Use your skills for something you enjoy.
On the fourth day of Leeds Trinity University’s annual Journalism and Media Week, we invited alumni back to talk about their careers since graduating and their advice for new journalists.
They included Otis Holmes, Newsround journalist at the BBC; Charlie Russell, Senior Motorsport Communications Executive at McLaren; Katie Haseldine from BBC Radio4; Eman Shah, Digital Content Editor & Podcast Host, and Alex Chen, Story Researcher at Hollyoaks.
When talking about the main skills needed in journalism, the alumni gave us a lot of inspiration on both professional and personal skills. In terms of professional skills, apart from content creation, broadcasting and interviewing skills, there is also a need to have multimedia skills.
The passion for their respective fields was evident in the confident smiles of everyone talking about their industry.
Katie Haseldine said: “Be multi-skilled, work hard, be human, be passionate, be organised and pitch different treatments for different platforms.”
Podcast Host Eman Shah told students she developed a passion for podcasting while studying film and media in 2019. She began trying to provide soundtrack in radio podcasting, observing pre-production and post-production experience in the film studio.
Eman said: “I learnt behind the scenes, and I did work experience.”
“The most important social skill is to become confident and just be yourself,” said Charlie Russell.
There is a compulsory lesson for every journalist on emotional management and how to cope with stress.
Reflecting on her work journey, Katie Haseldine told us that outside of work, she does not live and breathe it. Eman Shah’s treatment for emotions and stress is to learn to say no: “we need to have a clear mind about what’s most important right now.” Unlike the women, the two men on the stage described exercise as good for the mind.
Another interesting topic that the panel talked about, as many people are concerned with, is the future trends in media such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). People’s focus will transfer to the streaming space is the perception of Alex, who works in the TV industry. On the flip side, Otis Holmes believes that teams are going to get smaller and smaller, so we need to do a bit of everything. “The more you can do the better” is his pertinent advice to us.