In a class field trip to San Jose State, SJCC Broadcasting students discovered some unexpected but welcome news for entry-level job seekers in the broadcasting industry.

The SJCC students were guests of the Broadcast Journalism department, and got to view a live taping of SJSU’s “Update News” weekly TV program.

After the taping, SJSU Instructor Roz Plater and Engineer Juan Serna told Jaguars that recruiters from commercial TV stations make ”frequent visits” to the station’s weekly news show to recruit, and sometimes hire students on the spot.

SJSU instructor and Bay Area TV reporter Roz Plater says: “We’ve had three recruiters and two news directors come to class via Zoom this semester. Two of the recruiters were trying to hire for digital news jobs…and were looking for candidates immediately. Everybody was looking for producers.”

She adds: “We’ve had people interested from KSBW-TV in Salinas, and KRCR-TV in Redding.”

Some TV stations will actually pay for your training. Plater says: “There’s a paid 12-week training program/fellowship from Hearst. Hearst Television will pay $769 a week to train you to become a TV news producer.”