Tips for getting that first job

By Erin Horst, Loras College

Stacey Woelfel, Jon Okerstrom and Glen Mabie (l-r) talk to students at the IBNA convention.

Broadcast journalism students from all over Iowa took one step closer to getting their first job at the IBNA convention this year.

They sat on the edge of their seats to take the advice of veteran news directors Jon Okerstrom, KWWL-TV, Waterloo; Stacey Woelfel, KOMU-TV, Columbia, Mo.; and Glen Mabie, formerly at WEAU-TV, Eau Claire, Wis.

The three gave advice for making it in the news business. They focused most of the discussion on that all-important job interview.

A few of their tips:

• Be as active as possible while in college. “Take advantage of the resources you have, but more than anything, get experience,” Mabie said.
• Make sure your demo reel will capture the person watching it within the first thirty seconds. It needs to fit the type of job you want, whether it’s reporting or producing.
• Be able to write. You will most likely take a writing test.
• “Do your homework before the interview,” Okerstrom said. Come prepared with knowledge about the station and the state in which it’s located. Make sure you know their newscast.
• “Be an active interviewee,” Woelfel said. Ask a lot of questions; don’t just sit there like a lump.
• Avoid being negative in an interview. Keep your comments positive, even if you’re talking about a prior experience that was negative.

“Your personal interviews are the most important,” Woelfel said. Let the interviewer get a sense of who you really are. Let them know what makes you unique to make a good first impression, he said.

“You are only limited by what you want to accomplish,” Mabie said.