Final Post

My career path choices have varied throughout my four years of college, and even in high school. I never thought I would be in the broadcast journalism industry. As a senior in college, almost ready to graduate and get a job in the “real world,” I am up for many different job positions but I think my ideal job that I would love to pursue would be a reporter, sports preferably, at a big network.  I think that would be a job that I would love to do, because I have loved sports from a young age, and broadcast journalism is something that I am very passionate about. Ever since I started the program at Florida Southern, I have really enjoyed learning the ins and outs about reporting, and behind the scenes work. Starting off in this career isn’t always easy, and the entry level positions are difficult to get into. I have been researching and it seems that the salary for a reporter, whether it be TV, radio, or web is around 25-30K a year. Depending on the network and area that you are going to work for would affect your pay. If you are going to a bigger city/network, then your pay would probably start off higher. Entry level jobs are often times ones that pay the fewer amounts and you would not necessarily be doing the ideal reporting work right away. Many entry level reporters are the ones that are getting the b-roll film, doing interviews and such, but not getting the big, hard-hitting stories quite yet. Many entry level salaries that I researched started at either 12 to 15 dollars an hour. The requirements for these types of jobs would be reporting skills, the ability to be able to write fast, good interviewing techniques/skills, able to work through multiple computer programs such as Final Cut Pro X, only to name a few. Entry level reporters are expected to have all of these skills, and able to apply them to their everyday work. Being able to write a story/video package in a short amount of time is required. So far at FSC I have learned to do these things. Working on Go Healthy FSC and the sports show it has taught me the importance of meeting deadlines, because in this industry, the show will not stop because one person does not have their story on time. Having classes such as News Reporting and Broadcast Writing taught me that there will be stories due every week, and you have to get that information right away and write the stories quick. I want to make my story writing skills ever better and be able to write a great story in just an hour or so. Making video packages is something that I really enjoy doing as well because you choose what to put and where and making it your own is fun. The things I have learned FSC and will continue to learn I think will help me in getting a job as a reporter when I graduate.