Finished! Finally!

It's finally over folks! I have taken the last of my classes and the last of my finals at Westminster College. Now all that's left to do is enjoy the events of senior week and graduate in less than a week, right? Well, not quite...

I'm starting my job with HOT 101 and Rock 104 a week from tomorrow. It's exciting yet bittersweet to be entering the real world. I'm ready to go out and make money selling time on the radio, but I'm really going to miss hanging out with my roommates on a daily basis, and seeing all the broadcast majors around the radio station. I guess you have to move on sometime, though, and no time like the present. I'll also be moving to Boardman within the next two weeks. I'm hoping the move will cut down my cost of living since gas prices are outrageous and maybe help me to pay off those looming student loans. The area is beautiful, convenient, and not far from home, so I can go visit family and friends on a semi-regular basis.

I've got a lot of great stuff going for me, and I'm ready to start the next chapter of the Jill Carle journey. Watch out working world - here I come!

"Give her thirty seconds..."

It's just about that time to wrap things up and graduate. I'm putting the final touches on my DJ resume as I recorded some bites from my final on-air shift Thursday evening. I have also taken suggestions from my professional contacts in the field such as Doug Sicchitano from PCN and Stevi Nelson from WTAE and updated my resume and website.

For example, Sicchitano suggested, as has my professor Mr. Weaver before, to consider placing my experience above my degree from Westminster simply because a lot of those doing the hiring want to see what you have done in the real world before they look to see what coursework and degree you have completed. Nelson recommended placing a description next to the elements of my sales portfolio, as shown above. This way, I can explain more of the sales process and therefore, make myself more marketable and impress more individuals in the sales world.

The fact that my college career in broadcasting is coming to a close is quite sad, but I'm glad I have made so many contacts with professionals in the real world thanks to my career at Westminster, and more specifically thanks to my senior project. It's great to know I have a lot more friends out there willing to help me rather than just my college professors.

Capstone Presentation...CHECK!

It's almost over! This week Pamela Marlowe and I presented our broadcast capstone presentations to Broadcast faculty, fellow majors, and friends.

I feel like this was an eye-opening experience for almost everyone there because I don't know how many people actually realize what I have been doing this semester. A lot of those in attendance have no idea what my internship at WPXI entails or that I designed a media guide for my father's baseball team, so it was nice to show off some projects and experiences that others don't seem me doing on a daily basis.

I also enjoyed debuting my website which showcases all of my work from sales to graphics, as well as my DJ and news work. I have a few minor adjustments to make on the website, but in general it's a great tool for me to use to market myself for employment and keep a record of my college portfolio after my time is finished at Westminster.

One step closer to completing my coursework and 21 days until graduation, I am pleased with my personal progress and accomplishments.

A JOB!

It's official folks, I have a job after I graduate! I have taken a radio sales position with Cumulus Youngstown selling time on HOT 101 and Rock 104.

I'm very excited, and have already started preparing for the position. First of all, I will need to move to the area, so I've been looking for apartments. More importantly I have been gathering sales materials that I use for research and presentations such as documents from my RAB Radio Marketing Professional class as well as the book and notes from my class in Broadcast Sales and Advertising on campus.


However, the most satisfying and ironic occurence about the search for a career was what happened when I came in for the meeting to determine whether I would take the offer. After I had signed some paperwork to come on board with the stations, another general sales manager I met previously came in to the market managers office. He jokingly asked if I had sold anything yet, and the market manager said, "She sold me." This is such a coincidental statement considering the title of capstone presentation this week "Selling Myself...It's Not What You Think."

I'm very eager to finish up my career here at Westminster, and extremely thrilled to know that the hands-on experience I have had has lead me to a promising career.

E-Portfolio

This week was spent getting my e-portfolio ready. This was exciting because I got to use my artistic side to make the portfolio pleasing to the eye. On the left you can see a rough draft of my "directory" for the portfolio.

It also means that I needed to update a few parts of my resume that I may have been neglecting the past couple months since I've been concentrating on sales and graphics. On Friday, I recorded my morning newcast because it was resume worthy and definitely blows away my current resume newscast. I've also recorded some of my DJ on-air work and plan to do more of that this week to update that resume.

I need to definitely get some still pictures of my graphics over video for my resume together, which will also help to finish my television graphics resume as well. Below are a couple examples of graphics in my portfolio. It's a lot of work, but I think this will be something I'm very proud of when I'm finished.

AHHHHH!!!!

This week has nothing but hectic, and trying to piece together my capstone presentation. Good thing I was somewhat ahead when I started this week, because I barely could accomplish anything between job interviews and planning Relay for Life next weekend.

However, I did have time to get all of the elements to my marketing portfolio together including the ad you see to the left for the Wright Place Hair Salon. I am getting my graphics work together which is a little more difficult because I was told to get some of my graphics from the actual footage so I've got to figure out the dates on a lot of things.

I have also put together the invitations for mine and Pamela's presentations with some photography help from our roommate and some minor Photoshop adjustments. The invites will be sent out next week.

To be honest, though, I really won't be thinking too much about my Capstone presentation this weekend because I will be on the SGA sponsored trip to Chicago. But you never know what pictures I will take that could turn into my next Photoshop portfolio piece!

Putting it All Together

In the final week before break, I spent a lot of time piecing together elements of my final project. I changed the focus from graphics back to sales slightly as I have almost all of the pieces together for the portfolio. I am utilizing the marketing elements from the Wright Place Hair Salon since they have advertised on radio, television, and newspaper with me. Below is the television commercial the business runs on the Westminster Cable Network.

I sent various pieces of the portfolio and my resume to my alumni contact Bobby Fisher so he could send me some feedback from the sales world. I have also sent my resume and some examples from my graphics portfolio to a contact I found through Mr. Weaver - Brad Grandon, and Doug Sicchitano of PCN.

I'm very excited to put together a compilation of my work at Westminster, but it's also surreal because on Monday, it will be exactly two months until graduation. It's a great feeling to know I have a lot of quality work to show to employers, but I can't believe it's almost over.

In those next two months, I look forward to making improvements to parts of my sales and graphics portfolios and putting the finishing and final touches to my work at Westminster. For now though, I'm going to enjoy spring break!

So Much to Do....

Instead, I want to play. Of course, that means playing with Photoshop, and I've been doing a lot with it lately. First of all, my professor Dr. B. has asked me to present a lecture on the basics of graphics in the Commercial Production class. I needed examples so I have been looking at my work with Westminster Cable Network and cleaning things up and fixing others.

Also, I spoke with the graphics director from WPXI earlier this week, who gave me a lot of great advice and resources to use. When I'm not insanely busy upstairs at my internship in the sales department, I will spend some time downstairs just shadowing the designers. The director is being gracious enough to look at my portfolio as well, so I need to put the finishing touches on that and put together a reel of my live remote work.

In addition to all of these projects, I am doing a sort of freelance job for my father. I am creating a press guide for his high school baseball team. The entire design and creation will be my responsibility. If all goes well, I may be able to get some sales work too because we will need to approach businesses about placing ads in order to pay for the printing of the guide.

The images that accompany this blog entry are examples of pieces in my portfolio that I recently improved upon. There will be more to come in future entries.

One More Time...

It's really hard to believe that in a little over two months, I'll be graduating from wonderful Westminster. What's even harder for me to comprehend is that last night was my final live remote broadcast.

I started as a remote crew member during basketball season of my sophomore year. I was simply on crew because I had to be thanks to remotes practicuum. By the end of that semester, I was committed to being Chief Engineer Chuck Chirozzi's work study student for the following school year and a permanent fixture on Titan Crew.

Out of all the activities and projects I have worked on through the department, I feel like the live broadcasts have been the most beneficial. Number one, I feel like there is no substitute for working during a live event or show. It's impossible to predict anything which really tests your skills and how you can adapt to different situations. Also, the remotes fulfilled my passion and love for sports since I usually ran graphics for at least thirty events in a single year. Finally, although it was fun, being a member of the crew was very demanding and time-consuming, but I feel like this prepared me for the real world. No matter what path I take after graduation, and especially if I go into the sales area, it's going to require a lot of hours and persistence because it's hard when you're just starting out. I still say working as crew for the live remotes was well worth the time and effort.

So thank you to fellow seniors Pamela Marlowe and Chris Norris for helping our last remote go so smoothly, and thanks to Chief Engineer Chuck Chirozzi for three years of great times and experience.

TV on Facebook

As I talked about last week, television has a major impact on people's lives. For people in the 16 to 25 years old range especially, two other forms of mass communication known as Facebook and MySpace have swept the nation. It seems like radio and television stations alike have realized this is a new way to hit viewers and are posting profiles and other information on these social networking sites. I received an e-mail while at my internship at WPXI-TV stating that they have now done just that, with some employees posting their own pages as well.

Prospective employees are already using sites like YouTube and Google Video to post video and audio clips so that employers can find them online. Other stations and people who work there have profiles and pages for fans so they can interact with DJs and on air personalities and find out what the latest concerts and giveaways are.

On their sites, Channel 11 includes anything from internship information to links to video and even pictures of the ribbon cutting ceremony and the new building. They said their goal is to reach those who may not visit WPXI.com on a regular basis. They have tracked some success and have also added links to the networking sites on the station's home page. Check these pages out to see if this technique would work for you if you were trying to find an internship or other information on Facebook or MySpace.

Television is changing...

Ever since the writers strike began, viewers were pleading for it to end. They wanted their favorite shows back so they could have some nightly entertainment. Finally the strike has ended, and fans should be excited, right? Well, not so fast. They are still going to have to play the waiting game because most shows will not return with new episodes until March or April. The worst part - shows like "24" and "Heroes" aren't coming back until 2009.

I can happily say that my favorite television shows will return in just shy of two months. It's a little known fact about me that I love crime dramas, so that will make the first week of April an exciting one for me. Criminal Minds, CSI, and Numb3rs (CBS) are all returning the 2nd through the 4th with at least a handful of new episodes for addicts like me.

Also, with an end to the strike, the Oscars will go on as normal with all the big stars on the red carpet. Viewers can expect to see Miley Cyrus, George Clooney, Denzel Washington, and Tom Hanks at the big event a week from today on ABC at 8 PM.

However, since shows will not return until at least next month, the networks' February Sweeps ratings will not see the benefits of original programming. However, I have to hand it to NBC for grabbing my attention during the strike with their reality shows Deal or No Deal and American Gladiators. By the way, did I mention the two-hour finale for Gladiators is tonight at 7?

This just goes to show that television has become a part of everyone's daily lives. And that means we as broadcasters should take our jobs very seriously. Viewers do watch primetime programming but they are still interested in what's going on in the real world. It's our responsibility to put on content that matters because those watching at home depend on us to feed them the facts.

The Moment

You know which one I'm talking about. That scary crazy one that every senior dreads and loves at the same time. You guessed it - job application time!

I recently met back up with 2007 WC grad Stevi Nelson who's working as an account executive at WTAE in Pittsburgh. Stevi and I are still close friends so the meeting was mainly to catch up on things, but the conversation also included my future plans. I vaguely remember when Stevi was applying for jobs, but I couldn't fit it into a timeline. When I asked her when she started sending out her applications she said, "NOW!"

Needless to say, that statement gave me an extra push to get in gear. In the past week, I have started the process by updating my resume and searching for open positions at various stations. I have found openings in the three locations I am considering which are Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Youngstown. This week's activities will include getting in touch with some of my contacts to make sure I am on track and a trip to the Career Center to send out applications. However, I feel it's more exciting than scary to send out those resumes and cover letters.

Where have all the graphics gone?

When I started this blog earlier in the school year, I mentioned that I would do my best to alternate my entries between sales and graphics. As you can tell, I haven't followed that pattern very well. This is mainly because I feel like sales is the area where I see my future career. I feel as though my personality and skills are better suited for becoming a broadcast sales account executive. The fact that the art and graphics departments are quickly shrinking at television stations doesn't help for finding full-time work in the field either.

Recently, I have decided to get more involved with my art and graphics work. I still constantly create and run the graphics for the live remote broadcasts and the Coaches Corner show on campus. However, I do have a love for Photoshop, and am manipulating some photographs I shot recently to update my portfolio. Below is one of my works in progress. I took the original picture and cropped it so the butterfly was on the lower right third. Then, I applied the cutout filter to the entire image, and finally enhanced the contrast and added a little more green to the shadows. I still may make more changes but I feel it has definitely improved.

A new semester!

This week was the start of a new semester, and my last one at Westminster. That's awfully scary to think about, but it's also somewhat of a relief. The main focus of this semester is my internship at WPXI which is still going very well. However, I still have two classes on campus including Capstone and Commercial Production. Capstone is exciting because it's a class that allows me to get together my portfolio(s) and prepare for a job after graduation.

Commercial production is a class that will help me add to my portfolio. I enjoy selling broadcast advertising , and since we do not have a production department on campus, I must also create the spots. This class will allow me to make more effective commercials for my advertisers. The more effective the advertising is the happier the customers are which means more business and easier closing. I'm really looking forward to the challenge this class poses and the better results and greater rewards I can gain from it.

Here are a couple of examples of commercials I think are very effective. Take a look!

Mac vs. PC
Dove Real Beauty Workshops

Start Thinking About the Real World Folks

As we were on break from classes at Westminster, I took a break from blogging as well. However, after receiving an e-mail from Mr. Weaver saying that Sky, a broadcast major who graduated last month, is working as an assignment editor at WJET in Erie, I was inspired to write again.

Just over a week ago, I attended a broadcast job fair at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Lucky for me, most stations there were looking for sales people. Although they were hiring for the positions currently, I had the opportunity to speak with Sales Managers from area TV and radio outlets which built up my list of contacts. Each station I spoke with also has a copy of my resume now which means they have seen my name and can put a face to my name.

I have started my internship at WPXI as well. In just the first two days of being at the station, I already know I love it. Being in the environment at a network-affiliated TV station, specifically the sales department, gave me that much more reassurance that I'm headed down the right career path. Interacting and observing the account executives is especially exciting and helpful. I can't wait to spend more time at WPXI throughout the semester.