It Takes a Village...

...to raise a child, but it also takes a newsroom to raise a producer.

I mentioned in my last post that I'm now serving as an associate producer with the intention to be trained well enough to eventually get hired as a full-time producer.

I wanted to use this opportunity to pass along a piece of advice for those of you still in school (and also for you who are starting out with entry-level positions and beyond). Diversify your mentorships.

Just as most finance experts recommend you diversify your portfolio to secure your assets, I think most education experts would recommend that you become the most well-rounded student you can be.

I lived in a very close-knit educational living community in college. We talked about everything...every day...for four years. I know how tempting it can be to follow a favorite professor throughout your entire academic track as much as Sam followed Frodo right into Mordor. I have friends who tried to figure out how to fill their degree requirements and take the majority of their classes with certain professors they enjoyed the most. I won't say I didn't have my preferred professors and teaching styles with whom I took multiple classes. But I also made an effort to take classes with as many of the professors in our department as I could.

Again, I say embrace diversity. All of your professors or professional mentors may have ended up in the same place for right now (whether that's a specific newsroom or a university), but each is an individual with a unique background who can offer unique insights about their journey and how they ended up where they did.

During my short stint as an AP (just closed in on 2 months), I have worked alongside/under all but 2 of our newsroom's 8 producers, as well as both of our EPs and gotten advice from our news director and assistant news director. As I said before, try to be a well-rounded student. Each of our producers has a different workflow, a different opinion about what's newsworthy or what should go in certain shows and a different writing style. If I only worked with one producer, I wouldn't have that exposure to different ways of thinking that both improve the overall way I do things and help me to develop my own style.

So, have as many mentors as possible. Get as much feedback as possible. Observe or job shadow as many people as you can, whether they're in the position you think you want to fill (so you can find out how to do things properly and decide if it's actually where you want to be) or if they're in a different field/position (so you can keep your options open/decide if you might like to go a different way). I really can't stress how important the "village" mentality is to raise best professional possible. Everyone is unique, so the best way to "see the big picture" of your chosen career path is to draw from a big pool of professionals.

Happy career hunting!