You go to school to prepare for the workforce, but sometimes you aren't given the opportunity to start your desired career because you don't have any on-the-job experience. That was my situation after I graduated from college and it frustrated me so much! I couldn't understand why hiring managers didn't help me get my foot in the door even though I pretty much did production for school and was applying for production jobs. I just knew it couldn't be much different. Boy was I wrong. Here's my school vs work experience in the behind-the-scenes television broadcast industry.
I didn't get a job in my desired field until a year after graduation. That long just trying to get a job really discouraged me and I nearly gave up on applying for anymore. When I finally got the job, I knew the basics of production but learned much more. Thankfully, I had co-workers who were willing to help me learn more and build me up to be a valued member of the team. In the end, I realized school somewhat prepared me for my chosen path, but it didn't compare to on-the-job experience. Please remember that my experience is my own and it may differ from yours.
Cameras/Floor Directing
Operating the cameras and floor directing is quite similar in school and on the job. You have to focus and set your shots, You also have those times cues to follow. Although broadcasts weren't live at my school, we still had a set time to be on and off. When floor directing, you use hand signals for the talent to follow and keep the communication going with the talent and technical director. The camera terminology is the same, so if you know the terms in school, it should be no problem on the job. The only thing different I noticed was setting the different types of news shots that aren't the norm like one shot, two shot, and OTS. However, both school and work let you be creative with camera shots.
Teleprompter
In school, we actually didn't use the teleprompter much. We made and used our own cue cards more. Yes, the tv production class in school was old-fashioned. But I had used a teleprompter before, just never like I did for a live newscast. When I got hired, I was put on teleprompter duty immediately. Teleprompting is not hard, but some parts need to be scrolled fast or skipped, which I wasn't prepared for. It was a good thing I had a co-worker to warn and train me before it was time for the first show. In the end, I got pretty good at teleprompting a newscast.
Audio
I actually don't have much experience with school or work as an audio operator. I did both, but only for a short amount of time. I don't remember much from school, but we did have mics, an audio booth, and had to watch our audio levels. The job was pretty similar but more. The audio operator must keep up with IFBs, mics, audio levels of multiple anchors, reporters, SOTs, NATs, packages, and not to mention people who call in. I only got to train a couple of blocks on audio and help with severe weather which didn't involve much like a live newscast.
Graphics
I was pretty much the main graphics operator in school but rarely did graphics at all on the job. When I did graphics for school, all I had to do was add names to news supers and run them when needed. The best thing about graphics for school was all I had to do was click one button. On the job, graphic operators run news supers, tickers, OTS graphics, news transitions, and more. Not to mention, a lot more buttons are involved on the job than for school. I started training on graphics closer to the end of my news production journey. So I never really got to do much of it on the job. However, I am proud that I got to run Election Day graphics before I left production.
Technical Directing
Of course, technical directing was required for school and I must admit, that was one of the most stressful parts of my tv production class. You have to not only do your job but make sure everyone else does theirs which is not far off from what technical directors do on the job. I did not do any technical directing on the job, but I have been able to look at the directoring board and boy is it a lot of buttons! I can't speak on what all technical directors do on the job because I am inexperienced in that area. But I noticed it's definitely a lot to deal with just from seeing the technical directors I worked with doing it.
There's still a couple of things we have on the job that we didn't have in school. We didn't have any rundowns in school. We all just listened to what the technical director wanted and we did it. On the job, I had to learn what the rundown was and how to understand it. It turned out to be pretty easy to read after a while. We also have moniters in the studio for news graphics which we didn't have for school. In school, our studio was pretty dull. The moniters on the job really made the studios more dectortive.
You truly have to be skilled on the job, but people aren't able to gain that skill if they aren't hired. When employers take a chance on people in or fresh out of college, they could potentially hire one of their best employees. Most people straight out of college are young and eager to enter the workforce. All people need is that one chance to prove what they can do!
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