It seems like everyday I see on one of my Facebook Friends updates they have lost their job. Or they Tweet they are so excited they have an interview after sending out resumes for 4, 5, often 6 months. Some of them comment they are moving back home with their parents in order to get some work in ANY industry, let alone the industry they are qualified for and want to work in. And these people are not under-qualified. Nearly all of them have a university degree. They just can't seem to catch a break and it seems the world is withholding any luck from them. Often, I share in these feelings.
So, in these stressful times, I often find myself wondering why I continue in the media industry.
When I was working in Sydney, I thought about other work I could pursue. Finding a job was extremely difficult; not only was I relatively new to the industry but also I was foreign and seeking sponsorship. As anyone who has ever worked in media knows, it's way more who you know than what you know. I think this applies more so to this industry as it seems that after a certain level of intelligence is reached, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If you do a nice job and are within budget constraints, you are going to get hired... if you are friends with the hiring manager. So I began to explore what other fields I could possibly be interested in. Foreign policy... International affairs... even Nursing if it meant I could go to 3rd world countries and hear people's stories. But then I realized, all of these alternatives were centered on what I really wanted to do - tell stories.
When I was first in Sydney in July of 2006, I began working at a small production company. I applied for a job that I found after extensive research online, however I was willing to work for free. I needed an internship that satisfied my education requirements. Luckily they took a chance on me, and I knocked it out of the park. At that time, the economy was slightly soft but nobody I knew had been effected. But as I was working there, the office manager gave me the task of culling resumes that people had sent in for this position. There were no less than 200, and we got about 5-10 new ones each day. And what experience did I have for sorting them out? Looking back now I regret obliging my employer - most of those people's life's work I flicked through in seconds. Not even the 1 minute generally awarded to a resume.
Coupled with this influx of resumes, people are applying for any job to get them through. Extremely over-qualified people are applying for positions much below their level to at least have work. In some cases they need the paycheck. In my case, thanks to a generous family who allows me to stay for free, I can eek by on work here and there. I've learned that I need work to stay sane. People must have a purpose here and just flailing in the wind does more harm that I could have ever guessed. Just today I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about how people are starting to remove their advanced degrees from their resumes and to dumb them down in order to apply for lower level jobs. Companies don't want to hire people who will jump ship as soon as the economy improves. This doesn't bode well for people returning for advanced degrees now.
With most people I know having recently graduated or graduating shortly and no end in sight to this economic black hole, I think we need to re-vamp the media system. Gone are the days of huge advertising agencies employing creatives to hang around and play until an idea strikes them. It seems many agencies are 'cutting the fat' from their own companies - reducing nearly all employees to freelance status, effectively reducing the amount of salary they have to pay as well as health benefits. One of the largest production companies here in Chicago, Tower Productions, used to be bursting at the doors, literally, with employees. People didn't have desks, they were working out of closets. Now, as one colleague of mine noted, it's like a ghost town. If they can't get shows picked up, nobody will. No shows = no producers.
So what is the solution to this? Unfortunately, I have no idea. I think however it is important to start a dialogue about this. Everybody knows newspapers are going the way of the dinosaurs. And even the most hardcore newsies of my Broadcast Journalism classmates have to admit, local TV news seems to be headed that way. Everyone is getting their content online. Increasingly, people are reading their computers in the morning over coffee. With smaller and smaller advertising budgets covering news stations, reporters are getting laid off and anchors are taking furloughs. There has to be a way to generate money from content. Advertisers need to take risks in new media. They have to explore new trends.
In all fairness, some progressive News Directors are taking their stations to social networking sites and targeting the Gen Y-er's now. Hopefully after we emerge on the other side of the black hole it will become evident how we can continue to survive making AV Productions, and telling the news. Otherwise, I'm going to Tweet from some boring admin job somewhere about how I wish I was out shooting instead of behind a desk...
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