Q: Where did you do your internship and what did you do?
A: I interned at CBS International (CBI-the international distribution and marketing arm of CBS in Los Angeles owned by Viacom) in the summer of 2000, and then at WXII12 (a NBC-affiliated TV station at Winston-Salem, North Carolina owned by Hearst-Argyle) in the summer of 2001. For CBI, I mainly helped conduct research on television programming in some major foreign markets and locate CBI’s major competitions in order to facilitate CBI’s marketing and sales in those regions. I also helped with budgeting and liaison duties. For WXII12, I worked across several major departments such as news, sales, marketing, etc. In addition to getting valuable hands-on experience by working closely with the professionals in each department, I was able to sit in on station marketing and management meetings to get an overall picture of how the station works compared to other TV stations — and from a strategic perspective.

Q: How did you get these internships?
A: For CBI, I found the internship opening on the Internet. I then applied for it, got a telephone interview with their VP, and subsequently got the position. With WXII12, for the most part it was luck. I met the TV station’s general manager Mr. Hank Price while he was a guest speaker in Professor Michael Smith’s Media Content Class at Kellogg. I expressed my interest in a media internship and then got Professor John Lavine’s gracious recommendation while taking his Media Strategy Class. Thus the internship opportunity kind of jumped out at me without being fully expected.

Q: Did either of these require prior media experience?
A: While prior media experience didn’t seem quite necessary in the two cases of mine, it certainly helped a lot. So did some basic knowledge about media industry that I acquired from media courses offered both at Kellogg’s Media Management Center and at School of Communications.

Q: What surprised you the most about your time there? And what more would you have liked to do?
A: For CBI, what surprised me most was how a small group at the head office could effectively get hold of and coordinate the all the sales offices dispersed around the world. For WXII12, I got several big surprises, which included: how open the communication channels are at all levels; how devoted and collaborative people are in realizing the same strategic goal of the station; and how committed the station's news services are to the local community. For CBI, I wish I could have gotten more down-to-earth, "real" media experience such as that in the marketing campaign, or at the negotiation table, which seemed not easily available to an intern in a corporate environment. For WXII12, I wish I could have been more proactive and made more productive use of my time there; e.g. on the hands-on side, having produced an evening news package, or helped develop a major sales account; or on the management side, having done more in-depth comparative analysis between WXII12 and its competitors, etc.

Q: What were the top 3 things you learned? (Or mattered most to you.)
A:     a. Management’s strategic vision is the key to success;

b. A well-oriented and well-nurtured company culture is vital in sustaining a media entity’s quality and competitiveness;

c. Open channels of communications are indispensable in strategy implementation.

Q: Do you have any advice for students about getting internships there? And about getting them in general?
A: Mr. Price is the Senior Fellow for Television of the Media Management Center. As a result, he lectures several times a year in the media major at Kellogg. He is very approachable and very open to considering interns at his station, but I know it is difficult in these tough economic times. If you are going to get an internship I would suggest getting prepared in basic knowledge and skills; being thorough and persistent in exploring opportunities; having business and academic knowledge and relationships — all of these can bring you unexpected luck.

Q: What haven't we asked you that would be of interest to Kellogg faculty and students?
A: Media is really an exciting world to work in. You will always be fascinated, challenged, and never bored. In terms of the size of the company for an internship, bigger is not necessarily better. Very often, a relatively small company can give you greater scope and depth in your experience than a big-name corporation. I guess it all depends on what you want to get most out of the internship.

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