Anyone wanting to get work in the media will have heard this line hundreds of times before: Perseverance pays. Don’t give up. Etc. etc.
Tomorrow I start 4 weeks Work Experience in London, at BBC Radio 2. I’ll be working on the Jeremy Vine Show.
BBC placements are competitive – even at local BBC. According to the Work Experience guide book they e-mailed me, less than 3% of candidates are successful. So getting a placement at a national station – one of the UK’s biggest stations – is quite an achievement.
I’ve been trying for quite a while to get a BBC placement – both at my local station and in national radio. Several times I’ve come close: just before I started uni I had an interview at BBC Radio Gloucestershire; Twice in the last year I’ve had phone calls from Radio 2. Each time I just missed out on a placement. Now – my 3rd application to Radio 2 – I have been successful.
In three hours I will be getting the train from Kemble to London Paddington (changing at Swindon). My train tickets have been collected; my Oyster card has got ‘money’ on it. I’m just about ready!
During the week I’ll be staying with my cousin Tom in approximately Twickenham; at the weekends I’ll be with my Grandparents in Welling. Might come back to Gloucestershire once or twice, for the launch of the “new” Corinium Radio or for the Cheltenham Literature Festival.
Better pack my stuff then. The two empty bags on my bedroom floor won’t fill themselves!
Bye for now.
FH.
