What Do People Do All Day?

Sara Isabel Seymour

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Don't know what you want to do professionally? Welcome to adulthood. Find out what it is that people do all day through a series of informational interviews with people three to ten years out of college. Hear about what they were looking for in a first job, how they found a job, and how it all turned out. Have a suggestion for a career path you'd like to hear about? Send your suggestions to whatdopeopledoallday2022@gmail.com! And if you're three to ten years out of college and want to share your own story, let me know! Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sara-isabel-seymour/support

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Nov 16, 2022

Elena on being a podcast producer

Before I started this podcast, I listened to podcasts. But I had never really thought about all of the jobs that go into making those podcasts possible. In this episode, I speak with Elena Schwartz, a producer for Slate Magazine's daily news podcast "What Next." In college, Elena thought that she might want to go to law school. Much of what she did in college, both academically and extracurricularly, was geared towards examining the intersection of race, class, and the criminal justice system. But during her junior year, she got an itch to do something in the audio-journalism world. She was worried that she was "behind" her peers, but managed to graduate with a temporary role with WGBH. She decided to give herself a year to test out this alternative career path, and now she's been at it for over three years. Best for: breaking into the audio-journalism world even when it feels late in the game; working in an industry that requires multiple temporary roles before you can get a full-time role Contents: 1:00 - Introduction 4:20 - Deciding that she wanted to pursue an audio-journalism career and her first gig out of college 12:40 - Day-to-day as an assistant producer at WGBH 15:07 - Her junior year internship and how it helped her pivot 18:46 - Elena's next role; finding and starting a role at Pineapple Studios 22:23 - Pros and cons of these early roles 27:41 - Applying for and starting as an intern at All Things Considered at NPR 37:37 - The challenges of an industry that starts with mostly temporary roles 41:12 - Looking for and finding a full-time role 45:26 - Day-to-day as a full-time producer at Slate 52:28 - Lessons learned --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/sara-isabel-seymour/support