NPR Life: What It's Like To Work At NPR

Hello. Thanks for visiting. As you might have guessed, we like working at NPR. This Tumblr was built to give you a glimpse behind the mic and share the experiences of working at NPR. Learn more at npr.org/careers.

[nprlife]

Interview Insider: How to Get Hired at NPR

If you want a job here, show up to your interview with lots of questions.

[nprlife]

Public Radio Career Openings (#PubJobs)

There are many exciting career opportunities across public media. We're going to be on the road at several recruiting conferences over the coming months, so we reached out to our friends across the public radio system to collect some of their top jobs for the month of August we can share with attendees. We also wanted to make them available online for those who can't attend. You can find them below. 

To apply to any of the jobs above, click the job title to be directed to the station's career site. Good luck!

New York Public Radio

Assistant Producer

Associate Producer

Web Producer, Studio 360

Freelancers

KQED

KQED Television Executive Producer

KQED News Executive Editor

Friday Host, Forum

Morning Host, The California Report

KQED Silicon Valley Senior Editor

WBUR (Boston)

Executive Producer, Radio Boston

Associate Producer

Reporter

Director of Development

Fundraising & Direct Marketing Manager

Broadcast Recording Technician

Oregon Public Broadcasting

News Director

Host/Announcer, Weekend Edition

Executive Producer, Think Out Loud

Assignment Editor, OPB News

Host/Announcer, All Things Considered

Producer, State of Wonder

Reporter/Producer, Bend Bureau

Programming Operations Associate

Fill-In Hosts/Announcers

Colorado Public Radio

Arts Reporter/Assistant Editor

Digital Producer

Assistant Digital Producer

Delaware Public Radio (WDDE)

Reporter/Producer - Science and General Assignment

Youth Media Producer/Reporter

WMFE-FM (Orlando)

News Director

Health Reporter

General Assignment Reporter

Boise State Public Radio

Senior Broadcast Engineer

Iowa Public Radio 

News Director

KNPR (Nevada)

Morning Edition Host

KNPR's State of Nevada Host/Producer

KNPR's State of Nevada Producer

Online Editor - KNPR News

WBGO (Newark)

Major Gifts Officer

KPBS (San Diego)

News Editor

WVXU (Cincinnati)

Program Host, Cincinnati Edition

Major Gifts/Planned Giving Officer

St Louis Public Radio

Social Media Coordinator

Online Producer

This is not a comprehensive list, but will provide a sampling of current career opportunities in public radio. You can also follow the #PubJobs hashtag on Twitter for a running list of jobs and internships across the system. 

[nprlife]

Take a tour of the new NPR HQ in this Cameo video. [disclaimer: this video was shot using the Cameo App on an iPhone by our HR team. The multimedia wizards of NPR Digital Media were not involved in any way.] Enjoy!

[nprlife]

Want to intern at NPR? Tips from Andy Carvin.

The following tips were pulled from Andy Carvin's AMA on Reddit. 

As someone who's hired interns at NPR for the last last five years or so, here are some tips/suggestions/ideas/whatever:

Focus your application. When you apply, don't tell us you'd like to apply for an internship at 10 different shows or desks. When I review applications, I try to look for people who've chosen to focus on our desk - the social media desk in my case - or who's picked no more than two or three possibilities.

I've never picked an intern for NPR Music, but I imagine it's very, very competitive. The interns I've interact with from their team have always been really solid.

If you're interning at the station, try to get involved in as much as you can. Learn to cut audio. Help manage the website or social media platforms. Pitch a story and produce it. We're always happy to receive applications in which someone has experience at a member station, and especially happy if they have some technical chops to go with it.

Be as specific as possible when describing what you want to do at NPR and why - and how it'll help you into the future.

Tell us what you're really good at. Well, at least stuff that could be relevant to having an NPR internship.

Tell us about your experiences in college that could be relevant to an internship.

Don't try to be funny in your cover letter. Unless you're genuinely a hilarious person. If your jokes flop, it won't go over well.

On your resume, we're not particularly interested in the Dairy Queen job you had at age 14. We know you're just kicking off your career, so don't fill it with stuff that really doesn't tell us about who you are. If you've done volunteer work, our done anything that shows your leadership abilities, emphasize it.

We love interns who work well in a group environment and are also self-starters. If you're like that show us some examples.

Writing/audio/content samples from your portfolio are always welcome, especially if the department you're applying for is involved in content production. One exception: research papers. Seriously, tl;dr.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions about interning at NPR.

[nprlife]

You are human. We are human. Call us crazy, but we think that actual people make the best decisions when it comes to evaluating a resume. When reviewing your application, we don't rely on robots or keyword-matching software to select the strongest candidates. We rely on humans. Most often, this human is a member of the recruiting or HR team. Sometimes it's the hiring manager or someone who works closely with the hiring manager. In short, the people who know most about the position are reviewing each application to find the best candidates for the job. Read more in the NPR Applicant Experience Pledge.

[nprinterns]

Hi, friends!

The deadline for the Spring/Winter 2014 intern applications is next Friday, November 15th. If you haven’t already: apply now.

With just over a month and a half left for the Fall interns, we thought we’d try to impart some of the lessons we’ve learned and the knowledge we’ve...

[nprlife]

Many thanks to our friends at @Ladieswhocode for having their event with us last night! Good information shared all around! #DC #Tech

[nprlife]

At NPR, every day is Hawaiian Shirt Day. 

[nprlife]

At NPR, every day is Hawaiian Shirt Day. 

[nprlife]

News you can use: Did you know npr listeners are 129% more likely to go hiking?

[npr]

Howdy. I’m Mel, NPR’s newest employee. I used to work at Fresh Air (where I ran the Tumblr, among other things) and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (where I wrote jokes, among other things.)

Today is my second day of work at NPR. I’m here to think about the network’s digital and social strategy — and write a bit here and there. I’m going to start with the NPR Music folks and the team at Morning Edition.

If you want to reach me, I’m @mkramer on Twitter and melodykramer on Instagram and around the Internet in various iterations. Feel free to reach out or say hello. I’ll likely be on here from time to time to fill you in, but I’m happy to talk in any of those ways, too.

Cheers,

Mel

[nprlife]

Many of you asked for an inside look at our new HQ. Here's our 1st installment: @NPR HQ main level. #nprlife

[nprlife]

NPR accepts applications in many formats. Unfortunately, mo-or-or-or-orse is not one of them. 

[larsschmidt-deactivated20141113]

Reason #46 to work at @NPR: spin bike + Capitol view. #nprlife (at NPR News Headquarters)

[larsschmidt-deactivated20141113]

#NPRlife PSA: the HR jelly bean machine is now the HR skittles machine. We accept walk-ins. (at NPR News Headquarters)

[nprlife]

Fun With HR Software

Like most organizations, our colleagues have a bit of a love/hate relationship with some of our HR software (okay, love is generous). Fortunately for us, we have witty colleagues (@JenAtHerDesk) who soften the blow of TPS reports with emails like the one below. In a tribute to Bill Lumbergh, we'll be posting some of her gems over the coming weeks.

Now, about your weekend plans...

Yesterday was the birthday of writer Marcel Proust, and this year marks the 100th anniversary of the first volume of his mammoth work In Search Of Lost TIme.  At over 4000 pages, it may take slightly longer to read than all the time we take trying to log in to Kronos and update our time sheets while fighting "contact your system administrator" errors.  

There's something (wonderfully? woefully?) ironic about juxtaposing the title of that book with the act of updating Kronos.  

At any rate, please log in and update your timesheet with any sick, personal, vacation, or changes to your capitalized time, and approve it.  Else just log in and click approve.  Else pick up a copy of Swann's Way. 

Should the experience of updating your timesheet trigger some long-buried traumatic memory, do know that I have just refilled my candy tins.  Sorry, I haven't any madeleines.  

[babesofnpr-deactivated20190503]

While you’ve spent the summer of 2013 eating heirloom tomatoes from the farmer’s market while simultaneously kite-boarding, reading US Weekly on the beach, and packing for Fire Island, I’ve spent the summer selling my valuables on eBay to pay my rent because I gave up my full-time job (with benefits!) to be an unpaid intern. As of this week, my savings are gone, the only furniture I haven’t auctioned off is an old laundry hamper, and I’ve reached a level of poverty that I last knew as a teenager (or, the appropriate age to be an intern) but I’m more content than I have been in ages. Giving up my steady, responsible, totally fine job to be an intern was the best move I’ve made since losing the spray tan in tenth grade, and this is because I’ve spent the summer learning how to make public radio. Read more….

[nprlife]

The story of chasing your public radio dreams from the creator of babesofnpr.tumblr.com.