Meet the Media Pros seminars, which give Queens College content creators the opportunity to meet media professionals, learn about the media job market, and get tips on your own bid to work in the field. Vanessa Cordova-Corwin (’68) is a media professional with experience in both recorded and live media, and currently works as both the Executive Producer of “Now Let’s Talk! The Podcast” and Production Manager at VISIONS Contemporary Ballet. Thamare Rejouis is a graphic designer and entrepreneur who runs the firm Rejouis Visuals To join the discussion, sign up to our email list. Or you can catch it on YouTube Live

okay we are live welcome everybody to our first installment of meet the media pros at the queen’s podcast lab this in this series we are going to meet queen’s college alumni who have developed careers in media and we’re bringing them back to ask them about the business and uh you know asking them about what they wish they did and just trying to tap in for all of you who don’t have a rich uncle working at nbc this is our way to access them as usual i’m joined by my colleague co-director of the queen’s podcast lab jason tuga jason it’s great to see you again hi joe always great i’m excited to hear from these alumni too yeah we’ve got two very interesting alumni a podcaster and a graphic designer let me begin with vanessa corwin vanessa welcome to uh the first installment of the queen’s podcast lab learning or meet the pros thanks it’s great to be here thanks for having me we’re going to have you uh introduce yourself in a moment but first i just wanted to welcome uh thamar resui she is our graphic designer welcome tomorrow hi how are you now i’d like to uh get our guests to start off by introducing themselves and their their current and past creative enterprises let’s start with vanessa vanessa could you introduce yourself to the audience sure hi i’m vanessa corwin and uh throughout most of Vanessa Corwin my career i’ve been a freelance video producer both in broadcast and corporate world i’ve also worked at columbia university as a communications manager and right now i am the executive producer of a podcast uh it’s called now let’s talk the podcast and it started basically as a pandemic project where we talk to people about the challenges that they experience in their lives because of the pandemic and how they are coping with them or having trouble coping with them and now that the world is opening up um a bit more um you know we are expanding our uh subject matter are things a little bit more uh and i’m also working on some creative uh theater projects as well yeah you do live and recorded media and uh your media are video and audio basically and can you give us the website of the podcast just in case of course it’s called now let’s talk the podcast.com and there you can find um all of our episodes actually um and you can listen to them we’re on all the major podcast outlets um you know apple spotify um i heart radio basically wherever you get your podcast so please listen and very very importantly you’re also a queen’s college alumna indeed absolutely what’s your department what was your home department well i was a foreign language major and i was that by virtue of the fact that i uh participated in the study abroad program i spent a year in school and a summer and a summer in france and i just loved it it was a life-changing experience and so um when i came back and i was you know getting ready to graduate and all that stuff they at that time like all of these credits because i had taken all sorts of courses uh in spain and france you know like history and art and literature um you know we we were in granada in spain and we had the good fortune at the time to have the curator of the alhambra give us a section of the course and he took us in you know inside the alambra to places that were under restoration and probably now that i think back on like very dangerous to walk around no we didn’t wear hard hats or anything anyway it was a great experience life-changing experience and i came back and they put all these credits down as spanish so i was a spanish major so i graduated with this degree and i didn’t really know what i wanted to do and i had a succession of kind of entry-level jobs in various fields that um to be quite honest i kind of hated them and i thought well what to do so i fell into tv uh and film quite by accident because um somebody that i knew was working at sesame street nice and they called me up and they said you know vanessa they’ve got this project going on and you would be perfect for it it was a series of like psas about health and stuff like that that are going to be broadcast in latin america and you know we need some they they were looking for a production assistant who was bilingual yes said oh you know i there’s tons of kids who came out of nyu and columbia [Music] that i i don’t stand a chance yeah well i never so i didn’t i didn’t really follow up with that and then another week or so later this person called me up again and she goes well vanessa you know they’re not interviewing people in droves here you know uh if i were you i would get my butt over there so you know long story short i i i did i got the interview and i i got the job and that’s and i knew immediately after i started working in it i knew that i loved it and this is what this this was it for me so that’s how i that’s amazing i got into it that’s first of all such a queen’s college response to be like oh i won’t go for it the kids at columbia will get it they’ve got to break out of the mindset of this uh absolutely i love this the first before we go on i want to introduce who is a graphic designer and entrepreneur welcome can you tell us a little bit about your backstory and uh your work in media yes okay so let’s just say i wasn’t always thinking about going into media first you know i am a haitian descent and so the automatic three type jobs you have from is doctor lawyer and engineer i started the doctor out and um i first went to lehman college thinking i wanted to be a doctor but um i think it took one class for all that to change and then i pursued my bfa at queen’s college and ever since i haven’t looked back i could tell you the more you get into media the more you love it you know the more you realize what’s in there and what you can make out of it because at first i started with painting my first major studio art i was focused in painting so i do a lot of still paint uh live you know still life and stuff and i knew there was something more i wanted to do as i got into like traditional animation it was fun at first but there’s a lot of drawings and so i knew that wasn’t it and it’s not until i got to graphic design and i knew this amazing program at queen’s college and so when i got there and i’ve met with a lot of beautiful talented people i tell you and um one class i took it’s called it was called instagram but it’s i’m not sure the the proper name but it is instagram it’s thought by cathy weinstein professor catherine weinstein and she’s amazing and because of her when i came out of queen’s college i mean i was working as a graphic designer i’ve worked for a um a small company and big companies as well and more recently i’ve opened up my own business uh and in the business i was still doing like freelance right and so i was doing logos like you know um websites and stuff but i have never gotten into instagram and so with the class it opened up my mind to a new world that i didn’t know existed and we took one trip and that one trip just it was just a mind-boggling for me and we went um it’s called epic the company is called epic and they handle big company social media like their instagram and i don’t think people understand that it’s a huge business out there with instagram people need your help because if you have a business you don’t know the visual side of the business and so they would want your visual aspect they want to see where you can take the business how far you can go with it and this is what my company is all about is to help them grow organically and so what i do is i create a whole lot of videos take pictures of their products because not it’s not only instagram they want to grow they also want to grow in their own um websites like their pictures is needed for their website like you know it doesn’t even have to be pictures not not a lot of people take pictures but also create some sort of graphics for them i work for a non-profit well we have them as a an account i work at uh for a non-profit what they do is they provide medical uh medical education to the haitian community and so what they would do is they would have the english side and as well the creole side and because i speak creole and i also speak english and i do have some background in the medical field and i tell you it just ties in perfectly it ties in perfectly and so all the visual aspect i handle i handle their social media i um the language they have someone else that handles all of that when it comes to different topics but when it comes to the visual aspect all the graphics they need someone and it’s not just a medical side as well as different businesses they always need someone to handle social media because it’s a place where they can reach more people you know and if you feel as though you’re just cornered to just the aspect your fourth fifth avenue social media allows you to get to the other side of the world you know yeah you know both of you uh both of uh you know your backstories uh make me think about how a lot of parents say you know social media art languages these are waste of time why aren’t you going and getting a job where you can actually earn some money and people don’t understand that the media industry is a very large industry and the skills that you learn studying these degrees can be used in gainful employment can you tell us what’s your view on the value of studying the arts studying creative stuff vanessa yeah i have a lot to say i have a lot to Education say about that and um i’m going to tell you a little story i had a boss at one time one of the many bosses i have had because i’ve had tons of jobs um he had he said that now he at the time had um kids that were just getting into college and they the older one one of the sons wanted to uh follow in the dad’s footsteps and go into like film and television and he was like i wanted a major he went to nyu and he said i’m going to major in film and television but dad said to him major in the arts learn literature learn history learn about the world and because that’s you know and become an expert in something something you love something that appeals to you because that’s going to help you a lot the technical stuff you know learning you know cameras editing etc etc that changes all the time and by the time you get out of college the technology that you will have learned is going to be obsolete so your best advice so i would and i believe that because i majored in that i majored in you know languages literature you know the arts always had an interest in that and you know i had you know great career and and uh you know that was my story and so i say absolutely get a well-rounded education and learn about something become an expert in something because that will help you vira what about you what do you say on this the value of arts and all those not job uh study programs um you know people always need help in the visual aspect um because the whole the whole point of learning the arts is is mainly because you get a brighter sense and then you can focus on a particular avenue you know i mean i’ve done i started with painting i did animation i did stop motion i i dabble in all of these just to stop at graphic design but it became something miraculous because i’m able to use all of these um skills that i’ve learned over time and i’m able to put them into one recently uh someone contacted me for a music video right and so i know i can do videos but it was never like music videos or films but it came out beautifully you know surprised it came out beautifully i’m able to use the visual aspect of things and then apply it you know and i was able to get help here and then and it’s it’s important and it’s highly needed and the reason why certain parents may not see it’s because they’re not raised into it so my parents they’re blind of it so when they go see a doctor they see that profession when they hear about lawyers they hear that profession or they see about an engineer because houses are built but as far as social media they’re not really grown there that’s not their um generation or they don’t they don’t even know what it’s like to work in uh in the like any any graphic settings and anything that has to do with visuals they don’t know what it’s like and they don’t know what the career looks like and so if you are at home and you know about it get to know people who are in the field because guess what it’s your leg in and once you start understanding how the company work or how the industry works you can create something of your own as i’m doing myself because it’s not i understand big corporation they need help they will pay the big money but the person next to you like the businesses that’s like literally right by your house they need help too and you just don’t know that because you didn’t you didn’t put yourself out there so if you don’t put yourself out there no one’s gonna know and trust me if they know they will reach out they will reach out it it’s also you know when students come asking what they should do for a living i often say find your gifts like if your gift is visual design there will be jobs as long as you’re good as long as you’re good at it and you follow your gifts you’ll find something and then and work is is also extremely rewarding when you’re able to flex the muscles that are strongest for you laura abrams has a a a very uh good comment too she writes qc student body diversity as an asset your experiences will help you stand out be confident and share your story that reminds me of a podcast interview that on the qc pod that we had uh last year where we talked to a faculty who specialized in advising students to apply to elite graduate schools and she said one of the biggest problem with queen’s college students is they think that they have to pretend that they’re the same as the kids from columbia and nyu as opposed to leaning on what makes us unique or what makes us special and i can say laura’s laura’s comment very much resonates with someone like me like i grew up in a place that was like 99 white i was the only jew in town and i was friends with the only asian and black kid at my school you know and so the the ability to be exposed to other cultures or work across cultures is a real asset and it sounds like both of you got your start because you were able to do that culture jumping which is something that we’re great at we’re naturals out here at queens what’s your view on that leaning into the diversity as opposed to pretending like you’re from columbia uh does that resonate with your personal experience or views i say own it i mean i say own it and Diversity um you know i i am of uh hispanic extraction uh puerto rican and so you know i kind of had a little bit of that um oh gee i’m not as good as the nyu people or whatever but you know i i learned to just own it it’s what makes you different it’s what makes you stand out and that’s what you need to do um in the real world you know why should somebody hire you you know you know because you have abilities and you have a certain experience maybe you had an internship and you did really well in it that kind of thing um so yeah i say own it i agree um and one thing i don’t know i mean i don’t know the culture what it’s like to be an nyu but i do know the culture in queens college is that it’s a tight-knit and it’s a close family um you have amazing professors they prepare you for the future okay um that’s professor natalia natalia she’s hard and she’s hard for a reason okay and she prepares you for tomorrow and i remember when we had projects on top of projects on top of project it didn’t mean anything to me when i got to the real world because i had projects on top of a project but it was nothing like the queen’s college nothing in in queens college you’re involved with multiple you get in touch the classes are small and they’re small for a reason because you get in touch and build these connections with your colleagues i still personally work with them today when i have bigger project i utilize some of them you know when i have multiple projects i utilize some of them i’m in contact with a lot of alumni that do what they do and they will put you in contact with their own clients and there’s this tight net i think when scholars do an amazing job that they try to push the career on the uh the student and so i wouldn’t worry about people coming from colombia because guess what when they’re talking to you they’re not asking you where you came what school you went to right in my in my personal uh experience they don’t ask me what school did you go to or what can you do no they just want to see your skills that’s what you bring to the table exactly yeah and i do believe queen’s college prepare you for that honestly there’s a couple projects that i’ve done and employers they’re at all of it and i was like i don’t think it’s all that no you don’t know how to do it and i think that’s the difference when you someone don’t know how to do something and you present to them something you did it’s a big deal because they don’t know how to do it but you can and they need that from you and that’s what i’ve learned i’m only 29 so i’m learning more but i just know that from my experience people need your skills that’s it they just need your skill not what the school you came from but your skills yeah you’re absolutely right and you know that also has been my experience i mean working at um my last um staff job was at columbia as a communications manager in the physical therapy program um in the medical school and you know i had to at the beginning when i started i had to really convince them that they needed a really good website they needed a social media presence why is this important and and so i convinced them that this needed to happen um but i think another part of it is i always thought even when i had staff jobs i always thought of myself as a freelancer because that’s what i was you know most of my career and i always thought that as a freelancer you’re coming in to do a job and you know educating the client is part of it yes you know right i mean telling them why this is important and here’s the kind of content that you should be putting out there um etc etc so a part of it is educating the client and as you say nobody they didn’t say what school did you go to they just said oh you can do this for us great you know it’s a great point it’s a i’m glad you brought this up because um in my personal instagram i do a lot of like you know tutorials on how to do things how to do this how to do that and one thing i know is that they’re so intrigued to learn people are thankful that you’re able to tell them no this is how you do it this is how you do it they feel as though you’re not selfish you’re not you know to yourself but at the same time they would rather someone do it for them yes so in that sense even if you’re telling them um you you teach them which is something amazing those that can take it they will take it learn and then apply it however in their own business they would also would rather someone do it for them because you can cleaner or better but i’m so glad you bought this it’s true you have to teach them yeah educating your client is a big deal and that’s one thing at my like my own company that i do i do value is to teach the client like you know this is how it’s done and all that i i agree i agree 100 so for the next question what i’d like to do is i’d like you to speak to someone a student at queen’s college maybe a freshman or a sophomore who’s just starting off so vanessa you’ve had quite a career in audio visual production and i’m we have lots of students who are interested in audio visual production and content development and creative franchise development for students who share your interest and would like your trade like to follow your trajectory what do you recommend they do while they’re in college to you know best prepare them to move forward in that that area of that space Follow your heart that’s a really good question because that really was i didn’t know when i was in college actually what i wanted to do i was just doing following a path of something that i was interested in and something that i loved which is learning languages and learning about you know uh different literatures from all over the world and this sort of thing um and writing i kind of thought maybe i’ll be a writer um so i would just say follow your heart you know um study what appeals to you uh try to find something that you love and you can take that if you know okay you want to work in the media live recorded whatever you know you can you can take that with you because content development is is so key these days um that’s really where it’s at you know the production skills you know you can learn that but i think it’s really important to have an expertise in something yeah i mean i’m going to use as an example um okay the news anchor savannah guthrie she went to law school you know she has she had a law degree and but she never practiced she decided she didn’t like it um and she had some skills in journalism so she pursued that so that’s kind of an extreme example but um you know i think the content the the need for content is so great that i would uh pursue it from that end and then also you know we have lots of art students and a lot of students in art who would like to make the leap to entrepreneur and if you know i think for a lot of people it sounds like a far-fetched dream you know how could i make a living uh you know in the visual arts what would you recommend to a young art student who who just wants to create for a living but doesn’t know how to make that happen in the visual and creative arts um one thing i did fail is to show Show people your skills people the reason why i didn’t start sooner is because people didn’t know what i knew they didn’t know my skills and they didn’t know that i knew how to do this or do that um and so after i’ve gone to queens i just started applying to just regular jobs you know and so when i got in the graphics world i know this even when i was in that job they still utilized my videography skill and photography skills and they still wanted like instagram was a thing although i was doing a lot of graphics work but i still had to implement all those other skills that i knew and um they needed a separate department for it at some point you know and because it’s highly needed because it’s an everyday thing and so you know the graphics just creating content i think as vanessa said um it’s it’s a big deal and the reason why it’s a big deal because it’s needed every day people are always on their phone and because this phone is so close to your face it becomes personal right so invade your personal space and so you have a you have the power to change someone’s mind you have the power to persuade someone you have the power to do a lot of things and this is via one post one post i don’t know if you know how tick tock has blown right like it’s broke and i think yeah and one of the things is that a lot of people were able to relate to each other period right that was that was the main thing and you could change someone’s mind with one video you can make someone laugh sad cry and you can take people’s money i don’t know if you realize there’s been a lot of scam as well right yeah oh yeah and so if you can get to the point where you can reach people’s pocket like you know with a lie but if you could truly get to someone by conveying a message period and that’s all that’s all there is to it and look at all the social media influencers exactly and so we think that um this is a great time for us as visuals you know just visuals like there’s it’s a great time it’s a great time to shine because i think vanessa made a great poem when you need to know your focus point although i’m a visual designer in my church i do not know anything about the production side i had to learn about that part the audio because we go live so the audio part the um the visual part like also i can handle fixing the camera but to make it go live it’s a completely different field that’s something completely different and so everyone has a job when it comes to visual production period there are many connections it’s not just what you’re seeing it’s everything that’s happening in the background and in the background is where the where it’s needed okay this is where people are needed and we may think that a lot of people oh i think coming out of queens college i had the concept that while people do need help right so i’m thinking of big companies however i didn’t think about the smaller companies that do need help as well and so this is where the greater help rely lies i think um one thing i’ve learned is the more people that follows you right and so you get a broader audience but that it’s not really true it’s those who know of your skills i think that’s where it lies because people didn’t follow like i get contacted by people that referred me to other people so it wasn’t really you know your big followers or it’s really about the connection and what you provide as an individual the kind of services you provide and what you left them with if you left them at all they’re gonna come back first of all and if they feel as though you did a great job and you help them out in exactly what they needed they’re gonna refer you to other people it’s always word of mouth that’s how it works networking is is i think is really important right i mean that something you always have to do at every stage of your of your career you know you have to keep keep that going it’s very important i i’m hearing in your advice you’re telling young people just get creating like learn get out there start making stuff start doing it and you’ll get better and once you get good the better you get the better jobs you’ll get but a lot of people come to us and they’re like they’re like professor i want to create but i just don’t know what to do i don’t know how to get started how do you what do you advise uh for a young person like that who you know has a creative passion but doesn’t even know what the first step would be well i think it’s going to depend on Volunteer opportunities what the what they want to do i mean are they a uh a visual artist are they um you know do they want to do broadcast kind of stuff do they want to do behind the scenes production um there’s a whole you know i think a lot of it depends what it is but if you have an area and you say oh i want to explore this volunteer you know find people who are doing this and volunteer i mean it’s a great way to learn to find out if you like the stuff for example um i’m going to say community television let’s say if you’re interested in that and broadcast television like i live in manhattan so um in manhattan it’s manhattan neighborhood network this is public access tv you can go you take the training you will learn um you know the the broadcast uh level uh technical stuff that you need to know to actually put on a show and you know guess what guys it’s free i mean hello you you you know if you go to nyu or columbia you have to pay gazillions of dollars for this you can get this at your local public access station go look at the opportunities there just volunteer you know take whatever training you’re required to do and it’s going to be either free or very cheap and then you can you you’ll be volunt you know you need to have a little show or like a little project and then as part of the uh the way these things work you also volunteer on other people’s productions and so you you learn the different jobs the different kinds of work that’s involved that’s a great way to see if this is for you and if and if you like it come on yeah um the way i got started is i think How they got started i mentioned it before uh professor weinstein’s class i i took the instagram class and then i started my own instagram right and it’s just you have to go for it you know um you have to see what it’s like you have to know the feel and understand the work that it takes to get there because you don’t just develop a love like you just don’t know what you want until you actually get to it you know even when i was going into medical field i knew i wanted to be a cardiologist and so what i did is i i applied to this internship and i made sure that i got into the cardiology department because i needed to see what it was like you know i wanted to see the speed those doctors faces because that probably would have been me right and even if i i worked there for a whole year and i and i i can tell you it’s not as satisfying as what i’m doing now i don’t know there’s this pure satisfaction to know that you can work on something for hours and not be tired of it right that’s love that has to be love you know and um and so i you know it’s hard for you to tell someone oh go after your love go go after it um just do it just do it yeah but if you don’t have to drive to do it then there’s no pushing like there’s no need for me to push you if you have no drive for it and it’s hard for you to know what you want to do unless you see it and you you have an interest entrance has to build and then you get into it and one thing i do always tell people look at what other people do like if you like the traveling start by going i don’t know go to boston one time and if you like it and then you go to bigger places take the bigger step and then the bigger step you know but you do have to start by introducing yourself putting yourself in that position where you’re really experiencing and understanding how it works because if you don’t know then you literally you just don’t know you can only imagine because it takes work it’s all about work and to get to get like influenced you have to be in the position to be influenced yeah i have a question in the chat box this one’s from oscar are there any experiences unrelated to your profession that have helped you in your careers skills and abilities can come from strange places i think vanessa you were talking about like studying spanish or uh uh and tomorrow what do you have anything maybe we’ll kick it off there are any weird skills that came out of nowhere and you’re like wow i’m glad i knew that that really helped oh um okay so okay so knowing i know creole but i don’t know how to read or write it i hope that makes sense and so one time we were filming for college it was a it was just short film based on you know just aid and so they didn’t know certain languages like didn’t know certain words in creole and i was able to help them that i feel like that’s so weak it’s not as strong as vanessa’s but and i think that one was that one was key right because they misspelled a lot of words and so i was able to help them just a little it wasn’t a big help but it was a help i think but i think the bigger thing for me was in the medical field because i’m working as their graphics designer and i think that one is because some of these things are familiar and so i could tell them oh no i don’t think that’s what i know or this is not how i perceive it and so i can i’m able to help them out in a way where i can properly communicate certain uh content to you know the younger folks and sometimes yeah vanessa do you have any any other oddball sort of oh yeah oh well okay one of as a freelancer okay you go from gig to gig and sometimes you have a little break between gigs and so i used to take these like temp jobs you know to be an administrative assistant because i have pretty good you know keyboard skills i’m pretty computer savvy and all that kind of stuff and so i mean i learned stuff like how to fix the copy machine you know when the person like like was not able to get there and they had to make like eight gazillion copies for some meeting or other so i’d be in there messing around with the copying machine and you know what when you’re you know i hate to tell you when you’re on a real set and you and your you’ve got that entry-level job that’s going to be your job to go and make those copies and if you can fix the copy machine they’re going to love you they’re going to love you and they will hire you for their next production so i think and that is a great question and my real answer to that is nothing that you do in your work life is a waste because there’s always something that you get from that how even if at the time you think oh i’m never going to use this well you might one thing came to mind is i took a web web course at queen’s college web design yeah so when i got to my job there was this banner that they put up and they had a coder do it for them and didn’t know how to take it off and the thing is i’ve taken web design one and two so i i dabble a little but i didn’t know a lot and so i took it down i could tell you that after going through the whole coding i’m looking through and i had to yes you know it’s also you make a great point because sometimes past experiences even if they’re unrelated they can turn you into a unique package in your field so for example i used to be a radio announcer it was something i did in my young adulthood before i joined the academy and it helped me become a researcher on social media and podcasting just because there were facets of you know both businesses that i understood there’s a i have a great oh hold on oscar says thank you for your answers they were great diversity and past experiences can help in ways not a lot of people realize initially a public speaker can get the charisma from restaurant jobs for example i think that’s totally true oscar absolutely laura has a uh an excellent point and it’s one we’re we’re close to the end unfortunately time flew by but uh oh jason before laura is coming do you have something to ask yeah i have a question um and i i wanna well anyway LinkedIn you both have really active linkedin pages and so i posted the links to your linkedin pages in the chat and also on the in the comments for our you for the youtube live but when the youtube live is recorded we’ll put it in the description as well i also included thumar’s instagram and vanessa’s website for um for her podcast but so but i’m just mentioning all that as background my real question is uh and and on your um your linkedin tamar you have this really great portfolio for example and you both just seem really active and i’m i’m wondering if you have advice for students to how to for about how to make linkedin work for them um yeah there’s um you get one month Premiere Plus free for linkedin premiere plus which is great so i think you should take advantage of that so what that does is that it helps you uh with it pushes your pro profile out to a lot of numbers of employers um so what it does with keywords that you put out like for me i put graphic design and so what they do is they push my profile out to certain people who are looking for graphic designers so if they put in graphic designer in their search bar your name will pop up and when they click on your link and profile they have to see some sort of visuals to see what you have and so you want to put your work out there um it’s not like a regular it’s not social media but it’s still a way for people to see you professionally to see your abilities and so take advantage of the premiere plus i think it’s called premiere plus uh it’s one month for free after that i think it’s pretty pricey i think it’s 69 a month faster it’s expensive and so if you take advantage of the first month then um i think it’ll work for you it’ll work out i i do believe that if you push your professional side out there and so everything else will come and you just have to post constantly you know it’s okay to post uh post everything that you have done as a professional all the content you’ve created and if you want to talk about it all the type of tools you’ve used to make those content is important as well so employers understand your skill set what you use and how you apply them yeah right and i would say definitely keep your profile up to date i think that’s really important um make sure that if you are looking for work you know there’s a thing you can click in your profile that says i’m available for hire make make sure you do that um and also like participate you know in in conversations um you know follow people comment on what they have to say so you’ll be out there you know and you’ll be keeping your contacts going um and use hashtags i i think that’s that’s also something people should do you know use use good hashtags for um what you want to put out there now laura laura has a a a nice comment that leads to a question uh laura writes networking is key we’re building the alumni network through the alumni sharing knowledge program and alumni can open doors to internships in their companies or refer you to job openings find an alumni mentor through qc center for queer engagement and i wanted to say you know a lot of students are like oh i don’t want to bother the alumni or they’re too important they don’t want to see me i don’t want to pester them and i try to explain to them no yeah like young people like people want to help young people especially those who are who are in their field and aspire to it can you just reassure our students that like the alumni do sympathize with young people and they do want to help so don’t be shy can you please set them straight for me well we were in your position at one time ourselves so we know what that’s we know what that’s like and you know um having in my own journey having come from a place of g i have no idea what i want to do and then just finding that place for me um i i can definitely relate to all of those uncertainties and stuff but you you know gotta get out there gotta get out there yeah i agree and um even um just to add on to what vanessa says as well as your professors um professor bolivia she helped me out with my resume and my portfolio as well like you know and there are some great people out in queens college the alumni are just a plus because we’re actually out there so if you could use the ones next to you and reach out to the uh to the ones that that are working on the field that you’re interested in it’s always a plus because this you you’re always learning period i think like you’re always learning and definitely we need the help we need each other yeah that’s great bothered at all no it’s not a father at all we’re you know we’re happy to do it happy to give back i mean i i have to say i i had a great education at queen’s college and i’m you know i’m very happy to give back i mean how i how i found laura or laura found me was that i interviewed xavi gunn uh for the podcast you know one thing leads to another and here i am that’s great yeah i always tell them i say listen all of us got the help of someone along the way and it’s just i mean that’s just part of life older people helping younger people it’s just a big change so jump in because you’re you’re cheating yourself if you don’t try to find older people who will give you a hand because they’re certainly out there and they’re certainly valuable all right well we’re out of time thank you so so much for joining us here just before and and thank you very much uh to laura for helping set this up and for this amazing program coming out of development a million thank you thank yous laura this is a great asset before we go i just wanted to say uh uh hold on hold on sorry about that uh vanessa corwin is the executive producer of the now let’s talk podcast you can get it off the podcast now excuse me now let’s talk the podcast you can catch her on spotify itunes apple google wherever you get your podcast everywhere and samara rizzui is a graphic designer and entrepreneur and both are queens college alumni who have made it they were in the same shoes you were at some point so don’t think that you can’t go from where you are to a media professional people have done it before you and they will do it after you and so be one of them if that’s what you want to go for all right i’m going to say goodbye to everybody on the live stream so stand by for a moment please you