Industry Experience Module

Working At Westside

ROHAN MILLER

Introduction

This critical reflection is a review on how my placement at Westside Radio went. I began my work placement on the 9^th of December 2021. Westside radio is a community radio station owned by Sone Palda and Amar Chadha. They are based in Hanwell in Greater London. They launched on the 13^th of September in 2007 and were awarded with a community radio license by Ofcom.

This industry experience module has been quite enjoyable. There were quite a few complications along the way, and it never went at all how I’d expect it to, but I think a module like this one is where you’d want things to go wrong just to experience things not going to plan and adapt to that situation. Adrian, my module leader was the head of a radio station himself. He was a massive help to me finding a work place and knowing how to do a CV for a role in the creative industry. He even invited some guests to come and speak to our class about various things such as the journey from university to your first grad job and mock interviews for real job descriptions.

The Early Stages

In the early few weeks of this module, I was really excited about doing work experience in a field that I was interested in, but I never realised how difficult it would be to find a placement. Adrian (our module leader) set the class with the task of finding five companies or organisations we would like to do our work placements for. I wasn’t sure where I thought I’d benefit or enjoy working most, partly because I’m still not sure what I want to do when I graduate. In the end I did find five film production companies in London that interested me. Soon after, I started sending emails out to those companies, but I never got any responses.

I organised a meeting with my placement officer Helena, to talk about my work placement and what she could do to help. We had a good discussion on teams. She got a good understanding of what my interests are such as music, football, editing, etc. Helena told me to look for music studios that might be looking for someone to help, while she spoke to some of her contacts in other organisations about taking someone on. Adrian was still helping me find places during lectures. Telling to get in contact with GRM Daily, Link Up TV and other production companies, so I can’t say I never had any help looking for a placement and to be honest all of them really interested me. Some were production companies, music studios and radio stations but just as a I thought at the beginning of the module, securing the placement was proving to be a difficult task.

I ideally wanted to find somewhere I could stay on after the module, but it got to a point where I just wanted to compete the minimum 40 hours to pass. I became slightly desperate and started sending out emails daily. I thought if I scheduled emails at around noon mid-week then I’d be noticed a lot more which helped. I started getting responses from music studios, podcast studios and other companies but nothing that lead to anything.

Westside Radio

Thankfully, I did get some responses that lead to some promising opportunities. On the 23^rd of November I emailed Sone from Westside Radio. Helena told me to get in contact with him from when we had our teams call. I emailed him asking if he had anything I can do for him for the work experience. Helena told me that the University has a had quite a few students do their work placements with him at Westside Radio and to be honest, I liked the prospect of working in a radio station because of how much of a passion I have for music and working behind the scenes. We had sent a quite a few emails back and forth that day, I showed him my CV and told him my skill set. He then said to give him a call the next day at 3pm so we can talk more, and the call went well. In turns out a lot of the people that work at westside radio are from the University of West London or graduates.  He didn’t seem to know what specific job role he could give me, but we agreed to just start with simple tasks and see where we go from there. What I can learn, what I might be good at and what interests me. It felt like he was just winging it to be honest. There was nobody else that I could report to at Westside Radio about getting more involved.

Over a week went by and I never heard back from Sone. I was quite annoyed because I had other things to handle in other modules and the last thing I needed was to fall behind in this module in which I needed to work 40 hours. I spoke to Adrian and Lisa, another work placement coach, about it and it turns out that I needed to compete some other work placement documents on my side before I can officially start the work placement. So, when I came into my Wednesday lecture with Adrian, we got that sorted which seemed to take longer than it should’ve taken.

First Instructions

The following week I received an email from Sone giving me instructions on some promo pictures he wanted me to make for upcoming events. He emailed me the photoshop file which contained the template to the promo images. The email also had the date, artist/DJ name, show name and picture of whoever the special guest was for that picture. To be honest, he wasn’t clear on how he wanted it designed so I did three for him to pick. After a few weeks, my time had been pretty much online work. Sone would forward me some emails from other westside radio employees asking for more promo images to be designed and I would send them back to him. I had hoped to do so much more on this work placement, but Sone did tell me beforehand that during this time of year there isn’t much work to do. So unfortunately, I couldn’t really push myself or learn anything new. I did however put my photoshop skills to good use.

This picture on the left is one of the promo images I designed over the course of the work placement.

I did get some insight on how radio works when planning an upcoming show. Having to get a guest or special guest to come in or DJ to host the show for a couple of hours. Some shows are repeated every week. For example, every Sunday from 7pm to 9pm Westside Radio had a show titled Hip Hop Back In The Day, hosted by DJ Drez. The difference is that they would have a special guest come and join him during that time and they had various shows on throughout the week playing a variety of genres. I tried to get involved and play a part in one of these shows, but I was never offered the chance. I think that was the worst part of the work placement. I was designing the promo images for these shows but was never included in them. I don’t know if it was because there really was no work to do in the studio or maybe because of the rise in covid cases they couldn’t afford to have anyone else in the studio. After a few weeks I wondered if I would learn anything here and started to think if I should find a work placement someplace else. But even if I could, would I be able to get all the necessary paperwork done in time and still complete 40 hours. I wouldn’t go as far to as to say I was treated poorly but I didn’t feel like my situation was considered much at all to be honest. To an extent I get it because in a business the product comes first and trying to help a student compete 40 hours of work experience doesn’t come before trying to organise a radio show. I’d like to say I should’ve been more vocal in getting more experience, but I didn’t know how to voice my opinion. Maybe it was because I wasn’t employed, I didn’t want to approach anyone as if I was and potentially get fired. Looking back, I probably should’ve voiced myself more. I never know if I might end up in a situation like this so experience on how to handle it would’ve been important.

Disappointment?

I have to say that I never really felt included in the company when working so I wouldn’t know what to say about them as an organisation. For all I know this could just be how it is in the radio industry. I always imagined it to be fast paced but quite of the cuff. Radio is mostly a live institution, so things happen in the moment. You can plan for everything but a lot of the time there are no do-overs.

I’d say that was my biggest weakness during this work placement. I never communicated and voiced my concerns enough. Not that I was content with my situation, I really wanted to get more involved, but it didn’t feel like that was going to happen. I never let it knock my confidence, this work placement wasn’t just a chance for me to work but to find out if this career path was for me or not. Unfortunately, I didn’t get enough experience on hand to decide that but ultimately, I needed to complete 40 hours and pass the module. I’m confident I’ll get the opportunity to experience work in a radio station. I do still want to have a go at radio one day. Whether that be live on air as a presenter, being a sound engineer or potentially having a much larger role. I have a major passion for music, and I love listening to podcasts and discussing various topics with people so maybe presenting would be the most fun part for me.

Moving Forward

This experience did not go the way I’d hoped it would and honestly, I feel like I’m in the same situation I was in before I began the module. Having minimal experience and nearly nothing to show for it. I guess one thing I can take away is the contacts I’ve made. I never spoke to a lot of organisations but in my class, there are a lot of creatives also looking for opportunities. Perhaps the best thing to come out of this experience is the network I’ve involved myself in. One thing I’ve learnt to be able to get a foot through the door in this industry, is to be humble. Sometimes you must do the dirty work to be noticed. If that means going for coffee or cleaning. Just to be a part of a business might be enough to start, everyone starts from somewhere. I think going forward I might just start reaching out to organisations for any work they’re willing to provide.

Here is one of the emails I sent when looking for a work placement. They did get back to me but that was after I had confirmed my place with Westside Radio. But reaching out to people offering free work and help around offices is the best way to get into the creative industry. Building a portfolio along the way. Small pieces of experiences here and there is the best way to start building my career.

Because I have so many interests in different things, I tend to often spread myself thin with where I want to be. I do think I should start focussing on what I’m good at and build from there. Editing is clearly what I’m best at, images and videos, so if I am going to put forward some opportunities to other brands and businesses I should offer my services as an editor, or at least let them know of my editing skills but be willing to take on any job entry roles.

One thing I will try to avoid going into the future is working from home. Especially when you’re not getting paid, it just feels like a hobby. I never really felt like I was at work during the last few weeks of the module. Most mornings I would wake up to emails with new images to design but I never got the feeling that I was really working because I often spend hours working on designs and editing things in my own time.

If I could go back to the start of the module and do things differently, firstly I would start to look for work placements much earlier. I think that because of the conversations I had with Helena and the number of options she gave me I just assumed I’d find a place eventually, even last minute. Another thing I’d do differently would be to sit down with Sone and be upfront with what my job role would be. I was so happy to have found a placement that I never thought past the interview call. I was too ok with accepting to just wing it with Sone at westside. Neither of us had a plan going forward and that cost me gaining some real experience at a radio station.