My Work Journey by Murat Bulut

It's great to do a job you love. I chose what I wanted to do at a very early age. I prepared for the necessary exams after secondary school. Then, I completed my college and university education for my target job. I finally succeeded.

Twenty years ago, I was a university student and started my internship at a TV channel. There were many people doing internships, but they made me an offer to work for the biggest TV channel in the country. It was a great success, and I was excited. My friends were amazed. However, I told the company that I was continuing my university education. Company managers said they would provide the necessary support for this. They helped during exam times and school days. I was a student and an employee of the country's largest TV channel. So, I learned very quickly about great responsibilities.

I worked for a popular and most-watched channel in my country with popular news, sports programmes, entertainment shows, famous TV serials, etc. Therefore, I had the opportunity to work with many famous people. People dreamt of seeing and taking photos with these famous people. This may have been fun, but it was very stressful. There were significant responsibilities. Even the slightest mistake, a wrong button press, could cause discomfort to millions of people. The company could have lost a lot of money.

Being a broadcast engineer had very different job commitments, for example, solving the problems of employees and the problems of hundreds of different devices. You have a responsibility to know everything. Famous people would ask for help with technical problems at home. I was on a mission where everyone was asking for help. We needed to solve all of the issues. It was hard and very stressful.

I managed to turn stress and problems into advantages. The real and exceptional successes came when I turned these stresses into experiences, making them a learning resource to understand my sector better. Our business is related to technology, so we always worked to educate ourselves. We made many firsts: the first HD broadcast, the first 3D broadcast, the first 4K broadcast, etc., which resulted in even more responsibilities.

An international company bought our company, so we started working with many countries worldwide. We broadcast sports from England, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil and many other countries. People from many countries around the world were watching. There were three centres in Qatar, Paris and Istanbul and there were big plans for Istanbul.

The company decided to build one of Istanbul's largest media centres. They chose me as one of the broadcast engineers responsible for this project. A very tiring and stressful period was waiting for me. A vast area was rented. They wanted to turn that place into a centre with TV channels, studios, editing rooms, off-tubes, satellite broadcasts, meeting rooms, restaurants, etc. The location was kept secret. I didn't forget the first day we went to see the site. It was a vast area, and there were only walls. Trucks were driving around inside. We were going to build one of the largest media centres here in a short period. Promotions had started on TV for this new broadcast centre. Time was very short. Days without sleep and not going home were waiting for me. We could have made a short film or written a book about this project and what happened during that tenure.

We succeeded in this exceptionally demanding commitment. There were only walls. We turned them into a media centre for hundreds of people to work, hundreds of famous people to come, and hundreds of programs to be produced. There were experiences here that many broadcast engineers would never have a chance to experience. I had those experiences in this project. I helped train many employees. I organised dozens of meetings. We operated million-dollar devices.

Yes, many people work just for the salary; I can understand that. But making new beginnings and being successful made me happier and more excited than most things.

Author: Murat Bulut (ESOL Level 1 Student)

© All rights for this publication are reserved with Keystone Academic Consultants Ltd.Copy or use of the content of this article is not allowed without prior permission.