Jordan Schuman
 Multimedia Journalist
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Choosing a Life in Television (Starting with Internships)

6/4/2014

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PictureThough I always loved a camera :)
I've been involved in performing in some way my whole life. I started like many little girls do, in a pink tutu and ballet shoes. I moved on to tap, jazz, lyrical, competitive dance, the whole thing. I took voice lessons through middle school and high school, and I was involved in theater from the age of 10. By the time I was leaving high school I actually think I was pretty good.

So when it came time to decide on a University and a major, it was hard to tell the theater no. But I knew it is a life of auditioning and rejection and call backs and moving on and waitressing and you truly have to have a heart full of a special kind of love to do it. That love has to be your purpose for living. It has to drive you every single day to wake up, to audition, to understand you might not get this one and to say you'll try again tomorrow. And more than saying you'll try again, it has to drive you to actually do it. About a profession in theater, I was once told if I could picture myself doing anything else, I should.

And I could.

It was television.

Today at CBS, someone asked me how I ended up in television and I was glad they asked. I really had to think about it. I was always interested in a lot of things and for a while it's why I struggled to settle on a career. I love travel and thought I wanted to work on cruise ships. I love English and thought I wanted to teach it. I love weddings and thought I wanted to plan them. But television is a career where you are allowed to be interested in so many things. Each time you meet someone or do a story, you become a bit of an expert in that subject. When I was at NBC, we did a story on citrus greening and I became a bit of an expert on a tiny part of that world. That intrigues me in so many ways about television. You can learn forever. You can know so much.

For a girl who naturally needs to know and needs to understand, news is everything to me.

I also ended up here because of the type of person I am. I am to the point. I do not waste time. I need something to be right the very first time. So when I learned broadcast writing is about saying what you have to say in as few words as possible and saying it in a way the listener would understand the first very time, I was hooked.

I wish everyone was so succinct and forthcoming.

At the CBS News Internship Program Orientation two days ago, Jeff Fager came to speak to the interns. Jeff Fager has been at CBS for 32 years and is the current Chairman of CBS News and Executive Producer of 60 Minutes. I love that he did that because it proved to me what I already know, which is that CBS does an amazing job placing value on their interns and trust in what the program is designed to do. Jeff gave us a lot of advice as we began the internship: stay in touch with the people you meet, be assertive and take advantage of the opportunities you're given.

I appreciated hearing all of those things, but what I loved best of all was the extremely candid conversation Jeff engaged us in about television. He said the best reporters are the best of people in terms of building relationships. He said CBS aims to help people better understand what's happening in the world we live in. He said CBS covers what's interesting and what's important.

He said, "I've seen the world at CBS News."

That.

I've seen the world at CBS News.

What a way to spend your life.

He went on to clarify that at the same time, the craft is a calling and a real responsibility to help the audience. It's just not a burden to take lightly. But if you can take it, you can see the world at CBS News.

It was in that moment listening to Jeff Fager that I reached an intense clarity about my reasons for choosing news. Every single thing you could watch on the news takes place in a moment of unity. Between the anchors and the audience, between the anchors and the reporters, between the reporters and the audience. There is this innate sense of togetherness. Together with an anchor, a reporter, a producer, a cameraman and a sound guy, you can go anywhere and see anything for the story, for the responsibility, or just for the adventure.

Later on at Orientation, we heard from a group of 17 CBS employees who were all once interns. Again, another example of how CBS truly values the process and the ability to turn these 10 weeks as an intern into a career at CBS News. This one particular employee told us he started his internship with 48 Hours on September 10th, 2001, also known as the day before 9/11. On being an intern on that day, he said "it was intense but it taught me I was in the right place."

It was in that specific moment I learned I want to be in the right place for the rest of my life.

Being where I'm at now, having covered Hilary Clinton, Lisa Ling, Arianna Huffington and more, the advice I was given about becoming an actress is as true as it's ever been. Back then, I could picture myself doing something else. And now that I've found that something else, I cannot picture myself doing any other thing.

I don't know what network it will be at and I don't know where I'll begin, but I do know television is the absolute only way I could spend my life.

Who knows, someday I, too, might see the world at CBS News.

You heard it here first,
Jordan

P.S I do happen to have a full scale plan of how I will one day return to the theater and make my Broadway debut. But that is another blog post for another day :)

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What to Expect When You're Reflecting

6/1/2014

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Picture
They say an experience only has meaning when you take the time to purposefully lay out your expectations for it beforehand and reflect on your journey afterward. That's why when you go to a leadership retreat, you speak in metaphor about how the exercises relate to your work and your day probably isn't over until you've gotten in a circle and talked about it some more. I did it in this blog post when I left NBC News in May, and here, I'm going to do it before I begin 10 weeks with CBS News.

I'm really excited to start with CBS. I'm really truly excited. Actually, I cannot wait to get started. I want to stand in the halls where Walter Cronkite walked, I want to sit in the studio where Norah O'Donnell works. I want to be right there. I've always been that way. The wanting to be right there type.

Because this past semester was so insane with remaining a full-time student at the University of Miami, working 3 full days at NBC, and being a Resident Assistant in a freshman dorm on campus, I didn't really let myself get excited about CBS News until I got home from school. I almost couldn't think about it. On my to-do list that brought me from Point A to the end of school, it was too far down to think about. Clearly, it was one of the most important things on the list but I had to clear a lot of little stuff before I let my eyes read that far down on the paper.

That said, when I got home from this exhausting but exhilarating year at school, I made it my mission to unapologetically lay in my bed for as much time as possible, and when I was done doing that, I decided to change things up on the couch. I left once for a massage and a manicure and pedicure. It was everything to me and more.

But now as I type this, I'm in a different bed in a summer sublet in New York City because I have to report to the CBS News Broadcast Center tomorrow for Orientation.

I'm really looking forward to working at CBS and only working. I reached a special type of burn out while I was at NBC because I was filling so many roles while I was at school. For a moment, I couldn't understand how people worked full time. It was at that point my parents reminded me that most people who work don't do it while taking a full course load and managing 38 freshmen residents. I'm excited to get a taste of the real world of working, one I crave so often and so voraciously while I'm still in school.  Back to reflecting, you might recall I really fell in love with working when I watched my boss leave NBC  and I learned how the marriage of a career and a life is a treasured thing. I want that to start for me. I think it did at NBC.

But I have a feeling I can only compare to the way I felt when I sat on the school bus that took us to summer camp and looked out the window to my right to see my mom still staying home. Am I going to like camp? I guess letting go of her hand and getting on the bus was the hardest part so it should all be ok from here, right? What if something goes wrong and they lose my lunchbox? 

But I know I'm going to like CBS. And I bring my own lunch so that's that. As I wrote on my last day at NBC, I look at this Summer with CBS differently than ever before. You go through your educational life always knowing an internship is something you need to have. You need it, you need it, you need it. But being at NBC put a face to the necessity. I got to put it on my resume, sure, but it taught me pretty much what I know now about working professionally, how enriching work is and how personal it becomes when you are doing something you truly love.

Being able to put it on my resume was really the smallest gift I got from my time there.

So going into CBS, I see the people as ones I'll hopefully grow really fond of and attached to. I see the projects as something I'll take a lot of pride in. And I know the ever-so-coveted internship is something much deeper than a job title and dates you can put down on paper.

I'm also excited to see how things work at CBS. Each network, ABC, NBC and CBS, does it it's own way. They may be doing substantially the same thing, but they each do it differently, with different mission statements and different programming.

As always, you can read about everything I learn and do at CBS here on my blog.

And you'll always hear it here first.
Jordan
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