I was lucky enough to get offered some freelance work at FSN West right after college, and then tricked them into hiring me full time about a year later.  I produce, edit, write, and shoot half hour original programming shows and features to supplement our live game production.  “Before the Bigs”, “Insiders” and “Trojan Rewind” are the shows on FSN West and Prime Ticket that I spend the most time on.  But often my job entails doing a feature for a post game show or a tease for an upcoming game.

Awards:

LA Area Emmy Best Sports Feature Series (or something like that) for “Before the Bigs.”

I’ll only list one.  Storytelling.  It’s aaaaaall about storytelling.  Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.  A sporting event, an election, a wildfire....you have to be able to look at something and relay that information in a clear and concise and entertaining manner to the viewer.  If you can do that, everything else will fall into place.

Sports Anchor, Reporter, Producer, Nuisance

I can’t stress enough that what you do at ATVN is what is done in the real world.  Small terms and technical equipment may change, but the theories and principles of things like non-linear editing, storytelling, and interviewing are all applied in journalism jobs the same way they are at ATVN.

Having said all that kiss-ass stuff about ATVN (all true)....you still need internships!  Spending ALL of your time at ATVN will be a lot of fun, but it won’t help you network with people the way an internship does.  You simply need both experiences to be a good journalist.  ALSO: figure out what specifically you love about journalism and/or TV production.  You might find that you hate being on-camera, or are a much better shooter than editor.  If you can figure out what it is you love about this business before you leave college it will help you find a job that you’ll excel at.

That you belong.  Don’t let them make you feel like you don’t.  If you’ve been through ATVN, you know what you’re doing.