201MC Report

My work experience consisted mostly of helping my friend who launched a company through the university. This was also the choice of work for other people throughout the Art and Design faculty. I was put into the Interview Team given my experience in interviewing people for my course (Journalism and Media). This came along with two tasks from the very beginning. The first was seen as the main task and was the one I would devote the most time to. For this task I had to conduct an interview with the founder of the company so that it could be posted on his website for potential audiences to see. The second task was very similar to the first and could be counted as a supplement of sorts to the first. It required me to interview some people from Media Production and see why they chose to do the course and what they hope to do with the experience.

As one of the people that was interviewing Jason I felt that keeping in constant contact with him was vital. I gave him updates on the Interview Team’s progress at the various meetings he organised. I also sent drafts of the interview scripts that I helped to create to him so that he could ensure that they fit his standards. This paperwork was also sent to the relevant members of the company so that they could keep track of my work and compare it to their own. Since they had my work I felt that they would be able to get through their own easily enough and that it would be easier to sort out a date for the actual interview. I do feel as though I didn’t get enough of a response from the other members of the group, though maybe I should have pushed them a bit more to make a response. For the second task however I didn’t send any of the material that I created to the other members of the group. This was a big mistake on my part as I couldn’t expect to get it fully done without the help of my colleagues. I learned from this that I should give an equal amount of time to all of the tasks that are delegated to me. I also believe that this was a lesson in how to manage my network of friends and contacts better. I had quite a large network of friends to choose from that would have been happy to be interviewed for the company. I feel that I could have had a bit more contact with the people that I had on my list to tell them how much progress was being made on the work. I should also have received second opinions on the work from other members of the company to see what they thought of the work. It also been useful to have their opinions on where to have the interviews and manner in which to conduct the interviews.

Throughout this professional experience I have learned the importance of preparation for each task that I am set. With better preparation I feel that the tasks that were appointed to me could have been completed to a fuller degree and without all of the hassle that we went through originally. This also would have allowed me to feel less pressured when it came to the actual undertaking of the tasks. I also feel that there wasn’t enough communication between me and the other members of the company and that showed as it led to the cancellation of the interviews that we had planned. We decided that the 26^th of April would have been a good day for the main interview since enough crew members were back from their holidays and other endeavours. What we failed to realise was that Jason was not able to be present since he was in Milton Keynes for a business meeting. This proved to be a major annoyance since we had all of the available equipment and everyone else present. If we had better communication between all of the members then we could have avoided this and found a day that suited everyone. I should also be aware that in future I will likely be given numerous tasks at once and that I should strive to find an equal amount of time for each of them. As I was working mostly on getting the interview with Jason completed, I was spending less and less time on my second task. Although I feel I did enough to get the work done, I could have easily done more which would have helped my other crew members more. Again I feel that communication became an issue in the completion of this task as it would have helped to let everyone know sooner of the work that I had done. This would have allowed us to possibly get those interviews done sooner so that we could focus on the main one.

Updated C.V

C.V
Cormac Kelly
E-mail: omrikron@hotmail.co.uk

Mobile: 07969056378

Education and Qualifications
2009 – Present        Coventry University; Journalism and Media
My time studying Journalism and Media has introduced me to many different aspects of the media including Radio, Television, Cinematography, Viral Advertising, Photography and more and I have been taught numerous theoretical studies that have allowed me to thoroughly analyse many different media platforms. The time spent on this course has also shown me the vital skills that I need to nurture if I am to succeed at becoming a journalist. Through this course I have been introduced to many different people which has given me a wide network of various contacts that will be helpful in my future projects.

2002 – 2009        St. Patrick’s Grammar School, Armagh
3 A-Levels: B in French, B in Media Studies, C in ICT
9 GCSE’s : B in French, B in English Literature, B in English Language, B in History, BB in Double Award Science, C in ICT, C in Religion, C in Maths

2008                            Portadown Times
Here I was given an insight as to how a real newsroom works and the level of discipline needed to be a journalist. I was taught how to cope under pressure and how to create a good standard of work in a short space of time. This was especially beneficial to me and my future life as it is in my preferred career area.

2008 – 2009        Kearney’s Service Station
While I was employed here I learned valuable social skills when interacting with the public which will be very beneficial to me when it comes to interviewing people as a journalist. I was given responsibilities such as opening and closing the shop and ensuring that the paper count was done correctly. These responsibilities showed me how giving 100% on all tasks is vital and instilled a sense of duty to my employer that stays with me to this day.

2010             The Walsgrave Pub

Whilst here, I worked in the carvery section of the pub which, like the service station, required me to have constant interaction with the public. However since I was in another country for this job I had to make sure that the customers could understand me so I had to ensure that I properly enunciated my words. We also were working constantly and needed to be sharp all of the time as we wanted to clean the kitchen as quickly as possible. In order to do this we were constantly cleaning as we went about our other jobs. This taught me how to cope with many jobs at once, and to get them completed in a limited amount of time.

2011                   CrewMembersDirect.co.uk

Whilst I was working here I began to see the real value of teamwork and how important it is to pull my weight when in those situations. I was constantly having to rely on others to fully complete my tasks and vice versa. Again I was shown the value of time management and having to cope with deadlines. As a trainee journalist these skills are be vital to me so I feel they alone validated my choice of working here.

Key Skills

I see group work as one of my strengths as I am able to connect easily with people and can make the atmosphere enjoyable for everyone. This helps everyone contribute to the work and ensures that a satisfactory standard is reached every time. I have an above average skill with computers and programs such as Microsoft Office. I can speak French to a near fluent standard due to my A-level studies at it and I feel that I have higher than average English skills.

References

Given upon request

List of Contacts

Tencton Planet Promotions

Director of 2-Tone Central Ltd. & published author – Pete Chambers

Pete was the person that I contacted to get an extra day of work experience as he was head of a company that regularly hosts events that require volunteers. I also feel that, since he is a published author, he could possibly be a good contact for future reference.

E-mail: tencton@hotmail.com

CrewMembersDirect.co.uk

Founder/Manager – Jason Kurmoo

I know Jason on a personal Basis and I feel that he will be a valuable contact for me in the future as he is sure to pick up many different contacts whilst he is running this company

Email: buffalostance2001@yahoo.co.uk

Fellow members – Nicholas Urmston, Tim March and Ryan Beasley

Since I worked closely with both of these members I feel it is necessary for me to keep them as close contacts. We shared many ideas over the course of our time with CrewMembersDirect.co.uk and found that we worked quite well together. I feel that such good chemistry will be able to help me in future with any problems that I may have.

201MC Update 5

Day Thirteen (5th May): This was the very last meeting that we would have for the company. It was organised purely so that Jason could have all of the work that we had done so far (paperwork, research, etc). For this I printed off my Interview scripts for both Jason and the Media Production students. I also gave him all of the research that I had regarding possible venues for the interview as well as all of the names of students that were willing to co-operate with us for interviews.

201MC Update 4

Day Ten (10th April): At the start of the Easter Holidays I decided to do some extra scouting for potential locations for the Interview. I went to various places across town in case we decided to hold the interview outside. I’ve included some pictures of potential spots that I found:

The first of my potential interview locations

Another potential spot for the Interview

After I finished my scouting around town I uploaded the pictures to the group that Jason created on Facebook. They were added as a complement to the locations that we had already scouted within the uni.

Day Eleven (13th April): I decided that, as I hadn’t done a lot for my second task since, I (along with member of the Video and Interview teams) should get in contact with the members of Media Production that agreed to be interviewed. This was so we could finalize some dates for the interviews to take place. It was difficult to get in touch with many of the people as they were away on their own placements.

Day Twelve (16th April): This was the point where problems started occurring for the work that I was given. It became increasingly difficult to get a hold of other members of the group as they were either busy completing other work or not in the country. Over the space of three days I contacted and other members of the group to try and get some amount of work done but I was too late to get in touch with any of them. Despite all of the planning that we managed to put into it, we eventually and regretfully came to the decision that we would not be able to complete the main interview with Jason (the founder of the company) in the given time frame. The experience of this task has shown me that better preparation would be needed for future tasks of a similar nature and that I would need to have a back-up plan in case things don’t go as originally planned.

The other task that I was given was to interview with some students on Media Production. This followed the same problems as the first task as it was difficult to get hold of people to work with as they were on their own placements. I feel as though I could take a lot of responsibilty for this not happening, as I do know a lot of people in Media Production which would have made it easier getting this task done. This has taught me to use my connections better to achieve my goals and to stop being as shy when the completion of a task depends on me.

201MC Update 3

Day Eight (29th March): This day consisted of attending another meeting that Jason had organised. For it all members of the company presented the work that they had done for the company so far. I gave Jason the outline of the interview that I had created and a list of possible venues for the interview that I had scouted with the Interview and Video teams.

Day Nine (7th April): During the week I managed to get an extra day of work experience at 2-Tone Central, the café/bar in the Student’s Union. I managed to get it through a friend of mine who regularly volunteers for event organisers that use it as a venue for their events. This event in particular was a old-school ska night. My job for it was helping to set-up the event and ensuring that it ran smoothly from start to finish. Other lesser tasks that were delegated to me included stamping people’s hands and managing the cloakroom.

These required me to have some interaction with the customers as they were being served and I also had to keep my cool as we became inundated with customers waiting to be stamped or wanting their coats and jackets. For the most part, it was quite a quiet night until the very end when someone slipped and injured their ankle. This required some quick thinking on our (me and my co-worker) part. We phoned an ambulance and managed to get an ice pack for her ankle to soothe the swelling. This incident showed me how I would react to an emergency, and showed me how important it was to keep calm in such a situation.

I enjoyed this bonus experience and felt that it has helped me to become more of an extrovert. I feel that skills like this will be vital to me when it comes to applying for jobs in my chosen field (journalism).

201MC Update 2

As mentioned previously, I have had more time to crack on with my tasks for professional experience so I decided to come up with a outline of sorts for the interview with Jason. It is quite basic to begin with as it is something I just created to get some basic structure for the interview. This was Day Four (15th March) of my work on the task that was appointed to me.

Day Five (20th March) of my work experience consisted of creating an interview for my course. For this, I felt that I could do an interview with Jason about his company. This would serve as a prototype for the interview that I would conduct with Jason. For this I managed to get Jason in so that he could answer the questions in person. This would give us on the Interview team an idea on what to expect when we came to actually doing the interview.

Day Six (21st March): I used the Interview that I conducted with Jason in second term as a basis for the actual one since it featured questions that would most likely be asked in some form or another. This outline also features an description of what we will do and where the interview will take place. It isn’t a very long outline as the interview itself will only be about 30 seconds, but it contains enough information for us to do our job.

Day Seven (24th March) consisted of me getting in contact with the Video Team and attempting to sort out locations and times for the interview to take place. In the end we managed to get some basic ideas with which we could hopefully expand upon in the future.

201MC Interview Script

This interview will take place in one of the two studios located inside the Ellen Terry building. We will have at least some people working in the background to further emphasise that Jason is one pf the people and that he knows personally what they are looking for. To keep the focus on Jason we will cut out the interviewer and make it seem like it is only him talking about the company. The questions will be short and direct making it easier for Jason to answer. It will also make him feel at ease with being interviewed and this will hopefully show in the final footage.

Questions:

What inspired you to create this company?

What are your ambitions for the business?

What sets this organisation apart from others?

201MC Interview Treatment

We in the Interview team plan on emailing the founder of CREWMEMBERSDIRECT.CO.UK, in order to sort out his availability for an interview. Once we have received permission to interview him we will run our plan over with him, in order to make him more comfortable with the entire project.

We will book out one of the numerous studios in our university building as a suitable place for the interview. We will try and book this in advance as quickly as possible to make sure we can get a slot that suits everyone. The facilities inside the university building will perfectly complement the interview, as they will contain equipment that is central to the entire aim of the company.

Using a piece of recording equipment such as a Marantz or an Edirol will give us a higher level of sound quality for the entire interview. As journalists, we have experience with them, which will ensure that they will be used to their full abilities. Using these will also be important, as it will show a mix of media techniques and skills.

As journalists, we have extensive experience in interviewing people so we will create an outline of what we will ask. We hope to keep the interview simple to ensure that as many people as possible can hear the message that the founder is trying to convey.

201MC Interview Proposal

As part of my work for CREWMEMBERSDIRECT.CO.UK, I, along with one other member of the company, will have to conduct an interview with the founder of the company. This will serve as an advertisement of sorts for the company, explaining to customers what the aims of the company are and how it will conduct its business.

In order for this to be a successful interview, we intend to scout suitable locations to hold the interview. We have already had a few ideas, among them being a photography or television studio to help convey the entire notion of what the company is involved with. Another possible venue would be a newsroom within the university building, as that will resemble the very working of a real office space. This will make it appeal more to the target audience.

We will co-operate with the Video team in order to create a professional video interview. In order to get a better sound quality we in the interview team will hire out some recording equipment and record the interview as well. Liaising with the Video team will help us when it comes to the editing of the piece as well. We will leave the majority of the editing to the video team, although we will be on hand to highlight the best parts of the interview. The video team will use techniques that they know to make it look as professional as possible

The questions we will ask will be based around the founder’s ambitions for the company as well as how he came about with the idea. We will create a script so that we have an

idea of what to ask him. This will also give us an idea as to the timing of the interview. The final product itself will be shown on the website.