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Industry Investigation Prompts
Week of February 23rd- 27th
A CAPStone Internship is more than just doing some job for the 2nd semester of your senior year, it is an investigation of the industry of which you are a part. So to get the ball rolling for you, write about what your initial/preconceived idea of the industry is/was before you started working for your particular company/organization. If you have a point of delineation for where this perspective started, include it. (For example, maybe your initial understanding of this industry stems back to the fact that your father or grandfather was involved in it and he spoke about it at the dinner table or at family gatherings.
Before I started my internship at NewTv a few weeks ago, I didn’t really know what to think of the industry. What really drew me towards this internship in the beginning was the idea that this field would incorporate both aspects of audio as well as video. I plan to study audio engineering during college and become a music producer, and I knew that this internship would allow me to get experience working with audio. At first I didn’t really think the video aspect of my work at NewTv would be helpful to me but after spending the past few weeks working at NewTv I have realized the knowledge of video is equally as important and beneficial to me. With the knowledge of video, I originally saw as being pointless, I have realized that this knowledge of video actually will help me out a lot in the future if I ever want to make music videos as well this knowledge of video will be the difference between me being able to to this type of work right out of college, and having to learn everything I’m learning now 5-6 years from now. Another thing I am surprised by is that NewTv isn’t even close to as busy as I thought. Before I started working there I thought that I was going to be extremely busy and always doing something, however the truth is it’s not even close to as busy as I thought it would be. We aren’t always working going from one thing to the next like I thought we would be, instead we actually have time to order pizza, socialize, and have fun every once and a while. We still do have days where we are busy the whole day but it’s nice to realize that I will have some down time when I always imagined the Tv industry as being one job after the next all day long.
Over the last few weeks I have been surprised by many aspects of the industry I am investigating, and I hope to learn more and more about this industry as I continue working for the next 16 weeks.
Week of March 2nd- 6th
What is the general employee attitude at your internship? Are the people driven by their work? Do they seem more interested in socializing/gossiping? Is there an air of respect for the job and the people who do it? Do people see this as “just a job,” and if so, how does this attitude influence their daily tasks within the job? Is this a job whose employees make you want to be a part of it? Reflect!
Overall all the employees at NewTv have a positive attitude towards the work they do. Yes every once and a while an employee maybe like, I hate my job and be annoyed with the people and or members around them but that’s just part of the job. Working at NewTv can be stressful if something goes wrong or if you get a bad client. The other aspect of NewTv that is a little different is that since it is a public access news station we have hundreds of members, and these members range from all different kinds of people, some of these members are extremely polite and will never yell at you or get mad. However there are many members that like everything done and set up in a very specific way and won’t hesitate to bust your butt if you make a mistake, and these are the members that will make tensions and tempers rise with some employees at NewTv. I would never say that any employee at NewTv is a mean person with a negative attitude from what I have seen so far all of them seem to love their jobs, but sometimes they’ll get a rude and bossy client and it will put them in a hostile and negative mood. My boss Mike has told me stories about some of the members he has had to deal with, and how he has gotten extremely frustrated with them. Whether a member is just extremely bossy and demanding, or they’re just unreliable and never do anything right, the only times I’ve seen a NewTv employee be in a negative mood is when a person like this is getting on their nerves and they can’t take it anymore. I think the positive attitude that is usually present with all employees at NewTv has definitely made my time working there more enjoyable so far and I hope that this attitude continues to be present.
Week of March 9th-13th
All of you should have time to have lunch at your jobs--it’s part of your worker rights. What’s lunchtime like? Do you eat with employees, or do you eat on your own? Do employees eat together regularly, or must they eat what they can when they can? How does the way lunchtime is treated at your job reflect the job itself?
Lunch time at my internship varies day to day, sometimes I will eat lunch with the other two interns and Mike, sometimes just with the other two interns and then other days sometimes members bring in food when they have shoots. If we eat at NewTv we usually have pizza because thats what most members bring in. Other days the other two interns and I will go out and get food whether its at McDonalds, a place called B Good, and many others. I haven’t really noticed what other employee’s do for lunch, like if they eat alone or with each other.I have seen some of the other employees eating alone but I don’t know if that’s what they do everyday or just some. Lunch time is basically the main break for the day for everyone working at NewTv, we take the time we have for lunch to socialize, and just take a break from all the work we are doing. Lunch is always a nice little way to get away for a little while and just relax.
Week of March 16th-20th
What is the goal of your industry? Customer satisfaction? Expansion? Profit? Research? How do you know? Is it static, or does it change?
The goal of NewTv is to provide the Newton community with public access news and media, as well as with facilities for members to use to produce their own shows, and the equipment to do so. NewTv is a public access station, anyone living in Newton can become a member of NewTv and become involved. At NewTv we are extremely focused on satisfying our customers/members it is among one of our highest priorities. We want to treat all of our members the same and with respect, and we want to give all of our members equal amounts of help whenever it is needed. NewTv is a non profit organization and we do no advertising, the only money we receive is the membership fee. However recently NewTv has started a perks program. Basically this program states that NewTv will provide your business with free advertising in exchange for members of NewTv receiving discounts at these businesses. So far this is the only form of advertising we have done at NewTv and it's all non profit.
Week of April 6th-10th
15. Does your industry take pains to take care of the little things? How/why not? (Interpret how you see fit, but the more you think about this question, the better your answer will be.)
In my industry taking time to take care of the little things is crucial. In this industry you never know what could go wrong and you never know when something may go wrong, and this why when it comes to Tv production and filming an actual show it is crucial to pay attention to every little detail so you can make sure everything goes according to plan, and to make sure everything you see is exactly how you want it to appear. I remember one specific incident towards the beginning of my internship where Mike asked me observe a live show one night. During the show someone called in for the first time in like 2 years, the member doing audio knew what he had to do to put the call through however when he went to do so it wouldn’t work the host of the show was not able to hear the caller and the caller couldn’t hear her either. Right there in that moment I realized that no matter how well you think you know what you are doing, and no matter how much you set up you never know when something can go wrong within this industry. Several other experiences made the importance of paying attention to even the minor details even more clear to me.
Week of March 23rd-27th
No doubt, as you live this life for several months, there are bound to be interesting stories that occur to you and to the people around you. Select a story that sticks out to you from your time on the job so far (Note: it doesn’t have to be strictly in the office or on site) and recall it. Why’d you pick this moment? Is it symbolic/expressive of your industry, or uncharacteristic? (Try to avoid pointless stories like, “At work today, Stevie was sweeping the floor and he totally tripped over a wastebasket. I was laughing for like two hours!” Instead, consider this tale: “It was 10:30am and I was walking through the cubicles toward the water cooler where I noticed that four employees were napping at their work desks.” Think about what that might mean? Are they overworked? Does the industry demand too much from them? Are they bored by the inane repetition and lack of creativity demanded from them by their job? These are stories that reveal.)
Several weeks into working at NewTv there was one night where Mike asked me to stay and observe another member while he controlled the audio we had for that night. I remember I wanted to control the audio myself, but I hadn’t really had much experience and was still learning the audio board so Mike wanted me to just watch another member do it. I helped everyone set up the set, microphones, chairs, cables, etc before the show. I watched the member doing audio do the basic preparations for a show I would do now or any person doing audio should do. He plugged in the microphones, helped the guest put their mics on, and then went back to the control room and did a quick mic check. Everything seemed to be working well all the levels were good. The show was starting live at 7:30, only a few minutes from now. Mike came in made sure everyone was ready and at 7:30 we began the show. For the first 10-20 minutes of the show everything went perfectly, but then someone called into the show, Mike had shown me how to put the call audio through before and the member doing audio did exactly what he should have, however no audio came through no matter how high we set the levels. After about a minute of trouble shooting and no luck I ran and got Mike in his office to come help us. It took several attempts to get the audio of the caller to come through, and we figured it out all just by trial and error in the end the caller still was unable to hear the host on his side of the call but we were able to allow the host to hear him. The lesson I learned with this experience is that anything can go wrong at any point in time and you will never know what or when. The best thing to do in this situation is to, not panic and troubleshoot the best you can and always ask for help if you need it.
Week of April 27th - May 1st
10. Who inspires you at your job? What about him/her do you find inspiring? Who, if anyone, disappoints you? Why?
My boss Mike inspires me at my job. I am inspired by how much knowledge and passion he has for his job. I really enjoyed learning from him and hearing about all the different experiences he had. I really liked the specific way he went about teaching Jacob, Aidan, and I what we needed to know about working in this industry, he was able to treat me like a friend as well as an employee at the same time. He challenged me to be creative and think outside of the box, whenever I wanted to work on a new project he would always ask what my plan was before I started, and about how I planned to make it unique. For example I plan on making a video of me playing guitar and singing for me to post on youtube in the future, and before I even start it Mike wants me to write out exactly what kinds of things I want to do with cameras as well as audio to make my video unique and different. Mike is always pushing me to make my work/ creations the best they can be and that’s why I look up to him, and he inspires me at my job.
Week of March 30th-April 3rd
Answer the following question in relation to your industry: Is there an endpoint to learning at your job? Do you want there to be? Whatever you choose, explain your answer.
I feel there is no endpoint to learning within the industry I am exploring and participating in, and I personally don’t think there should be one. As I have worked at NewTv I have noticed that every day I will learn something new whether it’s big or small. Every single day Mike has taught us something new, whether it’s teaching us about three point lighting, green-screening, video editing, and just teaching us about all the equipment around us; I am always learning something new.
In my opinion I don’t believe there is an endpoint to learning in any profession. Look at Jimmy Hendrix for example, for many people he was the greatest guitarist to ever live; but does that mean he had reached an endpoint with learning guitar? Absolutely not, Jimmy Hendrix may have been the greatest guitarist of all time but he still had so much he could’ve learned. No matter how much you know about your profession / industry there is always going to be something new to learn, this is because 99.9% of jobs you get better at due to experiences and lessons you have learned. The truth is you will never run out of things to experience and lessons to learn, and as I have worked at NewTv I’ve noticed this fact more and more. Everyday people working at NewTv make mistakes and they learn something new from that mistake every time. So due to this fact I don’t believe there is an endpoint to learning at my job or at any job really for that matter.