Picking up from last time –
I had a phone interview, which ultimately went pretty well…I just wasn’t the person for that job.
I like to believe that I can do anything all the time… So, I hate to admit that this job was a little out of the range of kind of where my skills were.
It was a junior editor job (which would’ve been the next step up for me) – but not just any junior editor job.
My understanding of most junior editor jobs I’d seen around reality TV is that you edit things (but not huge things) by yourself. Editors usually take over things you do in the last steps to smooth them out and make them better. You learn along the way from their changes until one day you become a full-fledged editor.
Sometimes you still have to do some assist tasks. But all the juniors I’ve seen have really mainly been editing – only needing to be called in to do assist duties if people are sick, or something goes wrong, etc.
I believe I could handle that sort of junior editor job. I’m not a super fast editor, but junior editors I’ve seen usually get a little extra time to do things. And I could always stay late ’til I get faster, ’cause usually the junior editor is not up against a super tight deadline (as they generally take the things that are a little lower on the priority list).
(Granted, this is all my understanding of junior editor jobs I’ve seen. You may be reading this as a junior who’s editing a ton and keeping your place afloat. And more power to you! I know every place is different.)
This job required a superstar – basically, it seemed to sort of need the queen supreme assistant editor. (There was no assistant editor slated to work on the show. So the junior would be doing any and all AE work.)
This junior editor would be in charge of creating projects, keeping them clean and organized (and figuring out that organization from the ground up, basically, since it’s a new show), doing any normal assistant editor work – and they’d also be editing.
And not just editing, but editing pieces of the show – the nightly show (where there’s a pretty big deadline and all that jazz – being that it’s gotta air *that night*)!
I’d never even been an assistant editor all by myself before. So, to be the queen supreme AE – to be in charge of all the organization elements (on a type of show I’ve never worked on) without another assist to fall back on for questions or help – and to do a good deal of editing on top of that… It would’ve been extremely tough. Not impossible, but tough.
And in a world where I have all day every day and can live at work, maybe I could’ve figured it out. But in a world where we have a nightly show happening and there are deadlines galore… it would’ve been quite rough (for me).
And with a show already just starting out, and having its own challenges with that – why hire a girl who doesn’t super know what she’s doing, as well as someone else would? (I like to believe I’m amazing. This isn’t me not leaning in, or something. This is just being realistic in where my strengths and weaknesses lie in my day job.)
So, they didn’t hire me. They hired someone who’d been an editor (and a media manager). She was willing to take the little step down from editor to junior, for such a fantastic opportunity to get on a show like this. (Now she’s a full-fledged editor on the show. (And she’s awesome.))
And this is where I’ll pick up next time.