I am in my third year of university at Guelph Humber in the Media and Communication Studies program specializing in Digital Marketing and Social Media. Truthfully, when I first entered University I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life or for my professional career. After completing my first couple of years I was more than certain that I did not want to pursue a career in journalism because as someone who considers themselves to be a creative & a perfectionist, I did not like the fast-paced almost rushed environment that doesn’t allow for many revisions or creative input, as well as the extensive amounts of writing, since the subjects being written on are meant to be brought with evidence rather than opinions and must be proven. When hearing that we would be having guest presentations from people in my field of interest I was eager to hear their stories of first getting into the field and what got them to where they are now in their careers.
The first presentation that I decided to watch was the one with Ricqcolia Phillip, a Content Marketer and blogger. During her presentation Ricqcolia shared her starting journey and her career beginnings in journalism, while also not planning to get involved in journalism like myself. During the interview, she mentioned some of the important lessons and skills she was able to develop during this time that would help her in some of the future endeavors she would get involved in, such as her Blog. I found this very interesting because it is not the first case of me hearing a Marketer or Influencer having an introduction to the field in Journalism. The discovery of this information has made me realize that although it is not my ideal field there is a good chance that the path to my desired career may not be as linear as preferred, like in the case of the second presenter.
The second guest presenter was Dee Thompson who is a Content Creator and Author of a Blog called Dash of Dee. While she is a content creator, her path into social media could be considered more linear as she had a blog that she was already working on which is both a form of journalism and content creation. Overall, the interview was insightful but not as engaging for me personally because there were fewer similarities of interests in comparison to the interview prior. However, still insightful to the world of media content production.
To summarize my thoughts regarding the guest presenters of this week, I would say that they were good realizations of the fact that a career in the media field almost never goes the exact way that we desire it, with there being multiple paths to our desired destinations. While I may not desire a particular job, going through with it might eventually get me to where I want to go.