Biggest Interview of my Career

Twelve hours ago i woke up to a dreary, wet Manchester morning but i was not perturbed. I had a spring in my step because today was the day i got to interview the Head of BBC North, Peter Salmon.

My mood was dampened slightly by a very poor mark in a Music Journalism album review but i was not going to let anything get me down. Even the persistence of the rain as i stepped outside an hour later. Within minutes my feet were soaked and i discovered that my boots leaked. And yet, there was still a smile on my face.

By this point i was getting a little nervous and when i'm nervous i go one of two ways- i either go much louder to over-compensate or i shrink into myself. Today i chose hiding away as i shook the hand of the university Press Officer, a man from the BBC and many others who i failed to catch the name of.

Then Peter Salmon walked in and i didn't know what to do. Editor Emily had just briefly left the room and i had sat at a table. I watched as he was introduced to the others in the room and i felt completely out of place. I just stayed back and hoped nobody noticed i was invading on their very grown-up meeting!

Emily returned, we were introduced to Peter and then taken upstairs to where fellow students had set up equipment. We sat in the background and took notes while Peter was filmed for the university and a student project for twenty minutes then it was our turn.

Emily had originally said that i would ask most of the questions but we had sat down, turned on our dictaphones and then i had completely forgotten everything i wanted to ask! So Emily very deftly too control of the situation. Unfortunately we only had five minutes so Emily asked a few questions, i got one very important question in and then that was it. Peter Salmon was swept away to the next important meeting and we were left in someone's office in the wake.

I then came into my element, got chatting to the other students and recognised a few from my features class. I even managed to get them to promise to write a few features for me, they were very impressed that i was Features Editor so i felt much better about myself by the time i left the room!

Once again i have failed to do any Shorthand. Must rectify that now!

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