Some jobs require rather more specific skills, such as Engineering, Costume, Graphic Design or Accounts. In general we rarely demand a specific subject. In addition to educational qualifications, we are equally interested in what people have achieved in other areas which relate directly to broadcasting. A - Broadcast research is different from academic research in that as part of the production team, the Researcher works to a Producer putting ideas onto paper and creating workable plans. Before production starts, all topics must be researched which demands speed, scanning papers and reading press releases etc.
Researchers are likely to have broadcasting experience or have worked as journalists.
Most are engaged on short-term contracts, either on a particular programme because of their specialist knowledge or to more general programmes as the junior member of the production team. There is a fine dividing line between researchers and journalists and those that think they want to do research may well find that either production or journalism could offer them the type of work they want. A - There is no great demand for languages as such, with the exception of the educational areas and the BBC Worldwide. The latter area includes the BBC World Service which broadcasts in English and 44 other languages, but mainly recruits native speakers for its production staff. BBC Monitoring requires people for translation work and languages of particular interest include those from the FSU, Eastern Europe and Arabic.