I’ve been talking about how it’s a good idea to know how to do several different things when you’re going in for a job at a TV station. Check out post one and two. You may have something you want to do - like reporting. But, say, if you know how to shoot and edit your own stuff, it’d probably make more sense for a station to hire you that someone who needs their own crew.

Now, this leads right to the last point I want to make. Because of this phenomena (the more things you can do, the more likely you are to get a job), you probably will at some point feel taken advantage of. Take the one-man-band example (the shooting, reporting and editing and comb). While some stations hire specifically for this job - so you at least know what you’re getting into - some stations may hire you to be just a reporter, and maybe they start sending you out occasionally to shoot your own stuff if they’re short staffed. Maybe they realize you do an ok job of it, and start doing it more. Pretty soon you’re getting frustrated, and you feel short changed because you’re not getting to do the job you were hired to do as thoroughly as you’d like. And knowing TV stations, I’d say it’s safe to say they’re definitely not paying you extra for your extra trouble!

Here’s how it happened to me (well, one of the times it happened to me). I was a co-producer on a two hour morning show. Each producer was responsible for an hour. Well, my co-producer left the station, and through a series of (long drawn out events), I became the only producer on the two-hour show. My boss was (kind of) looking for someone to replace the girl that left, but he knew I could manage, and I suspect because of this, he wasn’t too diligent in finding a replacement. At first, I’ll admit, I was kind of flattered - I had this huge show I was responsible for, and I actually really liked it. The show became my baby and I worked extremely hard on it. I worked so hard that I would come in at 10 pm (usually the overnight morning shift starts at midnight), and at times stay till 9 or 10 am, making phone calls and setting up guests. On top of that, I had potential guests calling me during the day (what was supposed to be my night).

At first this was supposed to be a temporary fix, but it drug on for three months. Finally I told my boss I was completely burning out, and it wasn’t too long before I was off the show entirely, and working day time hours.

I say all this to emphasize the fact that sometimes doing your job well CAN be a burden in the long run. To this end, set personal boundaries from the outset. And let your boss in on them. In my case, I told him I’d be willing to continue the shift till the end of the year, and by then end of the year, I was off of it. True, part of this depends on your boss. But even some of the worst bosses I’ve had - I know they didn’t want me to be miserable. Just as mastering several skill sets can go a long way to getting you the job, diplomatic honesty can sometimes help keep you there.