Hello to all future graduates, my name is John Bang and I am a graduate of Charles Sturt University (2015) in Wagga Wagga, I graduated in a Bachelor of Arts (Television Production) which now is called a Bachelor of Stage and Screen (Television).

Rather than doing a day in the life of a Media Operator which is my current job title at Deluxe and I have been working for Deluxe for around 2 years now, I thought it would be more useful for future graduates if I told my story on how it all started for me, because I know when I was in my final year at university, all I was doing was contacting fellow students who were above me and asking them about tips and experiences about the industry I was about to tackle, so here it goes.

2015 was my final year in university where at our uni the industry submission was just around the corner, the industry submission is when representatives from various television networks (Channel Seven, Nine, TEN, Foxtel, Fox Sports, NEP, SBS and etc) in Australia come down for two days and offer potential 1 to 2 week internships at their company. To sum it up quick, the whole process was that the students had to write up a cover letter along with a CV and submit them to the networks we were interested in getting an interview and then an internship out of it.

I was lucky enough to get an interview with all the networks which I wanted except for Deluxe, and Deluxe was the company that I even rang and tried to speak to the HR person at the time but couldn’t get through to them. So, when the industry submit day arose, I was really nervous to go up to the Deluxe representatives at the time because when you think about it, here we are bunch of university students and then there were a bunch of people from all across the television network, potentially being able to start our dream in working in the television industry, it was really daunting. Even though I was so scared and nervous to go up to the people from Deluxe I had one thing in my mind, which was that if I didn’t go and speak to them I would go on with my life with the idea of what if…I would have regretted it my whole life thinking what if I had just talked to them. In that thought in mind I went up to the Deluxe reps and introduced myself and asked them what I could improve next time on my CV and cover letter as I didn’t get an interview with Deluxe, I even mentioned I rang to beforehand to see if I could get further advice before the industry submit day.

To my surprise, the reps from Deluxe was also surprised that I rang them and made the effort, they said there must have been some sort of mix up so they told me on the spot, you have 30 seconds, sell yourself. At that time, 50 things were going through my mind but I narrowed it down and told him my 3 key attributes at the time.

The rest is history. Its difficult to tell you all the experiences I have dealt with up to where I am now, I told this experience above because this was the beginning to my career and pretty much what started my journey into the television industry and into Deluxe.

So the main point I would take from the story I have told you above is, even though at the time you feel extremely nervous and somewhat scared, if you see an opportunity take a leap of faith and take it, because at the end of the day the worst thing that could happen is they say no, and that’s far better than making you think what if…What if I took the leap on that day?

The few key tips and advice I can give you from the experience I have had so far would be:

• Don’t be afraid to ask questions, I have had so many times where I had wished to ask questions but always felt shy and 9 times out of 10, others wanted that question thinking answered as well, there honestly is no such thing as a stupid question.
• Don’t be afraid of changes and to try new things, you never know if you truly like or dislike the changes unless you have tried it, because what you hear or what it sounds like is totally different to actually trying it out. Since I started working in Deluxe I have worked in 5 different areas within 2 departments, and in each area,  I have learnt many new skills that helped my career development and also met new amazing people.
• Learn from your mistakes, it is important to own up to your mistakes and not only that but to improve from them and to not make that mistake again. There was a time when I learnt a valuable lesson where in my industry submission. On my cover letter, I wrote Fox Sports to an SBS cover letter, I was super embarrassed at the time and from that day on I made sure to double and triple check my work and never have made that sort of mistake again.