Job Shadows: What You Saw

Here's a sampling of some of the various job shadows done by you all. Take a look and see what you can learn from everyone's visits. There's a lot of good stuff here to help you decide what you want to do with your lives; what you need to be doing to get there; and what to expect when you do get there.

We will add more job shadow reports to the blog as they are completed. Please give each one of these a quick read, will you?

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As an aspiring visual journalist, shadowing Rick Epps along with some of the other page designers at The Detroit News provided an irreplaceable learning experience. Rick, who now designs part time, is responsible for creating layouts and page designs for the print paper. He enjoys crafting designs with typography but mentioned one of the challenges of his position is managing the constant trial of rearranging elements on the page when stories and photos get added or removed.

There are several aspects of the position that I find desirable. I think that working on the design end of the production process allows you to be involved in many areas of work. The designer has involvement with photo placement and cropping, as well as reporting when it comes to deciding what story is shown as the dominant. I would like this position because it would allow me to be involved in a variety decision making processes. What I would like the least about a positon like this is that there is pressure to present the elements that other journalists created. I think that making sure all the elements are presented in a way that represents them in their most effective form would be a challenge.

While shadowing, I received a wide range of advice from the professionals at The Detroit News. One piece of advice from their presentation editor was to learn as much software as possible if I am interested in perusing a career in design. It is useful for me to consider this now while I’m still taking classes rather than trying to figure it out on the spot, when I’m working professionally. Seeing how a newsroom of such large scale creates and designs their print paper has me even more interested in perusing a career as a visual journalist.

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For my job shadow, I went to WXYZ in Southfield, MI to shadow Justin T. Rose. Justin is a sports reporter/broadcaster for the station. He has his own sports talk show, which I watched. He brought on a couple guests and they had a college basketball discussion where they talked about Miles Bridges and the NCAA Tournament along with MSU, U-M and Oakland basketball.

            The part of this job shadow that impacted me the most was after the show when Justin talked about the pros and cons of going into sports broadcasting. He said that if sports is truly your passion, then you should go all in with it and never stop until you get where you want. In fact, Justin first started from the production side of broadcasting before he ever got on camera. But he never gave up and eventually got where he wanted to be.

            But Justin also talked about the negatives. For starters, his job is low paying. He is also constantly traveling and works nights and weekends. Furthermore, he never knows what the future holds. He said that it is okay to have a plan as a sports journalism student, but it will inevitably change. Justin is not even sure if he will still be working at WXYZ in September after his contract expires.

            But on the positive end, Justin knows that no matter what happens, he will find something. If he does not re-sign with WXYZ, he will have somewhere to go, even if it is not sports related. In fact, Justin pointed out that he has seen numerous people in his field lose the passion for sports journalism they once had. But he said that this is not necessarily a bad thing because you can do many things with a journalism degree. If you get into sports broadcasting and realize that it is not right for you, it is possible to change directions.

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Unlike some students, I was not somewhere on the beach getting lots of sun during Spring Break. I decided to use that time to get my job shadow experience completed for the semester. After reaching out to several anchors and reporters in the Raleigh North Carolina area Sharon Tazewell, a full-time anchor and reporter at CBS North Carolina got back to me. Just a few days after Sharon got back with me Joel Brown a full-time anchor at ABC11 responded to my email as well. Although we only need to complete one job shadow experience I thought that there would not be any harm in doing two.

I shadowed Sharon Tazewell throughout her entire day. We started at 2 pm and ended at 11pm. When we first came in she gave me a rundown on how the day was going to go. The second thing we did was attend the editorial meeting for the day.There I sat in as they discussed the stories that would be going out for the day. Everyone sat around the table and had to talk about where they were on their stories as far as them being completed or not. 

I watched as she prepared her hair and makeup in the ladies room to prepare for commercial break teases and for the show. During commercial breaks she would give me tips on how she was able to adjust to being on camera. Sharon also made it a point to tell me how competitive the field is so that I know what to do when it’s time for me to enter the workforce.

Two days after shadowing Sharon,I shadowed Joel Brown at ABC 11. My experience with Joel was a little different but I still learned a few things and got some feedback from him. Joel gave me a run through on how their stories are inputted online.He showed me that although people are responsible for reviewing and editing their own stories, before he goes on air he still reads through each story to cover himself.

Joel gave me advice on how to prepare tapes to send to possible internships and employers. Joel also enforced to me how important it is to be on time and to meet deadlines because everything runs and a schedule which is what we discuss in class.

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Name: Emily Lawler

Beat: Public Interest Team

Outlet: Mlive Media Group Lansing

Phone: 1 (586)-206-0983

Email: ELAWLER@mlive.com

I chose to job shadow Emily Lawler who covers public policy in the Lansing area. I chose her because I often see her at the Romney Building where I intern for Governor Rick Snyder in the communication department. It was interesting to gain perspective on the other side of the spectrum of the communications world. My work is focused on pitching to the media and Emily’s job is to present that information to the public.

Emily decided to cover public policy because she has been interested in politics ever since she was little. A typical day for Emily revolves around whether or not the legislature meets. On Monday and Friday, they do not meet so she uses those days for investigation for her current stories or long term projects she’s working on. On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays the legislature is in session and her days start to pick up. Emily described herself as a “one-person Capitol Beauru” because she covers committee hearings to senators about current legislation being passed.

A great piece of advise Emily gave me was what she looks for in a great press release pitch. She said she gets about 70 press releases a day and a majority of them she doesn’t even look at. This gave me insight on what reporters are looking for since I want to pursue a career in government and public affairs. Emily said the pitch should be relevant to the stories she covers, involves state government or related to previous work. Many of the press releases she does not use she may direct so another reporter in her department if it is something valuable to their work. Hearing Emily talk about how her work is handled brought my knowledge of the communications world full circle because I now know what makes an effective story pitch to a journalist who will be covering the story.

Emily graduated from Michigan State University in 2011 and provided insight on her path to working at Mlive. She previously worked at MIRS that covers news and information about Michigan government. While she was there, she learned the ins and outs of the journalism business.

She has always been interested in public policy and ended up minoring in it. Her best advice to aspiring young professionals would be major in something that you love to write about. One thing Emily would have done differently if she could go back she would major in public policy instead of being, “a shmuck with a journalism degree, just like everyone else.” She said to pay attention to the specialties because it will enhance your knowledge when you begin to write about something you’re passionate about.

Overall, I admire the work that Emily does and her reporting is respected throughout the Governor’s office. I do not believe I’d like to pursue a career as a reporter but I believe the information pushed out to journalists is a key factor for the public’s knowledge of legislation that could impact them and for them to be more informed about state government.

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For my job shadow report, I shadowed Matt Hund, a Lansing native and the current Engagement Editor for the Lansing State Journal. Matt’s job as the engagement editor is to overlook opinion content and submissions from other reporters and publish them to the Lansing State Journal and other online websites. Specifically Matt edits the opinion section. Matt also plans engagement events and other activities to help demonstrate their commitment to communities and displaying information. When I got to the LSJ building, Matt was currently in the middle of planning a new project with Jayne Higo, another news assistant. The project was called Lansing Storytellers, where a certain group of reporters write about different topics from different real people stories. So if there were a topic such as “wild”, then someone would write a story about how a person was attacked by a bear and nearly died or something really insane that happened to them. It was a really cool concept to see who is doing which topic and the different topics that they are going to write about in the future. Matt then showed me how he edits the pages on the LSJ website, how he put his stories online, and overall the how it will look like before it is published. It was similar to how we post stories on word press, but a lot more advanced with more features and a lot more to do before you can post it. Matt loves his job and has been a successful journalist ever since he discovered his passion of writing. Hund graduated from Michigan State University and graduated with a bio degree and journalism minor. He worked for the State News as a hobby and used his passion from writing and wrote about science. Soon he took off and got contacted by the Lansing State Journal ever since. The parts I liked were how there were different sections of the newsroom; such as a sports section, an advertising section, public relations, etc. So it was interesting to see everyone working on something different and being published to the same website. I learned that the Lansing State Journal was connected with USA Today and that they use a “wire”, so they are allowed to take pieces and post it on their page whenever they want without asking. I really enjoyed my job shadow with Matt, as he seems to really enjoy his job even though he has a lot of work to do. However, the passion behind him is really cool to see because I share that same passion. It was cool to see an actual newsroom and what they do, and my desire to become a journalist has increased from this.

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Instead of doing one job shadow, I gained additional insight by visiting Ty Forquer, the Arts and Sciences editor at the Lansing City Pulse (LCP) in addition to interviewing RJ Wolcott, the Higher Education reporter at the Lansing State Journal. Forquer took a fairly non-traditional path to his position as an editor at the LCP, working as a music instructor before looking for a more financially capable position that was still in the Lansing area. Wolcott attributes his ability to get multiple journalism jobs after college to his numerous internships. However, he did question how much general unpaid internships were really worth. He said to make sure an internship is really going to advance your career, which was good to hear.

Having no formal journalism education meant Forquer found AP Style regulations and ethical decision-making the biggest challenges when starting the job. Now that those are insignificant issues, his biggest frustration is when people are unresponsive and don’t respect deadlines. The biggest challenge Forquer faces is the constant “grind” of work, because there is always something on the table to get done. We agreed on the need to discipline yourself to stop working towards the end of the day despite the things that could get done. Forquer’s position as an editor at the LCP doesn’t limit him to only proofreading the work of writers. He says there’s a mix of writers submitting story ideas and him giving projects to staff writers. He also writes sections himself.

Wolcott says this favorite challenge is just digging deep into issues to find out what’s going on behind the PR veil. That includes working through people associated with those behind the scenes to get to the meat of the matter. That would be fun for a while, but I can imagine myself getting frustrated with the people that don’t realize I’ll get to the heart of the matter one way or another.

Between the surprisingly casual house-office of the LCP with the entertaining dog, and the potential for highly-controversial education issues that Wolcott covers, I learned I would enjoy being an editor at a smaller publication like the LCP. However, it would feel more professional to work in an actual production building instead of a repurposed house. My skepticism of unpaid coffee-runner internships was confirmed as was the expectation of this line of work being high paced.

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Based on the day of my job shadow with Ty Forquer, I learned that journalism can sometimes be uneventful. While he told me that his position involves several various jobs, most of his Mondays are spent editing at his computer. He even told me, as we were making plans, that I didn’t have to come in if I didn’t want, as I would probably be bored with how little he had to do on that day.

                The level of independence that comes with his job is something I would like to compare to larger news outlets. With his apparent ability to pretty much do whatever he needs to accomplish outside of weekly editorial meetings and discussions with coworkers, he seems to have a job that requires a lot of freedom, but also a lot of consequences that can come as a result of not being organized enough to handle this. However, I was also happy to learn that he has a family and a side T-shirt business that he also still has time to run outside of his commitment to the paper, giving me hope that the stresses of being a multi-tool journalist won’t be the ONLY thing I have time for in my life.

                Ty said that it’s a good thing that I am dedicated to having a career in journalism, because the field is very tough and going into it without knowing for sure that I want to could cause problems. He described it as a “turbulent time” to be a journalist while also claiming that there are a lot of opportunities for those who are willing to do anything. Working at a small newspaper, his job is pretty much exactly what I expected; he’s responsible for many things, from editing audio segments to administrative work to writing the weekly newsletter. I think this type of diversity is what I’m looking for in the field of journalism; I want to be able to turn the fun I have interviewing into many different products.

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For my job shadow assignment I decided to shadow a News Producer, Kit Kuhne at the news station ABC12 WJRT in Flint, Michigan. Going into the job shadow I knew very little about what being a producer actually meant. I figured that they helped out with the behind the scenes of a news program. While shadowing Kuhne I was able to learn a news producer basically leads the news program and directs the news anchors. They also prepare the script for that day’s show.

The producer that I job shadowed worked from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. so one of the biggest challenges of my job shadow was just waking up at 4 a.m. to drive to Flint. What I observed of Kuhne was that she had tons of energy and passion about her job. Since she is in charge of producing a morning news show that runs from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., she has to be constantly running around, answering phone calls and revising the script when necessary. Once a revision is made she has to alert the director. On the morning that I shadowed her, there was breaking news of a shooting in Saginaw which she said makes her job more stressful but also adds a fresh and new feeling to the news show. Since the show she produces is a weekday morning show, most of the new is regurgitated stuff from the day before, so breaking news is always exciting. A bad day on her job is when something goes wrong because then it can spiral out of control. She also said that the morning after a holiday such as the day after Easter is really stressful because it’s a barebones crew and nationally there is no other new content.

I think that this job would fit me very well. As a producer you get to still write but not heavily interview people and you also get to lead a talent crew and help direct people which is something I would really enjoy. Overall, I learned that many of Kuhne’s job opportunities began because she had mentors like Bob Gould at Michigan State University who helped her improve her skills. She also was heavily involved in campus media. I would love to explore more career options within producing.

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For my job shadow, I chose Brian Kalish. Mr. Kalish is the president, founder, and owner of centralwisconsinsports.net. He created the site as a way to combine his three favorite things: writing, sports, and the outdoors. Started in 2009, the site covers stories about local high school sports and athletes, as well as hunting and fishing.

            I chose Mr. Kalish because he was able to take something he was passionate about and turn it into a business; I would one day like to be able to write about things I enjoy and turn that into a livelihood. He started out as an English teacher; however, he did not feel that was the career for him. He had always been interested in sports, and he had the ability to write well. He noticed the decline of sports coverage in newspapers; he created the website and things took off from there. It started out small; it was just Mr. Kalish and one other writer. Over time, the website grew, and they were able to bring in more writers as well as cover more stories.

            Mr. Kalish loves what he does. He spends his time watching sports and writing about them, things he would enjoy doing anyway. Doing them as his job makes it that much better. However, as with any job, this does not mean he does not have some complaints. One of his biggest issues is the lack of personal communication in this day and age. He said that everyone wants to email. No one wants to pick up the phone and call someone. No one wants to talk face to face. He said that through email, something gets lost. You can’t ask follow up questions, you can’t see facial expressions, the answers are stiff, and readers can tell the difference.

            Based on his past mistakes, Mr. Kalish had advice to offer for any prospective journalists in any career path they choose. He said it’s important to go after what you’re passionate about, and don’t worry about what other people think or say. He also said to immerse yourself in knowledge. There will always be something to learn, and the more you learn, the more information you’ll have, and the better your writing will be. You also can’t do anything half hearted. You have to dive all of the way into whatever you’re doing.

            Mr. Kalish also said that in order to be a successful journalist, you have to be willing to work harder than everyone else. You have to be committed to working crazy long hours, and you never really get a day off. You have to be self motivated.

            I think I would really enjoy writing about something I’m passionate about for a living. Every day would be filled with new challenges and experiences. I believe that through this class and future classes, I would have the skills to be able to do something like this.

            I can’t say for certain what I would not like about a job like this as I have never done something like this. However, I think trying to turn your own website into a profitable business would be very stressful at times. After speaking with Mr. Kalish, I think I would rather be a writer for someone who has already successfully created their own site, at least to start off.

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For my job shadow assignment I wanted to try and find someone who worked in the visual side of journalism, since that is where my interests lie. I shadowed Rick Epps along with some of the other page designers at The Detroit News. Rick, who now freelance designs for them is in charge of creating page designs and layouts for the print version of The Detroit News. He seemed very knowledgeable in typography and really enjoys the creative aspect that this job gives him. He explained that the difficulty comes when stories and photos on the page get added or removed because then it involves playing around with a different layout until everything fits.

            His job really interested me because he was able to be involved in important stories that will be seen by a large population of people. But his involvement included the element that I enjoy most as well, making it visually appealing so that people will take an interest and read the content. I think that this is a very important role in journalism that sometimes gets overlooked and I want to be apart of that. Some aspects of this job that I didn’t like were definitely his work hours. I know that since design is on the end of the production process and newspapers like The Detroit News come out every day, designers hours are not going to be your typical nine to five. There is also a lot of pressure on designers to come up with different and unique elements on a time crunch, and sometimes creativity take time to produce your best work.

            While at the job shadow we were able to meet and get professional advice from other positions at The Detroit News. It was interesting to see all the roles that people have, and how since their newsroom is large, there are multiple designers assigned to work on certain sections of the paper. One piece of advise that I took away from this job shadow was to get your pages critiqued by others, because the more feedback the better. Also their presentation editor made it very clear to us that being a jack of all trades will be a big help when trying to get hired for this type of job. Being well versed in different types of software and media will really help. Overall it was a very good experience and I am glad that I was able to make the trip to Detroit.

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Today I spent time shadowing Jeremy Warnemuende a sports writer for 247 Sports, a sports news website. During our time together Jeremy showed me the day to day operations of his usual off-season work for both football and basketball. Because he writes about Michigan State's teams, both of whom are in their off-season, he showed me how important different social media platforms are crucial to keeping up with the teams and their new recruits. The central part of his work, this time of year, consists of staying in constant contact with the new recruits and his fellow journalists around the conference. However, social media is only the half of what Jeremy has to keep up with during his day

A large part of his job includes getting the breaking news out as quick as and hopefully being first, then going back later and expanding on the news updates. We talked about how now more than ever, because of things like the ESPN or Barstool Sports apps, people are focusing on short, fast, news updates as opposed to longer in-depth coverage. People want their news as soon as it happens, especially if it involves their fantasy sports. Luckily I was there when news broke about a recruit for Michigan State's football team who verbally committed, allowing me to see the process of how Jeremy crafts and updates the news site.

Overall this job would fit me, but I wouldn't prefer it due to the constant pressure to get news out first. If you're not looking at your phone or laptop constantly, you may miss a big story like a late night tweet by a player or coach. Although, jobs are always opening up for this type of work and with things like the ESPN a and affiliated websites, people always need more coverage. In this field, it's important to build relationships early on with these athletes and coaches, but it's also important to stay connected and never be too far away from your phone.

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For my job shadow, I chose to shadow Lauren Jbara, the Detroit Pistons reporter. I met her last year at the Duel in the D hockey game between MSU and Michigan, as she is also the in-game host for the Red Wings. Staying in touch with her over the past year, I have kept up-to-date with her career moves and all of the things she has been doing. I was very excited to shadow her on game night because she is very involved during games. The Pistons won the game against the Brooklyn Nets.

            Some of the things I learned immediately upon walking into The Palace was how tight security is! I mostly expected this, but it was interesting to see how serious they are about credentials in a pro sports setting. I met Lauren in the main office, then followed her to her office, where she introduced me to all of her production crew. I met so many people throughout the night, it was hard to keep track of who was who. One of the coolest things I got to observe was the control room. Working for BTN Student U here on campus, I was amazed at how everything was so similar to our equipment, however, it was all on a bigger scale. I also really enjoyed watching her interact with fans as she hosted, and observing her weekly wrap up that was recorded before the game. I thought it was interesting everything was scripted.

            I think doing this job shadow was beneficial for me as it showed me what being a team reporter is like on a pro-level. The way fans react to the presence of a well-known face and how to handle a very up-beat personality with that and all co-workers was something I admired about Lauren. She seemed to know everyone. I think having a job as a team reporter would be a great job for me in the long run, however, I am not so sure about being a host. Hosts have to bring the energy to an arena, a skill I would need to improve on.

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For the past few years now, my goal has been to become a college basketball or NBA coach and, upon retiring from coaching, enter the broadcast booth.  I started out broadcasting high school games at my alma mater, the University of Detroit Jesuit.  That is where I met Jeremy Otto. 

Jeremy was a few years older than me, and after he graduated from U of D, he attended Marygrove College.  At Marygrove, Jeremy was the first member of their broadcasting program.  Jeremy broadcasted baseball, basketball, volleyball and other sports. 

After a couple of years at Marygrove, Jeremy followed the sports information director to Madonna University.  There, the same thing happened: Jeremy was the first member of their broadcasting program, and has continued to lead the broadcasting program at Madonna. 

My main goal is to become a play-by-play analyst or color commentator for basketball, but since the season is over, I couldn’t exactly shadow Jeremy during a game.  However, when I was in high school, I helped Jeremy a couple of times during Marygrove volleyball games by working with the soundboard, so I got a good glimpse of what he does.  I asked Jeremy a lot of questions about his job, which he gets paid for, and he gave great answers. 

Jeremy says that the best days are “when you feel locked in on-the-air and the worst is when you know you just don’t have it.”  He says that there are those times where the words don’t flow as easily as you’d like, and it feels like you’re lacking rhythm.  I felt the same way broadcasting games at U of D; there were those times where it was just one of those days, like you’re blindly searching for words to say. 

Jeremy gets to games three or four hours before game time to help set up the equipment.  At Marygrove, Jeremy had to do everything himself.  At Madonna, though, he has a little bit more help, as they’ve hired a whole staff to control the equipment during the games.  Jeremy says that’s a big help, because now all he has to worry about is the game. 

His official title is Sports Information Assistant and Play-By-Play Broadcaster.  Jeremy is responsible for a lot of the content on their YouTube channel, including promo videos, highlights, interviews and other clips.  He’s also in charge of their social media and some aspects of the website. 

Jeremy also books production crews, edits audio and video, sells sponsorships, and serves as a producer.  Jeremy has also picked up several freelance gigs throughout the year in both play-by-play and announcing, including the CHSL Football Game of the Week on FM 101.5 and AM 1400 the Patriot.

            As far as job security goes, Jeremy says that he doesn’t feel that’s a big issue at Madonna.  However, he knows that once he decides to move on from Madonna, it’ll “definitely be something to be cognizant of.”  He says that there are always ways that you could improve, whether it’s your voice, your vocabulary, your habits and whatever else can be polished.

            He said that if there’s any advice he could give me, it’d be to always keep your eyes and mind open to new opportunities, especially early on in my broadcasting (and coaching) careers.  It can be easy to feel comfortable at one place, but if you want to be great, that requires you to take chances and to step out of your comfort zone a bit.

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For my extra job shadow assignment I decided to shadow a journalist, designer and editor, at the Capital Area Women’s LifeStyle Magazine in Lansing. I initially thought that the location I was shadowing at was just the magazine but really the building is overall the m3group which houses a branding agency and three different publications, The Capital Area Women’s LifesStyle Magazine, Greater Lansing Business Monthly and ing Magazine, which is actually a student ran publication here at MSU. The magazines are a combination of in house writers and freelancers, which I also found interesting. I had been in communication with Ami Iceman-Haueter who is the Brand manager at M3 Group and met with her but she gave me the opportunity to shadow not just her but also people doing a number of different tasks at the magazine.

One thing I observed was that the journalist, Adam not only writes for the Capital Area Women’s LifeStyle Magazine but also for the Greater Lansing Business Monthly so he said one thing he thinks is challenging is switching between the two magazine’s different voices since they also cater to two separate audiences. He actually studied PR and marketing in college but decided he loved writing once he graduated. He has been working there for over a month and loves being able to interview people and businesses, but says that it does require some research prior to meeting with business owners for interviews.

A designer I interviewed, really stressed the importance of communication between the design team, ad department and journalists because small issues like a journalist going over their word count can disrupt a design. Also the designer does layout for all three publications, including ing, so she stylistically keeps a lot of the layout cohesive. She expressed how a big challenge is fitting in the ads, because some ads don’t get finalized until a few days before deadline and at that point everything is already designed so she has to quickly find the right spot for them.

I really enjoyed the positive vibes and young journalist that I met and spoke with and could potentially see myself writing for a lifestyle magazine especially a women’s lifestyle magazine just because I think having the opportunity to showcase incredible, independent, strong women is such a cool idea. Overall, I found this job shadow to be very helpful as it offered me a glimpse into a professional work environment.