I have been a student for seven months now. I am scheduled to graduate NEXT MONTH! Over this time I have made many contacts and good friendships and all of them are working towards a bigger future but this week, one of my contacts gave me a step towards my dream job.
The Illinois Center For Broadcasting (soon to officially be The Illinois Media School but don’t get me started on that) brings in people from the professional world to be guest speakers. It’s a great way to see what it is we are working towards, hear some success (and failure) stories and grow a potential relationship. When Doug Pieper came to be a guest speaker I knew that he would be a cool person to meet. He talked a lot of what he does in the industry such as finding talent for clients who want to record a commercial. After his talk he had a pad of paper for students to write their contact info but stated that he was not going to contact us, “if you want to do anything in this business, you have to learn one thing and that is to follow up!” So a couple of days after seeing him and handing him my card, I did. We arranged to meet at his studio and talked about what the business entails as well as practice some things and feedback for me. After all was done he informed me that he would call if anything came up that he felt I would be good at, “it may not be three or even four months but I will definitely give you a call.”
After that I went back to school and hard at work as usual. It wasn’t until about 2-3 months later that he rang me up and had some work for me. “Hey Jake, I have a spot that I think you would be perfect for! It’s for about 15 seconds and I’d like you to audition, when can I get you in?” Being so excited I told him “I’ll be there at 3:00″. To spare all of you the details, I’ll just sum up with, I showered, shaved and arrived by 1:00. Lol! After reading the copy a couple of times, going over each line a million and laughing when I screwed up. Doug finally told me to come back into the control room. ” Well Jake, i think that I’ll just get your info now to save ourselves later when they pick you.” After writing down my contact information Scott told me that “The spots are supposed to go up by next week so I will let you know when they make a decision.” Leaving the studio I was so happy that I felt like I was on on cloud nine.
The next couple of days were nothing but constantly checking my phone for a text or email with news. Every time I picked up my phone I’d refresh my email to make sure there wasn’t a glitch. It wasn’t until that Thursday that I found out. There I was in class on my laptop, editing some video for a news OT and then “ding” on the corner of my screen I caught a glimpse of the email notification from Doug, “Hey Jake, you got the part!” Before even opening the email I stood up and shouted! Screaming at the top of my lungs things like “YES” and “YEAH BABY!!!”, completely freaking my classmates out. The email after I got the actual audio to which I played for everyone and their mother, anyone that would listen anyway. I will be posting the clip on my website but I have to wait till it airs on , Oct. 19th 2015. I am told that it will play HEAVY for a week or so and most likely on two radio stations in the Chicago land area. (AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!) So cool, that’s mostly all I have to say about that. I just want to end this article with these couple thoughts. 1) Thank you Doug for seeing something in me, giving me a chance and showing me the first step towards a dream job. I look forward to working with you more and doing great things. 2) To any reader that is cool enough to read this (that’s you). Don’t ever think that you can’t do something and never be afraid to put yourself out there. When you commit to something, you have to get though some of the muck and wait some time but eventually, it will pan out.
“Goonies never say die.”
-Sean Astin
Hagloch Media 