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I
love my job...As a Television Researcher I love my job because it gives me a far better chat-up line or dinner party opener than saying I work in research. "What do you do for a living?" " I work in television." It makes me a more interesting person, to other people. Let me tell you having a TV and video on my desk made me a very interesting person in some circles during the World Cup. I know most researchers think they work on a fascinating product, being a bit of a trainspotter comes with the territory, but in my case most people agree with me. Respondents in television focus groups are never short of something to say, they feel like they own the product and can’t wait to tell you what they want doing with it. Not that I usually have to pay for respondents, sitting on the bus, catching cabs or even on the phone to my mum I get enough opinions on TV to last me a lifetime. It’s a real motivator to work on a product that is an integral part of most people’s day. It’s also a real buzz to see the results of your work on-screen. Another thing that gets me out of bed on a Monday morning is the people I work for. Television attracts talented people and coming up with answers to their searching questions is a good challenge. Sometimes when I’m delving deep into how and why people watch television I feel like I’m really doing social research, people’s sofa habits constantly surprise me... ‘most researchers think they work on a fascinating product... but in my case most people agree with me’ Television is constantly on the move, it’s always on, it changes daily and answers are wanted quickly. Luckily thanks to the immediacy of overnight ratings we can give clients the public’s vote the morning after transmission, none of that week’s delay that can infuriate in other sectors. Never is the feeling of power greater in my life than when commissioners stand before me, desperate for me to tell them how the first episode of their precious work of genius performed. Client-side is also often damned for being narrow and unvaried, but media is definitely the exception to that rule. But when they’ve finished making you work faster than the Road Runner the clients crack open a bottle of wine in the office, give you tickets to awards ceremonies and screenings and let slip the latest celebrity gossip, which is always far more interesting than talking about what I do for a living.
I hate my job...As a Television Researcher I’ve been one of the lucky ones, I’ve made it through the advertising recession with a job still to hate. But I’ve lost count of the number of friends’ leaving do’s I’ve been to in the last year. Television is not a sector to work in if you want job security. Being made redundant is one of its health hazards and that’s only if you can get into it in the first place. Employment lawyers could have a field day in this industry, which has being related to the Managing Director and being able to drink like George Best as its two main recruitment criteria. Coming into work with the occupational hangover, you are greeted by people talking about celebrity parties that you haven’t been invited to, because you’re only the researcher, the librarian in the art gallery. Some days I double as a translator and try and talk numbers to creative people. Give me the headlines they say, asking you to reduce your week’s work to a catchy strapline as they cram you into a five minute space in their diary, such as while they’re in the lift. I’m not saying people in television have the biggest egos in the country, but a PHd in tactful delivery of bad news is a valuable asset. People do not tend to look fondly on the messenger, when the message is that their masterpiece bombed. ’being related to the Managing Director and being able to drink like George Best are the two main recruitment criteria’ At least the clients are interesting. The definition of purgatory has got to be sitting on joint media research steering committees. These meetings can take years off your life as two researchers from rival channels argue over how the Outer Hebridean ratings should be measured. And then they both get it wrong. You try maintaining the confidence of your clients when your main source of data goes up in smoke and then reappears spitting out results that look like a six year old’s maths homework. Never mind though, at the end of the day, I can forget about it all, go home, relax and turn on the... arghhh. Working in television makes a busman’s holiday look like a week in the Maldives. And not only do I ruin it for myself, constant comments about scheduling or casting manage to get me a fair few cushions in the face as well. You can never escape work when you’re in media, which has got to be the biggest turn-off of them all.
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