I’ve been working in the audiovisual field for the past year or so and I just had an interview at a large broadcasting company. They flew me in, paid for my hotel, rental car, even bought me lunch. I was surprised they did all that just to interview me, and I interpreted it as interest.
When I interviewed with them, they told me this was a heavy travel position and I would be on the road basically 70% of the time. That sounded cool on paper, but what it means is: flight to a different city every week for a production, three days of 15-hour-plus workdays, fly home, then do it all over again the next week. All for pretty average pay compared to a 9-5 job in IT or even commercial A/V. The benefit of course is being on the cutting edge of technology and working in a stimulating environment.
Everyone I told about this position said “You’re in your 20s, do it! You’ll see the whole country!” but I left the interview with a pit of dread. They want me to give up my social life to be a nomad between American airports and hotels for the foreseeable future? When I told my friends no, this sounds horrible, why would I do this for even the most interesting job, they said, why don’t you just give it a try?
I feel like my friends from outside the US would agree with me that this kind of thing is insane. I get that it’s a fringe position and not the norm. But any job that demands 15-hour days and isn’t something like ER nurse or surgeon? Or Victorian child laborer? Yeah, probably not necessary.
Oh, and the kicker? This company told me they are “family-owned.” This is true—they are owned by a wealthy family who also owns a football team.
Unfortunately broadcast, unlike film (which is unionized), seems to be highly unregulated in many places. Another large competitor of the company I applied for pays peanuts for the same grueling work. It seems to be a place that a lot of ex-special forces people and other veterans gravitate towards because of the common skillset: being quick and precise, and tolerating exploitation by your superiors. Both of the companies I talked about here bring in more than a billion dollars every year.