being the best camera operator in the industry by talking about your passion for photography, or how you love to video family occasions, or how you made a great film of the school play – though don’t sound as though you want to be a director, that will make your interviewers suspicious. You may, one day, want to be a director, but keep that under your hat for now. At this exact moment, they are looking for someone who wants to be a great camera operator and only a great camera operator.
• Read Chapter 9, so you understand the importance of health and safety in television. Then work it into the conversation. This will impress your interviewers enormously.
• Read as many technical books and magazines as possible, so you can talk knowledgeably about the subject of photography (and be able to answer the ‘depth of field’ question!).
• Watch television analytically so you can discuss your favourite programmes, and say why you enjoyed the camerawork, and lighting. Remember to mention some of the programmes made by the company where you’re being interviewed!
• Don’t worry about being nervous. All good people are nervous.

SOUND

You need the same academic qualifications as a camera operator: aim for three A-levels, and a degree in something like media. Interviewers are also looking for evidence that you can work well as part of a team, but most of all they’re looking for someone who just loves sound – all sound recordists are hi-fi buffs, it’s in their blood. The first thing you should do – after reading this book – is apply to help out on hospital radio. If you can show that you are really committed to making great broadcast sound, you will stand head and shoulders above the other candidates (some of whom, as we discovered earlier, have chosen to specialise in sound because they think it’s an easy option).

To prepare for your interview, you should also read as many technical books and magazines as possible, and you should be able to talk about which programmes you enjoy, and why, and you should understand about health and safety (see Chapter 9). But most importantly, you must be able to convey your absolute, copper-bottomed commitment to being the best sound recordist in the known universe.

POST-PRODUCTION

Editing

If you want to edit, you should have worked in an operational edit suite, before you start applying for jobs. Assuming that you can’t afford to buy your own, this means doing a media degree, and making sure that you get to use the editing equipment as much as possible (you’ll need three decent A-levels to get on a good media course – see Chapter 5). There’s one other thing you’ll need if you want to be an editor, and that’s a very special personality. Because here’s the thing about editors: they get cooped up in a tiny, airless room for weeks on end with directors. Directors come in all flavours, from affable to arrogant, and the editor has to be able to get on with every single one of them. This isn’t as easy as it sounds; editing is a strangely emotional time for directors. At the beginning it’s exciting, because they get to see their rushes after weeks of shooting. Then it’s depressing, when they realise that the stuff they actually shot doesn’t look anywhere near as good as the stuff they imagined they’d shot.

A good editor should be all these things:

• Easy to talk to, and fun to be with – the sort of person you wouldn’t mind being cooped up with in an airless room for weeks on end.
• Intelligent, sensitive and tactful.
• Someone who loves telling stories, which is essentially what editing is all about.
• Computer literate and interested in electronics – it’s good to have some understanding of the technology.

When you’re preparing for your interview, remember that these are the qualities you need to project. You can show your love of story-telling by discussing the kind of programmes you enjoy, and why you enjoy them. Two points to bear in mind here: try to mention at least one programme made by the company that’s interviewing you; and never say something like ‘I don’t watch TV’ – interviewers are looking for people with a passion for television.

Before your interview, read every magazine and book about editing that you can get your hands on; you should have a considered opinion about the relative merits of different types of editing suites, and be able to answer questions like: ‘What’s the difference between linear and non-linear editing?’ There are two more questions that pop up regularly at editors’ interviews. The first is: ‘Which would you rather work on, documentaries or drama?’ There is no right answer to this – they’re just trying to establish that you’re thought abut the different skills needed to work on these two very different types of programmes. The second question is: ‘What do you want to be in ten years time?’ There is only one possible answer to this one: ‘I want to be a great editor.’ Practise saying it!

Finally, don’t worry if you’re nervous on the day – being a bit flustered is an entirely appropriate response when you’re being interviewed for the job of your dreams. In fact, it’s a good thing. You don’t want to come over too cocky, as your interviewers are looking for a nice, sensitive, tactful person. But do try to have fun – they’re also looking for someone who’s easy to talk to and get on with.

Dubbing

If you think you’d like to spend your television career in dubbing, you need to convince interviewers of three things:

• 1.That your ears have great potential.
• 2.That you’re keen to learn a brand new skill, one that few people in the world have mastered.
• 3.That you are bright enough to understand basic electrical theory.

The first is a tricky one to get across, and certainly being musical will help your chances (most dubbing mixers play an instrument). But as one senior dubbing mixer explained:

‘Being able to do what we do isn’t a natural talent, it’s a learned skill. I’m looking for people who are aware of sound, and interested in what sound can do, but whoever gets this job is going to have to learn from scratch, anyway.’

Because of this, he says he likes his trainees fresh from college or university, or even straight from school. Seems you need to train ears when they’re young.

Did you panic when you read number three? Don’t worry if you didn’t do any science at school – you don’t need A-level physics to be a dubbing mixer. During your two years’ training you will learn enough basic physics to be able to understand why there’s a buzz on the line when you plug the microphone in. In fact, there is no one A-level or degree course that will fit you for being a dubbing mixer. There is one quality, though, that marks out all new dubbing trainees, and that’s a willingness to learn completely new skills. Oh, and there’s one more, very interesting thing to say before we leave the subject of dubbing, and that’s how tiring it is. Be warned that learning to use your ears properly – actually listening to things, rather than just hearing them – is surprisingly exhausting.

FLOOR/UNIT MANAGING

Floor/unit managers/first assistant directors (or FUMFADs for short) all start as runners, then work up to being thirds, then seconds and firsts. TV bosses are looking for three main qualities in the people they train to become FUMFADs:

• A broad education up to at least GCSE standard (but I would aim for a minimum of 3 Cs at A-level, so you have the option of doing a good media degree. Also, the BBC likes its floor managers to have a university education).
• Strong communication and organisational skills.
• Some proper, paid, experience of either television production, or theatre stage management.

This last point is crucial: you need some real experience in the big wide world before applying for this job. People tend to come at it from two different directions.

In a nutshell, TV bosses are looking for a certain maturity, a certain lived-in feeling to the people they take on to train up as FUMFADs.

‘It’s not really a job for someone fresh from college, who has no knowledge of real life,’ said one boss. ‘Trainees need to be able to deal directly with all sorts of people, from cabinet ministers to rock stars. They have to be organised. They have to have strong leadership qualities, yet still be able to take direction. They must be sensitive and thick-skinned. Most people need a bit of experience of life under their belts before they can tackle a job like this.’

Of course, there are always exceptions to any rule – if you’re naturally mature and organised, you may well be able to talk yourself into a runner’s job straight from college. It has been done. But you must be prepared to keep trying. Here’s Peter’s advice:

One final note – you will do yourself a big favour by reading Chapter 9 before you go for any interviews. Understanding health and safety is an important part of the FUMFAD’s job.

SECRETARIAL/PAs

If your aim is to become a PA, you need to get yourself a job as a production secretary (or production coordinator) first, so you can build up your keyboard skills, and most importantly, learn how to oil the wheels of the television process. Because that’s the magic of all good PAs: they know how to get things done, who to talk to, and how to talk to them, so that the production runs smoothly and without a hitch.

But you won’t walk straight into a job as a television production secretary, unless you’re very lucky, and particularly brilliant. Probably, you’ll need to start off in a clerical or secretarial job, and work your way up. Here are the qualifications and qualities you’ll need to make it as a PA:

• A media degree is a good thing because you’ll learn about the industry. You’ll need at least 3 Cs at A-level to get on a good media course – see next chapter.
• Excellent keyboard skills.
• Good communication and organisational qualities.
• Numeracy: you must be able to add up quickly and accurately – in minutes and seconds! Think about this for a minute (which is 60 seconds, by the way), it’s not like adding up to a hundred; it requires heavy-duty mental arithmetic skills. Try this question: the running time of a VT insert is 5’ 14′. It’s been playing for 2’37′. How long is left? Quickly, I need an answer now ...
• And, as a bonus, you should be able to count bars of music.

It used to be that would-be production secretaries applied for jobs the normal way: by sending in their CVs to personnel, and waiting for a post to become available. But the other day I heard a story that shows how things are changing. I pass it on to you to think about, and perhaps act upon.

If you fancy taking the direct approach, my advice would be to pick a department, like regional programmes, or documentaries, and write to the head of that department, rather than targeting individual producers.

One final tip: there are two excellent websites which can help you find your first job – www.skillset.org, and www.skillsformedia.com. They offer information on what jobs and training courses are available right now, and they’ll also help with individual careers advice.