Beatrice Smith

Arts alumna Beatrice Smith describes her job as being “really fun”. Which many people would agree with, given it involves “eating, drinking and interviewing people”.

 

She’s the Editorial Coordinator of HerCanberra; a successful women-focused website that has spawned a print magazine and podcast.

 

Beatrice moved into the role after a stint interning at HerCanberra. It was one of three internships she undertook while studying at The Australian National University (ANU), majoring in English and History. The others were InStyle magazine and MamaMia – both in Sydney.

 

“It was awesome, but way too far to travel all the time,” Beatrice says. 

 

At the time, she was juggling not only her studies but her duties as content editor at the ANU student newspaper, Woroni.

 

When Beatrice first started her Arts degree, Woroni and journalism had not been part of the plan. 

 

“I actually wanted to be a teacher when I first came to ANU,” she says.

 

Her extracurricular activities, such as Woroni and leadership roles within Griffin residential hall, soon set her on a different course.

 

“It all led on from each other,” Beatrice says. “ANU led me to Griffin, Griffin led me to Woroni, Woroni led me to internships, internships led me to HerCanberra.

 

She adds that one of the great things about ANU is that she was able to explore her career options alongside studying.

 

“That was really fantastic for me because it allowed me to grow as a person and not have to commit to a career path straight away.”

 

A year and a half spent working as a liaison for Sky News also helped her determine what she wanted to do after she graduated – or what she didn’t want to do.

 

As a liaison, she had to set up guests for their interviews with hosts based in Sydney. 

 

“It's a very intense job if you're running late or if your guest hasn't shown up or if you've got multiple guests – it’s genuinely live television,” Beatrice explains.

 

She says she learned really fast on the job.

 

“But it was really stressful and I guess great in the way that interning at InStyle magazine told me that I probably didn't want to at least start off in traditional print journalism. 

 

“I think Sky News taught me that I didn't want to be in news-news.”

 

Given what Beatrice learned about herself through these experiences, she’s landed in the perfect place. 

 

She enthuses: “I really love online media because if you make a mistake, it's easily fixed. If you have breaking news it's easily uploaded. You can publish anything at any time, so there's this great capacity to get as much content out there as you want as quickly as you want and as well as you want.”

 

“It’s kind of an amazing way to do it.”