Careers in TV Industry

There are three main areas of work in the commercial sector, and there are different types of people, different skills, different training routes demanded and different career paths for each.

PRODUCTION - CONTENTRoles include: Producer, Director, Journalist, Researcher and Writer. This area divides into as many genres of programmes as you care to name. The overriding things being looked for are: ideas and efficiency, in addition to the actual specific abilities for the role you are going up for. To take two genres:
Factual Programming - Current Affairs, DocumentariesTo be a producer or director in this area, a common career path would be to train as a journalist in print, radio or as a researcher in television. From there one would progress to being a senior researcher in television, then an Assistant Producer and then Producer and / or Director. That would be a common path, but you will always find directors who perhaps did a Politics degree, then were sound recordists and then a Director; or some other weird and wonderful route.
Fiction Programming - TV DramaProducers of TV Drama can come from a variety of backgrounds, a variety of routes. There is a common career path - of sorts. They may do Drama or English at university, they may not. They may work in the theatre afterwards and then progress to script reading or writing, or continuity in television. But you will meet Producers who did none of these things, and took other routes such as moving from Production Secretary to Producer.
PRODUCTION - TECHNICALRoles include: Camera, Sound, Lighting, Editing, Art, Engineering. Here Career Paths may be simpler. Specific technical skills and technical problem solving are key; if you do not have such abilities to a high level, you will not work. Traditionally one trained on the job - as assistant camera, or assistant sound - and then went freelance, or found work as the principal yourself. Video and digital technology has meant that “assistant” is no longer a common role, so more and more people have to train for technical roles at Film Schools or in University Departments, or with equipment manufacturers or facilities houses. In addition to the technical skills, employers and producers who employ camera, sound, editors etc. will look for flexibility, a friendly personality and a “can do” attitude.

GENERAL - ADMIN, SUPPORTRoles include: Production Manager, Production Accountant, Lawyer, PA This area of work is relatively conventional by comparison. Whether secretary or lawyer, accountant or personnel manager, you train in the normal way. But even here there are some television-specific roles, such as Production Manager (PM), which have no real set training route as yet. PMs are a mixture of budget controller, organiser, recruiter, administrative chief, general factotum and any other job they might take on for a production. They know technical folk and their rates, they know film processes and their costs; they know most things that are relevant, and if they don't…they know how to find out fast. There are short training courses around for this role, but the only real way ultimately may be to observe and learn at work.