Weblog
04/30/05 07:37 AM: WBEZ Interview
Hello all,
This isn’t really news worthy, but I want to share it with you.
I was denied a news internship with Chicago Public Radio last week; however, I contacted them immediately after getting this message and asked them about an internship with ‘Eight Forty Eight,’ their successful morning magazine show. About 4 days later I was asked to come in for an interview. This past Thursday, I met with the Director of Internships and the Intern Mentor. I felt the interview with WBEZ went better than I expected. I came to it more than prepared. In fact, I brought a mini notepad with comments and questions I had about WBEZ and ‘Eight Forty Eight.’ I came to the interview an hour early just to show them that I was serious about this internship. While waiting for about an hour, I jotted down some more things I could say during the interview. At around noon, I was led to one of the conference rooms by the Director of Internships George Lara. In the room waiting was the Intern Mentor.
Once we all got situated they immediately began asking me questions. In the beginning, George was asking the most questions, but eventually he was sitting quietly staring at me while the other guy led the interview. I was asked all sorts of questions ranging from:
“Why do you want to be a journalist?” – I talked about my first documentary, how it really affected certain people, and how I think journalism has an extraordinary power to change the lives of others for the better (sometimes).
“Why are you interested in WBEZ?” – I talked about the professionalism of their staff, programming, and daily operation.
“What editing software do you use?” – Sound Forge 6.0, I said it’s cheap and does the job.
“What do you think of ‘Eight Forty Eight’?” – It’s a remarkable morning magazine program with programs that relate to every type of person.
“Why should we hire you?” – I said that they could hire an incredibly bright junior or senior in college, or you could hire me. I have more dedication and
persistence than anyone they’ll ever meet. I told them coming out of H-F, I gained lots of knowledge, and the next step for me is to intern at WBEZ. I
already know what I want to do with my life after college, and interning at WBEZ in the next appropriate step on my journey as a journalist.
etc…
I felt my responses were more than appropriate. I never once compared them to WHFH, and tried to praise WBEZ when it was appropriate. I also surprisingly was not nervous. Some of the major topics I covered during the course of the interviews were my morals and integrity as a journalist, and my belief that a
journalist’s opinions do not belong in a story unless they are needed. For that I talked about how I never make any of my programs biased even if I totally
support one side (ex. ‘Gay Fine By Me,’ Political Elections, etc).
One topic that was kind of cool during the interview was when I criticized ‘Eight Forty Eight.’ Without being asked to, I said, “I have one criticism with 8-48, and it is a really small criticism.” At this point, I pulled out my notebook (just to look
prepared), and flipped to a page where I wrote this comment. I told them that one of their 10 minute segments really needed more guests because the only
guest on the segment was too boring. They then asked me who I would interview, and I gave them a list of 5 other possible guests from the top of my head. Their next question was how I would condense this segment using these guests. I then gave them a verbal outline of how I would divide the piece, and even told them exactly when each of these additional guests would speak. They seemed pretty impressed with that.
Towards the end of the interview, the Intern Mentor was going into great detail about the duties of an intern for ‘Eight Forty Eight.’ He probably went on for about minutes. After that, they asked me if I had any questions. At this point, I pulled out the notebook again, and asked them a few basic questions about 8-48 (many of which I knew the answers to). The purpose of asking these questions was to once again demonstrate my desire to work with them.
The interview lasted roughly an hour, and once it was over, I was escorted out of WBEZ by the Intern Mentor. As we were walking towards the waiting room, I said to him that the only negative part of working at WHFH is the lack of dedication from the student staff members. He said that at WBEZ everyone is serious about their job because they love doing what they do everyday. He then said that people sometimes tell him they were bit by the “radio bug.” I responded by saying, “I was swallowed by the radio bug.”
I should have some sort of response in a couple of weeks.
