Find a Job You Love

Morning show host at “101.9 The Keg”, Matt Tompkins, visited his alma mater on Monday, Feb. 17, and brought his advice for future Journalism and Mass Communications majors.

The University of Nebraska-Omaha (UNO) graduate had many things to share on Monday. He gave students three keys to be successful in any career field; consistency, quality and resilience.

As a student at UNO, Tompkins worked for MavRadio where he found his love for being on the air with his weekly radio shows. Along with MavRadio, he also noted how he interned at KVNO and KFAB and spent more than 40 unpaid hours each week learning the ropes.

Tompkins emphasized how important it was for him to intern because he was not only able to get a head start at learning how to do imaging and copyright, but he was given the opportunity for paid professionals to listen to his work and give him feedback.

He used his internship as an example to show how important it is for students to do the same.

“Get involved as early as you can,” Tompkins said. “I learned so much more at the stations than I did in the classroom.”

After graduating at UNO, Tompkins shared that he went through several jobs. He had his own television show with his brother, Omaha Live, and provided pitches which he said were “hilarious” for the Omaha Buzz online.

Being in the communications and journalism fields, Tompkins noted how important it was to love your job.

“You have no control over where they throw you or don’t throw you,” Tompkins said.

Tompkins explained that another important part for students to understand is that they would much rather jump around from job to job, like he did, for five years so that they could find the job they love working for for the next 20 years.

“People we work for don’t care if we love it,” Tompkins said. “They’re just trying to make money.”

Tompkins also noted that students should find a way to make money off of their talents, skills and loves because then they will not have to work another day of their life and their bosses will keep them because they will be making money off of what they produce.