By Susan Peterson

Gazette Staff

Landing one's first job in a chosen field is an exciting, if not daunting, venture. Visions of finally applying a college education to the working world and moving up the professional ladder are suddenly very real.

For some students, getting that first job or internship was their reason for milling through Agassiz Hall last Friday for the first Harvard-Radcliffe Media Jobs & Internships Fair. Others wanted ideas about what the media world has to offer -- and what it takes to get in.

But this is where theory meets reality -- where perfect first jobs are often illusions and come only after internships and other jobs. And, where an internship is a toehold in an industry that isn't always as glamorous as it's cracked up to be.

During a panel discussion with TV news representatives, Gail Huff, a reporter at WCVB Channel 5, Boston, remembered being thankful for her first stint as a reporter, but she also remembers working two jobs to pay the rent. She no longer has to do that, but acknowledges, "There are more jobs out there -- but the pay scale is less. But, it is still a profession where you can continue to make a good living."

Panelist John Dancy, a Shorenstein Center Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government and retired correspondent from NBC, did not have a degree in broadcast journalism when he began his career, but says it's something he sees more employers requiring within the industry.

"They expect people to come in and work the first day -- they don't want to take the time to train you," he said. "When I began, all they wanted to know was, 'Could you broadcast?' "

Dancy majored in English literature but had worked in radio broadcasting since he was 16, and continued gaining experience throughout college. He got his first TV job the day after he graduated.

"To work in the news media today requires a great curiosity about why things happen, and a lot of energy," Dancy explained. "It's a job that requires a great deal of stamina."

The fair attracted about 60 national and area organizations from print, radio and TV, multimedia, computer, and film companies -- such as The New York Times, George, Fox News & Sports, and DreamWorks SKG. About 800 students came to browse, get ideas, and find the job that would take them the next step to where they want to go.

"I'm really happy about how the fair turned out," said Jared Bush '96, president of Harvard-Radcliffe Television (HRTV), one of the sponsoring organizations of the event. (HRTV includes HRTV Filmmakers Network and HRTV Multimedia.) "We knew that there would be a lot of student support for this, and we worked very hard."

The idea for the fair came in April, when Kathleen Kouril '82, a nonresident tutor in film and video at Pforzheimer House, and Ande Diaz, assistant director of the Office of Career Services, were discussing what could be done about increasing media jobs and internship opportunities for Harvard students.

"I've been a tutor and also an adviser to HRTV for three years, and students kept asking me about jobs, internships, and where they could go," Kouril said.

Kouril, who worked overseas for 11 years in print and television, and then in the U.S. in TV-documentary and film-making, had been relying on personal contacts and friends as referrals for students interested in the industry.

Kouril, Diaz, and a group of students from HRTV met in May to plan the fair. With help from the Office of Career Services and some student organizations -- Quad Sound Studios, WHRB, The Harvard Crimson and The Harvard Independent -- they continued to coordinate the fair when the semester started in September.

"I have sensed a tremendous hunger on the part of Harvard students for opportunities to create art, especially the media arts," Kouril said, "and the success of the job fair proved my gut feeling was correct. After all, media art -- particularly film, TV, and increasingly multimedia -- is the defining art form of the 20th century and one of the most important industries worldwide. We can do a better job of helping Harvard-Radcliffe students find opportunities in the media."

Organizations represented at the fair had an opportunity to screen candidates for full-time or internship positions. Representatives also answered questions about their respective companies, and when asked, explained how they got their own positions.

Many media professionals bring experience from other areas to the competitive industry and some of the media representatives at the fair are in their current positions after years of building experience elsewhere.

John Francis, associate producer of National Geographic Television, is a wildlife biologist who specializes in marine mammal science. For 15 years he studied seabirds, turtles, and seals around the world, but it wasn't until his work on a fur seal in Chile was being filmed for National Geographic Television that he found visual media to be a very effective way to share his research.

"I was ready to turn my attention to filmmaking as a way to tell another side of what I had learned about nature, that couldn't be told easily through scientific papers," Francis explained. "It became apparent to me after working hard to squeeze the seals into tables and statistical tests that a large truth deep in my heart was being ignored -- that of the beauty of the natural world and diversity wrought by natural selection."

Mark Pine came to the fair to look for job or internship candidates interested in multimedia software design. A 1992 Kennedy School of Government graduate, Pine was an English literature major as an undergraduate, and also worked as a management consultant on environmental issues. He is now vice president of operations for the Interactive Factory, a Boston software design firm.

"The industry we're in is very young, and it's something you can learn," Pine said. "We're here at Harvard because we want young people who have a lot of drive and intellect, who learn quickly and have a good design sense."

Kouril is pleased with the job fair's success and the new options open for students.

"I've heard that a couple of students have already landed jobs," she said. "When I contacted Harvard-Radcliffe graduates currently in the media world about the fair, they commented, 'If only this had happened when I was an undergraduate -- my own career would have been so much easier.' "