Raj Kaur (left) and Associate Professor Katherine Blair (right); Photo: Timea Fekete
After initially not getting on the ITV News traineeship, Raj Kaur’s enthusiasm and hard work impressed the media outlet into giving her another opportunity.
The third day of Journalism and Media Week (JMW) brought Leeds Trinity’s soon-to-be graduate back to the event she witnessed as a student last year.
“It’s really nostalgic,” she said.
During her JMW session: Off Script – My Route into TV News, Raj encouraged aspiring journalists to put in the hard work during their studies, emphasising how much that helped her get to where she is now.
After a “gruelling” application process and initially being rejected, Raj is now working as a Production Journalist for ITV News. She is also a part time Social Media Specialist and a single mum-of-two.
ITV is the second leading broadcaster in the UK, and the first commercial one according to Statista and Raj’s journey to getting on their traineeship wasn’t straight forward:
“I didn’t get it…shock, horror, I work at ITV and I have got the traineeship, but I didn’t pass the interview stage ” but what she did get was an offer to go back for a week’s placement: “because they were quite impressed with the rest of my application and how I did in the interview”.
“I’m not gonna dwell on it, I’m gonna pick myself up” said Raj, before sharing that she went for the placement, showed her skills and got offered some freelance work before ITV changed their mind “We want you to be a second trainee”.
Talking to a room full of aspiring journalists, Raj has emphasised how the skills she learnt during her MA and the placements she’s done contributed to this “golden buzzer moment” as she described it.
“What people are really looking for is not just what you’ve done with your MA or your undergrad”
And Raj has done plenty, from jumping on university projects to a mentorship with Bauer Media and a work placement at Radio News Hub.
“Any spare time you’ve got, instead of doom-scrolling, use that time to practice your skills” she said, in spite of “sounding mum-ish”.
Highlighting how she applied the skills learnt in university modules, Raj told students: “That shines through when you’re in the workplace and they realise you know all that”
And she also added that “the attitude about it” is really important, her approach being showing up to each placement as if she’d already got the job.
The inspiration behind Raj’s determination are her two kids and inspiring them to “think big” as she does, dreaming of being Head of News.
Being asked for the reason behind choosing journalism, Raj told the audience: “Always remember the thing that made you really happy when you were a kid”.
The Q&A session saw other mature students and mums in the audience relating and thanking Raj, who shared that she still feels “like a bit of an imposter” and “late to the party, but sometimes it’s nice to be late to the party and watch everyone else be drunk”.