As VP of HR at NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, Leilani Garrido, is deeply involved in Telemundo’s program for high school and college students, Telemundo Academy. In an exclusive interview with Hispanic Outlook (HO), she describes how this unique hands-on training program creates new opportunities for Hispanics seeking to become tomorrow’s media professionals.
LG: The HR Department takes an active interest in all learning and development programs. It’s a big piece of our job on a daily basis and is also probably my favorite part of my job, honestly. It is really exciting to work with students and help build pipeline programs and also educational opportunities for these students. We partner directly with Miami Dade College, so we’ve had a working relationship with them for a number of years now. And I think what we are working on together just sort of organically grew. A lot of this had to do with moving into our Telemundo Center, specifically because we really wanted to bring students into our state-of-the-art facility. It was a really great idea from them to see the facility to understand what it takes to work in such a place. That’s more or less how this evolved for us.
LG: Students get a chance to meet some of the executives and employees that are behind the camera, creating content, and really innovating and creating new television for us. We wanted the opportunity to give them a first chance backstage kind of look to see if this is the career they really want and what it takes to get there. A lot of our lectures have been by faculty talking about their own history and how they got into the media business themselves. We have some faculty members that started out as camera people, some were in front of the camera, someone else may have been a journalist and now they are in front of the camera. It is interesting for them to meet people who were in their shoes years ago whether it was three years ago or 30 years ago. They are getting practical firsthand information from someone in the business.
LG: Do we look to these students to fill certain roles? Yes, we do. Specifically, at Telemundo Academy at the collegiate level, we offer at the end of semester two full time internships with the company. Professors nominate four students and they go through the standard interview process with the hiring managers, they also meet with HR and then the hiring managers select two students. Personally, I started out in journalism and mass media, I went to FIU and was a local Miami girl, so this has been so important to me. I never had this kind of access, so it was exciting to just talk to people at Telemundo across the leadership team and come up with ways we can give these students access that is not available anywhere else.
LG: I’ve worked in this niche, Hispanic media, for the past ten years. What I’ve learned is that Hispanics feel really connected to people that give them information. You’ll have people who recently immigrated, and they’ll call us direct and say, “do you know a lawyer I can call?” or “what doctor can I take my child to?” That’s why we put so much heart and soul into the content and programs we create. People come to us first. That’s how close our relationship is to our audience.
LG: A person needs to be inquisitive. That's the whole purpose of the program, to ask questions. It’s to really understand if this is the career I really want to go into. Or maybe there are areas of media that I didn’t know were available to me. So, being inquisitive obviously is number one on the list. It is also important for them to creatively use their experience both personal and professional to whatever extent they can to be open to new and exciting ideas. The more open the students are with our employees as part of the program, particularly the faculty, the greater their understanding of the staff as well. And this particular demographic can also add to the creative process. So, we’re learning from each other. It’s a fantastic program. •
LG: I think it’s really important for an applicant regardless of where they are applying to really pay attention to what are they looking for and to meet those business requirements. I think with a lot of these job bots, which are very popular now, people put up their resume into a system and apply for multiple jobs without really looking at the position. What you may have is a thousand people applying for that job, and there’s only about 150 that meet the minimum requirements of the role. So, it takes our HR and talent acquisition teams quite a long time to actually screen all the candidates so that we are focusing on those who can make an impact on those roles. So, I always ask people to apply for those roles, whether or not you meet the qualifications of the role, ask yourself if that is where you want to be and what you’re interested in, ultimately. If that is so, adjust your resume to reflect your history so you can be a good match for that role.
LG: I see a lot of those who in the past who had six different jobs in six different industries and are applying for a media role when only one of those were a media role and that was six years ago. They obviously would not be considered a front-runner for that role. When I counsel and do outreach at the collegiate level, I recommend how to improve a resume based on internship experiences. I often hear, “What happens if I worked at a Pizza Hut and then at a daycare center, why would someone want me if I worked at random places?” I say think about the role and responsibilities you had while delivering pizza? You managed money? So, how much money would you manage on a shift? Don’t overlook anything that would be translatable to the role you are seeking. Don’t think about the industry, think about your experiences and how they can apply to what you want.
LG: I think that a bilingual applicant adds value to an organization because of the cultural awareness they bring to it from the language they know, but they also have the linguistic skills can benefit the company. In contrast, if someone is bilingual and they are answering the phone at a company support hotline, they can help more people because they are bilingual, so they can help English speakers and Spanish speakers as well. I can think of a number of organizations that would benefit from this in the U.S. Also, the skill of learning a second language can demonstrate to an employer a strong work ethic that would be a benefit in any industry.
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