I love mentoring newbies in the communications field. No one helped me. I was released into the wild with a degree in Communication Studies and not much else.
Recently we had a position open in our department for a part time video person. We had some great candidates. One who applied I met on Twitter (I’ll call him Fred). The other applied on his own (I’ll call him Horace).
Fred applied but did not get an interview. I thought he had talent, so I would send jobs his way. Give advice. I even joined in on the #hirefred movement on Twitter. He went from not getting an interview for a part time job to getting several full time job interviews. Pretty awesome. Oh, and he’s been all hired and stuff. He’s working for a company I told him about. Go me.
Now Horace was also fresh out of college and got an interview with us. He is also very talented and was one of the final two candidates for the position we had open. The other candidate had a bit more experience. Since his fiancee was coming to a local university for graduate work, Horace was a bit anxi0us to find a job in the communications field. So when a local news organization needed a reporter, I sent him the information – via Twitter. When that news organization also posted on its Facebook page about its need for new reporters, I responded telling them about Horace. Well, I am glad to say that Horace is a new reporter for this organization.
I love to mentor people, especially those in communications. It is a hard industry to break into and to STAY in without just giving up. It pays diddly and squat, so you really have to want to do it. But I don’t want to see good talent go to waste and will do all I can to help those who have the skills, desire and creativity to get into journalism, video production, etc.