Before Zayna Amanat graduated with a bachelor's in English and minors in business law and cinema and media culture, she interned with Netflix in Los Angeles. Amanat says that she used many of the skills honed in her University of Minnesota Twin Cities education, including those learned in literature and media culture courses that helped her identify and pitch stories that could be adapted into Netflix movies and TV shows.
Like Amanat, students in the liberal arts develop core competencies to ensure they’re prepared to hit the ground running in their future careers. That includes developing everything from analytical and critical thinking skills and knowledge of information and communications technology, to understanding potential career paths to build the skills that will help them excel in their employment or in continuing their education after college.
Here, Amanat talks about some of the key takeaways from her Netflix experience and advice for current and future students.
What were your main job responsibilities?
[My main responsibility was to] scout and evaluate intellectual property (IP) rights for potential adaptations. [I also] read multiple novels, short stories, graphic novels, and so on, and wrote coverage on requested materials.
A lot of what I did was shadowing the people involved with making the specific deals of obtaining the rights to adapt certain pieces of IP and organizing all the logistics involved. I read a lot and wrote pitches about the things I read. This helped me evolve my reading skills beyond just reading for entertainment … evaluating how we could turn a piece of IP into something else or why we'd pass on something. I also got to learn about all aspects of entertainment production outside my department (VFX, post-production, sound and dubbing, and more).
How did you find your internship? What tips do you have for others?
I found a posting on their website and applied. I found it at the right time, though, since the posting was only up for a couple of weeks. [My advice is to] always keep searching for opportunities. Even if you don’t think you’ll get it, just apply; you never know how far you might get. Be excited and genuine and they will pick up on that.
What are your top takeaways from your experience?
There are more ways to get into entertainment and use my editorial skills that I didn't know about. Being there helped me realize that there are so many opportunities out there if you search and apply yourself to them. I built a strong network there, which helps in so many ways beyond just career-wise.
What skills did the internship help you develop?
Digital literacy. A lot of the internship revolved around learning certain databases and technologies that are used in the entertainment industry. Getting experience with that is going to help me hit the ground running when I start working full-time.
Also, [I developed my] innovation and creativity skills. I had to learn how to think creatively in different ways when analyzing and pitching new acquisitions, and saw how different creatives work on their own operations and projects. It was amazing to see how the creative process of development, pre-production, production, and post-production all come together.
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