One of the reasons I started this blog is to preserve everything I learned from 4 years of working at Summit Media. In a previous post, I gave everyone an idea of how my patience was able to land me the job. I think now I can give everyone an idea of how I lasted that long. Like I said, I’m no expert, but I sincerely believe you can learn from what I learned. With all due respect to my former bosses, I learned from the very best :)

  1. In any work environment, don’t always expect the people who hired you to train you.Always assume that you’ll hit the ground running. Before my Summit stint, I had no prior experience in publishing. What kept me alive was my thirst and eagerness to learn. If there’s something you need to know, ask questions from your superiors and co-workers.
  2. Don’t be ashamed of what you know and where you came from.Whatever it is you’re ashamed to let everyone know, it’s probably one of the reasons you landed the job in the first place! You came from an exclusive school, but you watch telenovelas (ehem parang guilty ata ako dun). So what? Be a sponge when it comes to everything that’s happening around you. You don’t like basketball, but at least know who MJ or Kobe is. The object is to expand your general knowledge so that you’ll stay one step ahead of upcoming trends. In the world of magazine publishing, articles have to be submitted 45 days before the issue month just so they stay current.
  3. Be ready to take risks.That’s what happened when ABS-CBN brought in Meteor Garden. Who would have thought the Chinovela craze would take the country by storm. People were singing the damn Chinese songs even if they didn’t know what the lyrics meant. In FHM’s case (I used to work with FHM too, but more of the juicy stuff on this in a later post), they put Dina Bonnevie on the cover, and the numbers grew exponentially from there. When it comes to a constantly changing market, you don’t always have to pull the rabbit out of the hat. Every now and then, pull out something different. If it turns out ugly, at least it’s going to make people talk about you.

To summarize what I’ve said (and this isn’t just limited to the world of publishing), you were hired because your boss saw something in you. If you were hired because you know the person who hired you from way back, then throw all the excess baggage out the window. Remember that you were given a once in a lifetime chance to showcase what you’re good at. Keep the above advice in mind and you’ll never go wrong.

Similar Posts:

No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this post)