Work Experience

In my three year plan I have taken into consideration I may need someone to work for me in my third year if the business is a success. I've decided it would be better to hire students because it's good to give photography/media students the opportunity to work in the industry and it is cheaper for me. I don't know how successful the business will be in three years so having to pay someone minimum wage (which will probably have gone up) might not be feasible. There is a possibility that hiring students will be a waste of time. If they decide they do not want to continue working for me then I will have to go through the trouble of finding another person and training that person.

When I photographed for Mirfield Stags I got talking to two students who Ryan has hired for work experience. I'm wanting to get in contact with them to ask them what they think about work experience.
Abigail Wade: What made you want to do work experience?
Jonny Tuddenham: It's a good way to get contacts by doing work experience and you know what you will be involved with in the future as a career.
Abigail Wade: What are you getting out of your work experience?
Jonny Tuddenham: I learn what a job in that area would be like and it prepares you for it. It's also really good for my CV and future career options because in some cases work experience helps more than a degree.
Abigail Wade: What are your plans for the future?
Jonny Tuddenham: My plans are to cover different areas of journalism in radio and print since I have got TV experience at Mirfield Stags.
Abigail Wade: If Mirfield Stags move out of the amateur rugby league and look to start paying their staff, would you want to continue working for the club and why?
Jonny Tuddenham: I don't think I would as I will have already got the experience from Stags. With more experience elsewhere there will be other jobs available and if I stayed to work at Stags, doors would stay shut.

Interview with student Joe Slack

Abigail Wade: What made you want to do work experience?

Joe Slack: It's been stressed a lot to me at university how important it was but I don't think I quite realised at the time quite how important it was, but I realised that is was by far the best way to build up a contact list and improve on my journalistic ability

Abigail Wade: What are you getting out of it?

Joe Slack: It's hard to answer that in any easy way, I get a lot out of it, probably more than I realise, whether you're covering Manchester United or Mirfield Stags, if you're writing seven pieces a week for the club website, that's invaluable, I think I've come on more in my my three months at Mirfield than I did in the 17 months before, whilst at uni

Abigail Wade:What are your plans for the future?

Joe Slack: I'm honestly not sure, at the moment I'm just loving what I'm doing, I'd fallen out with the idea of becoming a sports journalist before I came Mirfield but it's not only helped me improve, it's brought back the enjoyment of sports journalism for me, I have a great relationship with Ryan who I send all work to before it gets published, and the feedback you get for a good piece you worked hard at makes it all worth it, in the long term though, my dream job would be to either work at Bradford City or at the Telegraph & Argus as the Bradford City correspondant, which I feel is possible as I don't really personally rate Simon Parker, who is the current T&A Bradford City correspondant, also after working at Mirfield, I'm currently in the early stages of setting up my own football club hoping to follow the similar kind of path as Mirfiled with a heavy-media approach for an amateur club, which the inspiration for has definitely come from Ryan and Iain.

Abigail Wade:If Mirfield Stags move out of the amateur rugby league and look to start paying their staff. would you want to continue working for the club and why?

Joe Slack: Absolutely, I do enjoy the rugby and I do enjoy the amateur side of things but like I said earlier, I've got a great relationship with Ryan and Iain and I feel if I went somewhere else, you're not guaranteed that, it's something you're made to feel part of, I was taking a picture of the huddle after winning the league for the club's twitter feed and I got told to stop and was called in and even got a mention, which means a lot. The players are the ones who won the league, not me, so to get a mention was great, it just shows what kind of club it is.