MLEC
Radio Broadcasting Program
Responding to Web Job Listings
Jobs are being posted on the Internet more and more frequently. This is true for radio broadcasting positions as well as other jobs. It's something new to deal with and, like anything new, it takes some time to figure out how it's all going to work. It also takes time to figure out how to respond to jobs posted on the world wide web. From letters we've received, conversations with people who have posted job listings with us and with Program Directors we know, we've come up with some guidelines for applying for a job you see posted on the Internet.
First, it's a fast, easy and, usually, a free way for a radio station to post a job opening that will be read by potentially lots of people. At the same time, all the prospective employees that see the listing on the Internet have access to computers, have found the site where it's posted, and have checked that site recently. That means the number of people seeing the ad is limited to those meeting all those criteria. You are one among them. You can bet the station is posting the opening elsewhere, such as the local newspaper, R&R Magazine, broadcasting schools and so on. While you may have seen the listing earlier than some other candidates, it really doesn't make that much difference.
The reason it makes no difference is that hiring an employee is not a "first come, first served" situation. Employers are going to wait for a pool of prospective employees and select the person that best suits their needs. What this means, in this new world of high-speed electronic communication, e-mail and the Internet, is that little about the job search scenario has changed with the exception of a new way to let some people know about an open position at their radio station.
So, how does one go about applying for a radio job in the brave new world? Essentially the same way as has always been done. Scan the job listings from as many sources as you can lay your hands, or eyes, on. Research the companies you want to work for. Write a personal cover letter based on your research, not an e-mail, to the contact person. Send it, your resumé and a demo tape to them via US Mail, UPS, FedEx or any other common carrier, or drop it of by hand if the station's local.
Never send an e-mail with your resumé to a prospective employer unless they specifically ask you to do so. In many cases, the person who posted the job listing, and whose e-mail address you're sending to, is not the contact person for the job in question. There's a very good chance that the message you send will never reach the person you think you're sending it to. Worse, the person who receives it may look negatively on all the e-mail messages they're receiving, virtually unsolicited, and, if they are the PD or hiring person, decide not to hire anyone who sends such a missive. Because a job listing is posted on the Internet doesn't mean the prospective employer is going to treat you differently simply because you have a computer. This is radio. They want to hear your tape. They want a resumé they can hold in their hands and look at while they listen to the tape. They don't want e-mails and they don't want RealAudio, Wave or some other, low quality, high bandwidth sound file. End of story.
Probably the worst thing we see, and we see it over and over again, are the e-mails that are sent to us about a job posted on our website. We often post jobs offered by the local Miami-Fort Lauderdale stations whenever we hear of them. We'll get an e-mail asking for a job, even though the contact name for the job is one thing and we post the job as "Webmaster". There might be five or six job listings posted by us referencing more than one station. The e-mail doesn't say which job they are interested in. They don't include the station's name, call letters, motto, frequency or the Program Director's name. Finally, they ask us to call them if we'd be interesting in having them send a demo tape. To us, it says the person sending the message didn't do any research about the station and isn't very carefull about, or pay attention to, details. That isn't the person who will be hired to work at a station in market #11. If we were the Program Director of the station, we wouldn't be jumping for the phone to call for their tape.
Sent along with many e-mails, as an attachment, is a resumé. Usually the resumé is in some program specific format that can't be read by anything but that specific program. As an example, sending your resumé in Adobe Acrobat format doesn't do much good unless the recipient has a copy of Acrobat Reader installed in their computer. This holds true for resumés created with Ventura Publisher, Microsoft Publisher, and so on. No Program Director is going to run out and buy software just so they will be able to read your resumé.
Finally, in some of the e-mails is an attached sound file. Like the resumé, if it's in a format for which the recipient has no decoder or player, they can't hear the file. Computer sound files are notoriously large, requiring a substantial transmission time. Luckily, most Program Directors have plenty of time to wait for large files like these to download to their computers - NOT! Even if they do get such a file and are able to hear it, the quality of playback on most computers is not going to do justice to your demo. It won't help get you a job.
So, what's the final result of all this? Send a standard radio employment package. We recommend using the US Postal Services' Two-Pound Pack. It costs three bucks, arrives in two-to-three days and they give you the pretty red and blue cardboard envelope for free. Few people who receive such a package fail to open it immediately. Include an up-to-date, clean, nicely printed resumé, your demo tape on a C-10 cassette and a personal cover letter that shows you have a real interest in working at that specific radio station. You show that by saying things like, "I'd very much like to work for WDDA, Wah De Dah on your Dial, because I have been intrigued by the all polka format for some time." Even in these times of the Internet and e-mail, the old fashioned way of applying for a job still works best.
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This page was created on 10 April 1998 by
John Lovell,
Radio Broadcasting Instructor
Miami Lakes Educational Center
Last updated on 10 April 1998
