The BBC is a national institution and many people who work in the TV and film industries will have worked at the organisation at some point in their career. Even in the modern era of streaming, the BBC continues to attract talent from rivals including Netflix and Amazon, hence its maintained its reputation as a wonderful employer.
However, we decided to put together our top tips on how to actually secure your dream role – or in fact any role – at the BBC. Be sure to read the full article to make sure your application is the strongest it can be.
Vacancy Search
The BBC lists all their active vacancies on their dedicated careers page, however you can also rely on Action Media Jobs to be your at-a-glance destination for the top roles in content, broadcasting and production at the BBC.
Do Your Homework
Like any job interview, making sure you dedicated a few hours to prepare for each one is important. Focus on understanding the organisation and in particular, what team the role sits in. Find out who might be future colleagues and a full understanding of team and responsibilities will instantly put you ahead of other candidates.
Job Descriptions
The vacancy page on the BBC Careers page is purely there to give you a brief overview of the role and responsibilities. Thankfully, the BBC publishes a full PDF job description with every vacancy and reading should be one of your top priorities. Not only could there be additional info that you miss in the summary, but
Know the Salary
Every BBC vacancy has a salary band associated with the role. These can be fairly broad, but it gives jobseekers a fair better idea about salary expectations from the organisation’s point of view.
We have put together a full breakdown of salary bands. While there is no guarantee you will be offered the top figure – offers will be dependent on skillset and experience – knowing the upper limit the organisation can offer will put you at an advantage.
Completing the Application
Most applications for BBC vacancies require you to set up your Career Profile on the BBC’s career website as a first step. By uploading your CV, it will automatically generate your profile and experience.
The second step in most BBC applications – especially for junior roles – is an online assessment. This could be a number of different scenarios that the BBC ask you complete before formally inviting you to interview stages:
- Assessment Exercises – Typically these involve answering a number of questions via video or text.
- Psychological Tests – These provide insight into how you react and perform with different tasks. Typically, these tests will either test your ability or personality.
It’s worth noting that the BBC has been utilising Artificial Intelligence on assessment exercises – the AI will be the one to determine whether you proceed. Keep this in mind and ensure you get plenty of keywords from the job specification into your answers.
Finally, after you’ve submitted your application and completed any assessment tasks, which you pass with flying colours, the BBC will reach out to invite you for interviews with the hiring manager, potentially with several team members too.