Q&A: Violet Wang, Video fellow @ The Atlantic

Each year, Atlantic Media hires around 40 recent graduates for its fellowship program. Fellows are placed in editorial or business positions across Atlantic Media’s four brands: The Atlantic, National Journal, and Government Executive.

Tell us about your role

I’m a video fellow, so what I do ranges a lot, from supporting other producers to going on shoots with them, doing research, and a little bit of everything for other people as well. I’m also producing a short documentary now.

What’s your favorite thing you’ve worked on since the fellowship started?

My favorite thing is definitely this short documentary I’m making right now, it’s actually coming out next Monday, but I’ve learned so much from the process of making it, from pitching, to editing, to everything, so it was definitely a really rewarding experience for me.

What were you working on right before you answered these questions?

Today I’ve been preparing to get this documentary published, so I’m working on some final copyright and legal issues, and also sending the edits to other team members in my team, to do some final rounds of notes.

What’s the best advice (career-related or not) that someone’s ever given you?

Some of the best advice someone’s ever given me is related to a project I’m working on here about people with intellectual disabilities. I talked to one of our producers who has a lot of experience working with people with disabilities, physical and intellectual, and one thing she told me was that during the interviews, really just let them talk, and not to just assume things, be patient, and sometimes I might have to ask questions multiple times, but it’s fine because it’s their story, and let them tell it.

They might have difficulties in speech, instead of just assuming a lot of things they said, I think that was a great piece of advice for me, and when I talk to them, I really try to give them as much time as possible, and help them express themselves clearly, as much as possible, it’s definitely because the producer has an experience, and she was able to give me a lot of great advice based on her experience.

What’s something you learned in a non-media job that’s applicable to your current role?

I used to work as a software instructor in school, so I taught things like how to use photoshop and how to build a website. I learned a lot of problem solving abilities, small things like maybe it’s a glitch, maybe the software is having some problems, just to really dig into the internet and look for the answer, and it’s usually there. I think also being able to help other people in my team, sometimes to look for fast and easy solutions regarding them as well.

Where did you work before you the fellowship?

I just graduated from UW-Madison, and during college, I did a remote fellowship with a small VR studio in New York. The studio’s name is Fovrth Studios, and they do some documentaries, international docs, but also they do a lot of VR videos, and I made some VR videos with them, and it was a really fun experience. I also did some assistant editing with them, which also really helped to lead me to this fellowship, because I had that experience in assisting others, but also producing my own stories as well.

I also worked for the student newspaper as a video editor, and I really was overseeing for a lot of the videos we were producing, and also producing weekly content as well.

What’s your dream job?

I think I really want to try a bunch of different things, and I’m really interested in video, so I definitely want to try documentary filmmaking, but also fictional filmmaking, and also reality TV shows, I want to try all those things. And then I can decide what my dream job is, because you never know until you try it!

What kind of reality show would you want to do?

After I moved to New York, I started to watch a lot of K-Pop shows, and also Korean reality TV shows, because they’re really creative sometimes, I was so surprised. So I’m originally from China, so I don’t really understand Korean, but I just read the subtitles, but they also have some survival TV shows, and the whole K-Pop industry is so bizarre, and interesting and fascinating.

Which one’s your favorite?

I’m watching this super weird but great reality TV show called Good People (in English), I’m not sure what the Korean name is. It’s basically a survival TV show of eight interns in a law firm, and they have to compete for two spots at the end of the one month internship, and they have daily assignments. So what’s good about it, is everybody was amazing, they’re so talented and it’s just like, everybody competing against each other, but they’re so smart and so talented, they’re from the best universities in Korea, it’s really the best people competing with the best people, and every single episode there will be like, people guessing, ranking the top two… it’s such a weird show, but I like it because I’m also doing a fellowship. It’s about careers, about how to work with people, I do think it’s a really sweet reality TV show that doesn’t have a lot of drama, but it’s very inspiring.

What’s your advice for people looking for entry level jobs in media?

I believe journalism is a trade, so get as much clips as possible, or do as many projects as possible. If you’re interested in something, go out, shoot, write for it, interview those people, talk to those people, be curious, because those are the things that can train you a lot. I feel like in college, I often had some passion projects, I was just interested in something, or it can be like a school project, but I tried to do my best, to treat them not just as homework or not just as an assignment, and sometimes those work really shows how I grow. I think media is a trade, and you learn the most by doing it, not by reading it, or not by having a theory class, it’s more about doing the work.