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!