I did a few weeks' work experience at the BBC
In the summer after the second year of my degree I got a rare-as-hens-teeth BBC Work Experience placement in their Specialist Factual department, helping make sciencey TV programmes for the very early days of BBC Three (when it was actually worth watching). It was utterly brilliant and seeing your work turned into broadcast and well-reviewed programmes is fantastic.

At the end of my placement the programme producer said "we like you, you seem to be good at this, would you like a job with us? You can start immediately."

I said "wow, thanks, but I'd better go and finish my degree first."

...

Of course, a year later, I found sciencey media jobs were just as impossible to get as they were to anyone else then. I spent two years chasing similar opportunities and then begrudgingly moved on.

I now have my own business doing something completely unrelated that I really enjoy, but still every now and then I think "what was I thinking?!"
( sanityclause is waiting until, Thu 23 Sep 2010, 12:26, 5 replies)

Hindsight is a wonderful thing
most people would want to complete their degree
( Colonel Dracula Two manky hookers and a racist dwarf, Thu 23 Sep 2010, 12:30, closed)

Fair point.
My degree was in Physiology. Some of the people I worked with didn't have degrees, some didn't have good ones, most had a genuine passion for good science and good TV.

My business now is bicycles...
( sanityclause is waiting until, Thu 23 Sep 2010, 12:51, closed)

You've probably got a safer pension now though

( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Thu 23 Sep 2010, 16:07, closed)

Yeah, you made the right choice
Working in TV with dreams just takes them from you. If you were good at being a sciencey researcher, what else would they have asked you to do? You're in a better position for professional mobility, now.

So smile :)
(jellybeanflicker Jesus was Korean, but there he was Cho Sun Wun, Thu 23 Sep 2010, 18:02, closed)

or
"Great! Can I finish my degree at the same time?"
(haberman is singing in the changes, Wed 29 Sep 2010, 13:09, closed)