Image by THMS.nl
My concern is this:
I teach a lot of talented individuals. They produce fantastic work – audio, video, web, podcast. Much of it is up to or beyond professional standards. They all want to work in the “meedja”.
Many never will.
Why?
There are many reasons, but predominantly I think it’s the leap between producing awe inspiring artefacts and selling them and primarily yourself to the industry. It’s having the confidence, chutzpah, or sheer balls and belief in yourself to convince someone, somewhere to give you that first chance.
My question is this:
How do we encourage students to have a realistic view of their own worth and promote themselves in a confident and professional way in the industry?
I have one first year student who took it upon himself to approach the BBC locally (after researching the right contact) and ask for the usual look around and tour. He is very talented and becoming increasingly confident in his abilities. Yesterday he couldn’t attend a meeting with me because he was working on producing trails for their mid morning show. Fantastic, I applaud him. I believe he will succeed in radio.
I have a third year student who recently received a rejection from the BBC. He is quite distraught and is now considering joining the armed forces (I kid you not) as he feels a lack of worth because of this one (first and only) rejection he’s had to suffer. He is a competent student. He produces work to a high standard. Yet it is almost as if he feels unworthy of working in the radio industry because the BBC rejected him. It could just as easily have been an independent radio company; this is not BBC specific.
What made this difference between these two students?
Now I can hear the cynics saying get real, life is full of knocks, whatever happened to realistic expectations, and welcome to the real world. I agree to some extent and I forget the number of applications I made before my first real radio job – as I’m sure you do, too. But if that student does join the armed forces the industry has lost some talent. If most of my cohort decides to do other things, the industry has lost a lot of talent. I suspect this situation is replicated elsewhere and I know that particular student is not the only one in my current cohort who has skill and ability but not necessarily the confidence to get the work.
Ah but kids today – they want it all on a plate don’t they? Well no, actually they don’t. They work hard to produce some great material. It seems to me to be a difficulty in transferring the work ethic into the go and get a job type ethic, if there is such a thing.
We all know what this industry can be like. We’ve probably all suffered in various ways over the years. We can perhaps identify to some degree with each student’s experience.
I have asked a variety of students what they think about this situation. Most have agreed it exists to some degree or other. Their suggested solutions range from “confidence building exercises” to “more mock interviews” to a “fight or flight approach” to “those that can, will”. Even “two years in the army” was one response from an ex-army cadet.
But my question to you – industry practitioners – remains – what can be done to aid and encourage talented students with obvious ability to overcome this situation? Mentoring, perhaps, or some sort of hothouse? And if we can’t or don’t want to solve it, what future for the industry?