Opportunity Knocks

Okay so I know I said it would be a few days until I wrote again but my life is VERY hectic at the moment so once again my apologies!

In the time I have been away from my blogging duties I have had several journalism opportunities practically land at my feet. My mother always used to say to me "Jobs don't just come knocking on your door" but the past week would beg to differ I would say!

The final two days of work experience were really good. I feel like the week really gave me some insight into my future and I definitely liked what I saw! I got to finish up early on the Friday because there was another work experience guy so there weren't enough press releases to go around! Chris, the man who gave me the opportunity in the first place, was really kind when he left, said it had been nice working with me and saying I should email him the week after to find out if any of my byline requests on lead stories were granted.

Well I emailed him a few days ago and hey presto! I have a couple of lead stories so he is sending me a copy of last week's paper and I will have some actual proper newspaper clippings! Not to say that the uni paper isn't real, it just doesn't have a big readership like the Sale and Altrincham Messenger!

So that was one opportunity knocking- the opportunity to improve my portfolio, which I also need to sort out with Steve because that is one component of my NCTJ Diploma which I have completely ignored! It will also improve my CV. Since graduation is looming "It'll look good on your CV" seems to be everyone's favourite phrase! Maybe they should have started using it at the beginning of university because then our CV's would be outstanding! Although mine doesn't look too shabby I reckon!

Another opportunity that came knocking was in the form of an email from a young woman inviting me to blog on a Manchester based student blog, much like the unitown website opportunity in the summer. Apparently my blog gets read by more than just my most loyal friends on Facebook as they read this and asked if i'd like to write for them. It's always a nice boost when someone thinks my writing is good enough for their own project. I know how protective I would be if I were setting up a multi-writer blog so i'm touched.

The third opportunity was one I had completely forgotten i'd applied for in all honesty! On one of my days of panic where I thought I wans't doing enough to realise my dream I applied for work experience at ITV, not really expecting to hear anything back because TV isn't what I want to do. However, there were chances to do writing behind the scenes so I applied with no expectations. That was probably six weeks ago and yesterday, in the same batch of emails as the blog opportunity, was one from ITV saying I had got through to the second stage of the work experience selection process.

Now it is yet more waiting, they have workshops in June in Leeds, Manchester and London and in the first week of June I will find out if I have a place. The best thing about this is, my friend Hayley from my course also applied and she also got through! So June could be a very busy but very exciting month!!

The final opportunity is obviously the best. Although something which I thought inevitable (not being big-headed but I did fulfill all application criteria), it has been confirmed- I have an interview for Editor of the uni newspaper on May 6th. The interview includes a 45 minute written test which seems to alarm people when I tell them but that's the part of the interview I know I can do! If i've learnt nothing else about myself in the past three years, i've learnt that I CAN WRITE!

I always used to think I had no talent so now I know that I do i'm hopefully never going to doubt it again! My worry is in the interview. I tend to say the wrong thing, can't describe what I mean, and get a bit flustered. Hopefully i'll be calm because this is something I do genuinely believe I can do, and can do well! But I know how nervous I get before interviews so i'm not certain!

One other thing, which is much less good news... I didn't win Student Journalist of the Year. I was disappointed because I did feel like I had a good chance this year but I did get awarded Gold colours for my dedication to the paper so I can't complain too much :D

The next few weeks will be dedicated to writing my final two assignments of my degree and revising for my final degree exam, as well as the rest of my NCTJ exams. So now I have a reason for not blogging for a few weeks!!

Over and out!

Time is flying and i'm not having any fun!

You know the old saying "Time flies when you're having fun". Well, it's not just when you're having fun, it's also when you need a couple of hours of rest, and when you have deadlines looming, and when you're trying to get ready to go out. Time flies by me all the time, and i don't seem to be getting any of the fun!

Actually, no, that's not entirely true. Last night i did get a night off from writing Shorthand, busting my gut to write an album review on the complete opposite of my taste in music and keeping on top of all the demands on me. I got to go to my very first gig at Manchester Academy, Academy 2. I have been to a concert before (in my defence music has never been a huge passion in my life), but never to a gig and my friend Maz thought that insane when he first found out. He vowed to take me to the first gig i would agree to and that happened to be folk-pop singer Lissie.

I have to say, she was amazing and it was the perfect gig to ease me in. There was no moshing (well, one fifty year-old was trying it but nobody was encouraging him!), there was a bit of dancing, it was upbeat and fun at a nice venue. The gig only lasted just over an hour but it was so enjoyable and this time, time really did fly while i was having fun!

I am going to be writing a review of the gig for the Student Direct: Salford Edition and think i might show it to my lecturer who thought my last review only good enough to just scrape a pass. The more time passes, the more bitter i get about the whole affair!

Then, 8 tragically short hours of sleep later i was up and out the door for my very first Reporting class, where i was joining an MA class. That was nerve-wracking! I was so sure they were simply going to turn on me as i entered the room and screech at me to leave! But they were so lovely, very welcoming, and i even had a cup of tea made for me!

The class was also extremely useful, very informative. There was a guest speaker today, a chap from the NCTJ marking people and he talked us through a sample people because this is the first year of this Reporting section of the diploma (it used to be News Writing, but this is more of a multimedia paper now). He went into so much detail that i feel completely prepared for the paper and like i could do it tomorrow if asked to!

In the next two days i want to finish my feature, tomorrow night i have another gig to go to, this time for my assignment due in next week and it is the Halloween weekend which means time for writing up this gig is slim so it's going to be a busy few days! Still, all in the name of bettering myself eh?

Over and out!

Gemma

The Black Hole of the weekend!

Well, today is Monday and has been very busy with tasks but the weekend was a lot less productive to the point of no productivity at all! You know how it is, you write a to-do list, adamant that by Sunday evening you will have completed it, then you turn on the TV Saturday afternoon for the football and suddenly it's Sunday evening and you've watched several episodes of Come Dine With Me, the whole of the f1 qualifying and race, three football games, all of X Factor and Xtra Factor and now it's the results and you can't possibly miss them!

The Black Hole that is the weekend has consumed all of your time and you have none left to practice some Shorthand or write a draft of your feature. So Monday morning came, almost no work done whatsoever (there was a TV lull between the football finishing and Come Dine With Me starting so i'd done a quick draft of my feature) and of course i felt so guilty i had to get up early despite it being my one chance at a lie-in for the week and do some work.

Except nobody had emailed me back about the campaign idea, i hadn't heard anything from the lady at the local paper back down South about work experience and had no desire to get out of bed to sit struggling to write Shorthand about the Teletubbies (apparently children's TV is slower with less complicated words so is ideal for perfecting Shorthand).

The afternoon however was much more productive. I left my computer for all of thirty minutes between leaving home and travelling to university and was greeted by three emails. Two were helping me with the disabled access campaign and the third brought very good news indeed! I have secured myself a one week placement at the Kent and Sussex Courier for the Christmas holidays. Unfortunately one week is all they could offer with so many looking for experience but it is the week leading up to Christmas so it is going to be extremely busy and i will hopefully get a lot out of the experience!

After printing my poor excuse for a first draft of the feature i then met with my feature teacher who was impressed, laughed at all the appropriate places and gave some great advice for how to take it a little further. One week until that is due, i'm feeling very confident about that.

Then, a quick rush to the other side of campus for a meeting with Editor Emily about doing a front page story which will take centre stage in my NCTJ Portfolio. For this story i have to interview the Head of BBC North, Peter Salmon!!! I am very very nervous about the interview but thankfully it is not all alone, more like a group interview but Emily got us in on it and we've been given permission to ask him questions so it should be a great experience! That is happening tomorrow morning so there really is no time to panic about it because it will all be over by this time tomorrow!

Final task for the day was an interview with a fellow student about his experience of being semi-disabled in our university accommodation which by all accounts sounds pretty tough! He was really helpful and the campaign assignment feels like it is coming along really well.

I am constantly amazed at how together my life feels at the moment. All my assignments seem to be coming together in plenty of time, i'm stressing about one in particular and am managing the stress i am harbouring so all is good! Of course, having said that, something is bound to go hideously wrong so watch this space!!

Tomorrow brings with it the biggest interview of my 'career' to date, a long overdue lunchtime catch-up with a friend, writing up the front page of next week's uni paper and i should probably squeeze some Shorthand in there at some point!

Over and out!

Gemma