Lessons I Learned Whilst on the Job

By: Gigi 

“That brings tonight’s episode of YOLO to an end, we hope you’ve learned a lot and that next week you’ll join us same place, same time from Gigi and Malaika and Zola it’s goodnight.” This was the line I closed of YOLO a youth show about issues affecting South African teens that I hosted last year. This show made was what made me want to pursue a career in the media industry and left me with a lot of information about my career. The top three being: 

 
1. Be versatile!

Unlike many careers that one has to study extensively for e.g. medicine, being in the media industry, especially in front of the camera for me I had to rely on my personality and learn everything as I go. When I applied for the job I had no formal training and thus had to learn everything on the job, I had to give creative input about how I viewed the shows content, I had to do research about guest and topics that I didn’t care for. This forced me to be outside my comfort zone and showed me how being open to change and allowing yourself to be versatile and not just the girl in front of the camera was beneficial. I ended up sitting in meetings that led to more job opportunities as people knew that I was very malleable and could adapt to various situations in off and on camera. 

    2. Know your brand and stay deliberate about enforcing it.

Knowing your brand means knowing what your name is synonymous with. When you are mentioned what do people think of and is it what you want? I had to think about this when I got my first job as you interact with a lot of topics people will start to view you as something and I interacted with a lot of information and people viewed me in a certain light because of them. Hence, the show I made was educational and focused on issues of body image, violence resolution and topics that I thought mattered. I hoped that people would associate me with depth rather than beauty and glamour as a young female on TV.

      3. Read, read and read!

Read everything and anything you can find. When you paid based on what you say and contribute to the discussion you want to be a person with meaningful conversation. Thus, reading on current affairs, history and everything else in between will make you look like an informed person and it will shape a lot of your own thoughts.