A Day In The Life At… The Hamilton Spectator - Part 2

Part 2, here we go!

      After the tour, I met with the Human Resources Manager, Kendra. She had a very unique approach to our meeting. She said she was going to let me take a few tests. Usually during a hiring process, potential employees are asked to take two of these tests: The Thomas Personal Profile Analysis & The DISC Personality Assessment. I took both tests and finished answering the questions in under five minutes. A few moments later, Kendra walks in with literally a stack of papers and that was basically the results of my tests that she printed.

      Holy Cow! I found it amazing how a short test could even produce all that information but there is was - in black and white. She did give me an explanation of my results and I got a chance to read it myself and I got to take it home! I found it to be scarily accurate. I think it is important to be honest and truthful about yourself - who you are, what you stand for, your strengths and weakness so the information that I read wasn't a surprise to me. If anything, now I am even more sure of myself and I know clearly what traits I need to work at improving.

     The fun part of today came after my meeting with Kendra, it was lunch time! I got to have lunch with Kendra and the Publisher of the Hamilton Spectator. We had reservation at Aberdeen Tavern. I have heard so many good reviews for this place but never had a chance to go try it out myself, so I was in very high spirits on the way there. I have included a picture of my lunch! That is a gnocchi and I even had some Relay Coffee. They are one of my favourites coffee roasters in Hamilton!


              My last meeting of the day was with Andrew, who handles Consumer Ventures & Partnerships for the Spec. I found him really cool to talk to. He was so chill and I found everything he said to be so intriguing, that I didn't want him to stop talking! He took me a presentation that was happening downstairs called 'Ad Impact.' The Spectator holds a few sessions and invites local business owners to this event and present why they should advertise with the Spectator. This was a real glimpse into the inner working of the industry I want to be a part of one day. So I took a seat back and just soaked it all up.

My day ended at 4pm where I was ushered again into the Publisher's office so we could just talk about how my day went. Today was seriously one of those days I won't forget. They made me feel so welcome, and just taking time of their day to meet with me was more than I could ask for. I am so grateful I won this prize :)

I made sure that on my way home, I bought thank you cards for each and every person I met with that day. I hand wrote my thank you cards and personally delivered it the next day. It is recommended that you send follow up emails to thank people but I think the people I met today deserved more than an email. A hand written note, I think just says more ( metaphorically and literally!)

A Day In The Life At….. The Hamilton Spectator - Part 1

        This week, I had the pleasure of spending a day at The Hamilton Spectator.

         During industry networking night a few weeks back, There were door prizes for attendees to participate in and let's just say I'm lucky #200 ! I had emailed my contact the very next day to schedule a meeting and a few email exchanges later, here we are. I arrived at 9am and was ushered right into the Publisher's office - Holy Incredible View Batman! My picture below doesn't do it justice but it gives you an idea. The meeting at the Publisher's office was a little welcome talk and he basically gave me a brief overview of what I could expect today.

Cool Fact #1 - They made up an itinerary for me (I think that's pretty cool!)


After the meet-and-greet, the next item on the agenda was a tour of the building. For as long as I have been in Hamilton (around 6 years), I have driven, bussed and even walked past the Hamilton Spectator building, so I am aware of how big it is. However actually seeing the building is just a whole different perspective. My God - it was incredible. Bill, who gave me the tour, was very knowledgeable about the inner workings of the sprinting press. He described how the plates are created, how it is pressed on to the paper, how inserts and put between the sheets and I even got to see where it is all dropped off and ready to be shipped. Literally everything from start to finish.

      The picture in the top left - what looks like a roll of paper - I literally froze when I saw it. THAT IS A LOT OF PAPER! I tried to be cool with taking pictures but all that went right out the window when I saw the paper roll. the center is all the ink and the right are the plates. This is what gets stamped on the blank sheets of paper

Bottom Row of pictures is simply how the paper is unrolled, stamped and cut. It was magnificent to watch, It was really loud but I was in total awe of everything so the noise didn't bother me.

After the tour, Bill handed me a copy of today's issue of the Hamilton Spectator and wait-for-it

Cool Fact #2 - He handed me an issue of Niagara News that had tomorrow's date on it ( so what I'm saying is that I got a paper from the future!) This may sound lame to some people, but when I got it, I couldn't stop smiling :)

Stay Tuned for Part 2 :)

Collaboration & Communication

One of the biggest and probably most important aspect of this semester is collaboration. I have the same group of four for 5/6 classes.

Luckily my classes are pretty small and I have had a chance to work with them previously. This has made me a bit more aware of their work ethic, their style and basically what I can expect. We got assigned into groups on the first day of class itself and I am happy to say so far everything is working out pretty well with my group!

We each have our own strengths, so I feel we can create something great together. As awesome as my group members are, there may come a time where you may not be happy with who you are with. Not just in class but maybe in life too and the best thing that you can do is COMMUNICATE!!

I love that my group talks about everything. We are always messaging over Facebook and talking in-person and we even have weekly meetings where we work on our projects. It is really great to know what everyone is up to, what you need to be doing and what is due and when!

There needs to be an open communication policy amongst your team or else, there will be tension and that is not a road you want to go down.

Check out my group members' blogs, They have some great tips and tricks for you future post-grads :)

Maria's Ads & Abs

Rebecca's Thursdays At Sheridan

Migs' Life In LED

That's Us in the front row :)

Photo Cred: Advertising Account Management 2015

Toronto's Advertising & Marketing Week

Last week, Toronto hosted their FFWD Advertising & Marketing week, which is Canada's largest gathering of media leaders. The whole week's schedule was an array of keynote speakers, galas, panels, presentations and awards.

I had the opportunity to volunteer for 3/5 days at the TIFF Lightbox where a few of the eventide were hosted. My shifts were quite early ( 7.30am-12.30pm) and I will admit it was difficult to get up before sunrise and commute and then my day wouldn't exactly end after my shift. I still had school to go to. Honestly, I don't even know how I got through my whole week - it was exhausting but I did make a commitment and was determined to see it to the end. Early wake up calls aside, I did have fun volunteering. There were administrative duties we had to take care of but when things slowed down, we were able to sit in on some of the presentations. My interest was captured by what was happening outside the theatres. Some of the companies that were sponsoring a few events at FFWD 2015 had booths and space outside the theatre to promote their company/products. For example, Canada Post had a photo booth that let you would take your picture and your face would appear on a stamp! To say I was amused by that is an understatement.

Microsoft was situated near the lounge area where they had set up a green screen and let you appear in different movie stills, commercials or ads. My friend Rachele & I opted to be in the car behind Matthew McConaughey. 

Here are a few more pictures from my super fun week! Did you guys attend any of the events, let me know what you thought in the comment below!