Ever since I left college, my career has been shifting from TV, to film and now to web, and from self-employed, to small companies to one of the biggest companies in the country.

JOB POSITIONS
Right after college I started as a freelance Associate Producer and Assistant Director working mostly for ESPN International and ESPN Deportes as well as SPEED. My job consisted of working on Live transmissions of soccer and tennis matches, assisting the Director/producer. This job consisted of spending anywhere between 2 to 10 hours a day in a control room or truck, as well as editing commercials and sports highlight shows.  During this time I also worked in film, as an Art Department PA, helping in shoots with sets and props.

CURRENT POSITIONS
I am currently an employee of Softtek Integration Systems, working as a Web Quality Assurance Consultant for General Electric’s website. The QA team ensures that all new sites and changes made to current sites follow design and style guidelines, as well as ensure functionality of all of GE’s websites. 

TYPICAL WORK DAY
First thing I do is work with GE’s Managing Editor to post a morning news story on gereports.com, I edit images, upload videos, edit text, proofread articles. I also publish these stories in GE’s internal website for all employees. The rest of the day our team receives changes/additions that need to be made to the website, after the developers make these changes I check for functionality, spelling, format, brand standards consistency, etc. When all changes are tested and approved, we take the changes live. Sometimes new sites or sites are created when GE launches any kind of initiative. We work with agencies and developers to ensure quality, functionality and accessibility in our pages.

POSITIVES
That we can see the popularity and quality of our work by the number of visits, hits, comments and recognitions that the website gets. We were recently placed in the Top 10 Web Site in the Financial Times Annual Survey of Company Web Sites. It feels great to be part of the team that made that possible.

NEGATIVES
My biggest frustration is not knowing enough about web development, terms, processes, codes, etc and thus making it difficult for me to solve my own obstacles, always having to refer to the technical people for any issues. I am learning as I go, but sometimes I feel like the outsider since my background is broadcasting and not computer science.

LIFESTYLE
That’s one thing I like about this job, I doesn’t affect my life outside of work, like TV and film did, where you work odd and really long hours.

COLLEGE PREPARATION
My internships really prepared me for the real thing, as well as all the help and confidence that my professors gave me. The media studies program prepared me to be knowledgeable in various areas of media and this is why even in difficult times I was able to jump into a completely different job without any struggles.  The only thing I would change is take any web production/development classes, because nowadays even TV broadcasting jobs are asking for web knowledge and experience since the web has picked up so much strength in the entertainment industry.

CAREER ADVICE
Don’t think that what you have learned in school doesn’t qualify you to get a job or an internship at any company you want to work for. I have heard it so many times, students thinking that they don’t know enough for a real job. Sacred Heart prepares you for any type of job. A big part of how well prepared you are depends on your own effort, if you want to be prepared, go beyond going to class and turning in your assignments. Get involved, speak to your professors; and especially for media studies major, do your best in every project that you do, because those are what you will be showing in your first interviews.

SHU EXPEREINCE
My experience at SHU was great, I wouldn’t change it, I loved the small size of the classes, my professors, and being a Resident Assistant and all other clubs and things I was involved in. I always kept myself busy and that gave me a lot of exposure and experience for the real world.