My Day at Sky HQ

On Monday 23rd October 2017, I had an experience that not only was one of the most valuable experiences of my life, but also a day which gave me so much promise, advice and excitement for the future. I'll be talking about the people I met, what happened at the Journalism Insight day and what I can take away from such an experience.

As soon as I arrived at Sky HQ, one of the first things I noticed was the amount of people Sky employed. Hundreds and hundreds flocking into the buildings. Sky News, Sky Sports News (SSN), Sky Studios, Tesco's you name it. Picking up on Tesco's, it was like a whole new city in Sky HQ. When the Sky representatives talked to us, they said that because the HQ is in quite a remote area, they've "brought the town to Sky" so employees don't have to drive miles to get food and drink for the workday.

Anyway so onto the day. As I walked in, showed the security my code I was given and followed a few other aspiring journalists to reception, I was taken back by how modern everything was. It was all so fresh and modernised and it definitely calmed the nerves. I received my pass (see below) and because it's always better to arrive early than late, I had a good 20-25 minute wait before the day actually started. 

So after the wait, the group of around 60 aspiring journalists, was pulled into one of Sky's many conference rooms where we sat on a table, around 7 on each and were told to talk amongst ourselves as we waited for the first speaker. I had a very good table with supporting people and thankfully most were aspiring aports journalist like me which made it much easier to talk to them. One of which was conveniently a Barnet supporter and he had an entire blog on Barnet to go along with it. It really was interesting hearing what they had all done and their reasoning for wanting to become a journalist.

So the first speaker arrived and you could hear the gasp around the room as none other than Mike Wedderburn walked in, a presenter for Sky Sports News. Having just seen him on Sky Sports News this morning, it felt really strange getting a talk from him only a couple of hours later. Mike went onto talk about his experiences, how he got into Sky and it was all really quite fascinating. He emphasised that he had a good amount of luck, but like everyone else that day, he reiterated how much work you have to put into make it. He also spoke alot about filling your CV and making yourself stand out from the crowd. As it's such a competitive market, you have to show you mean business and that you want it more than anyone else. I was also able to ask him a couple of questions. What is the best/worst thing about his job, to which he replied "everything, but the working hours", and if languages can help boost your application, to which he said "definitely, they can't hurt". It was so interesting listening to what he had to say and as he got his round of applause, the next speaker came in, now a Sky News presenter by the name of Laura Scott. Now it was a bit different with her as although we got a talk and questions, we had our first of three interactive activities of the day. Laura gave each table a little strip of paper which had a topic and small amount of information on it. We then had to make a story as a table to be presented live on Sky News, although it wasn't actually but just for the task's sake. Our table, got Brexit. Great. Not the easiest of stories to do but in the end I think our table actually did the best in the end if we do say so ourselves. Very frustrating that another table got Arsene Wenger retiring, but I can live with it.

Anyway so after that talk half of us got a tour around Sky News while the others went round Sky Sports News. Unfortunately due to a lack of time my group couldn't see SSN as the schedule was a very tight one. Thankfully after the day, we were able to see it so all was good. So while SSN was more of an interest to me than Sky News, the latter was still very impressive. While we obviously couldn't take photos and had to remain really quiet, it was amazing how focused everyone was and we were shown where different compartments of the news were presented from. SSN was even better though. Not only did we get to look into the studio for the Tottenham vs Leicester game, but we also stood right next to the main news presenting bit, so much so that if you had flicked onto SSN at that point, you would've seen us at the back. A once in a lifetime experience, unless I hopefully get a job there of course...

Lunch. Fairly standard. Sandwich, Bacon crisps, Water and of course an orange. Your stereotypical school trip lunch. During lunch, we talked about our blogs, anything else we were doing, and how conveniently Ronald Koeman had been sacked as Everton manager. Now this was convenient as our next speaker, whose name I unfortunately can't remember, was someone who simply made everything tick at Sky HQ, he made sure everything was running smoothly. Now his task was to go through the procedure if there was some sudden breaking news. Now as Koeman had been sacked, this was perfect, for the task and for me as this was right up my street. Being placed in a new group, mainly of girls with only one having a good knowledge for football for number reasons, I knew this was an excellent opportunity to see what I was capable of. To say I was happy was an understatement as one of my main concerns was not fitting in, with everyone else having a greater understanding than I would. Thankfully this wasn't the case and it gave me a huge confidence boost to then push on. The procedure included sending out a post notification for sky customers with the app, bookies odds for the next manager, the proceedings on live TV and much more. It also really surprised me at how quick everything happens on the news. If a piece of breaking news comes in, the rota for the rest of the hour goes completely out of the window and the sole focus is on the breaking news. I certainly learnt alot on this particular activity.

Now came the final speaker, whose name I again can't unfortunately remember, and he was the head of of communications at Sky and he gave us advice that will stick with me for a long time. He said he had a phrase which he have to all his employees and that is to keep your writing "Right, Bright, Tight". Keep it right, meaning your writing is correct, keep it bright, so it's readable and not boring to read, and finally tight, which means keeping your writing short and simple. These are three of the main components to a successful article and it's something I'll certainly carry around with me for my hopeful future career in journalism.

And to finish off the day, we had a 'speed networking' session. This was when around a good 25 people who worked at Sky came in and we went round individually asking questions. The main guy I stuck around was in charge of the Sky Sports PL channel and it was really interesting hearing what goes on behind the scenes. Personally, what I found most interesting was the thinking that went into the promos for the televised PL games. One thing you'll notice whenever there's a PL game being broadcast is how they'll always emphasise a key battle and make it the main selling point. For example in the North London Derby, it could be Lacazette vs Kane or for the Manchester Derby it would be Red vs Blue or Pogba vs De Bruyne. They also talked about the amount of work that's required before each game is broadcast, however it was good they also emphasised how much they enjoyed it and that if you work hard enough and persist enough, you'll get the job of your dreams.

There we go. That was my day at Sky HQ, and what a valuable experience it was to. So what did I take away from the whole day? Lots, however working hard is definitely one of the main points they talked about and how that was key in achieving what I want to. Also boosting your CV is crucial too as given how competitive journalism, especially sport, is, the more previous experience you have, the better. Also as I'm learning Spanish, I was happy to hear that languages will definitely help boost my application.

Thanks for reading on my experience if you made it this far, cause it was certainly alot to read. Be sure to check out my other posts if you want to and thank you for taking time out of your day to read this.