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How Did You End Up Working in the Field?

Interview with Amélie St-Pierre

Clip duration: 1 min 57 s

From the collection of Appartenance Mauricie Société d’histoire régionale.

Veteran journalist and filmmaker Pierre Saint-Yves interviews Amélie St-Pierre, who spent a decade working as a community newspaper editor for Icimédias in the Mauricie and Nicolet-Bécancour areas.

Interviewer: Why that particular field?

Amélie St-Pierre: It’s funny, because I studied healthcare at CEGEP. I started out in a nursing program. Needless to say, I didn’t end up in the field I was planning to work in. Above all, I’m a salesperson. It comes to me naturally. My student job helped me develop that side of things. Before, a guidance counsellor had kind of discouraged me. He said it wasn’t a real job, being a salesperson and all that. But deep down, that’s what I was. I felt the need to really listen to the customer. To meet their needs and make a difference, all that. As for the media industry, I found the advertising side of things really interesting. I don’t know where it all came from. No one else in my family worked in the media sector. But I was really drawn to an entry-level position as an account manager. That was 20 years ago. And the rest is history. Soon enough, I was promoted as part of the succession plan. They identified me as a potential candidate for management positions. After that, one thing just led to another. But at the outset, it was all based on a desire to work in sales. I really wanted to sell advertising. It was really all I wanted to do. From the time I was 20.

Interviewer: In the media industry. That’s what you wanted to do.

Amélie St-Pierre: In the media industry, yeah.

Interviewer: It was really important to you?

Amélie St-Pierre:

Yes. When I… When I went back to school, I told my teachers: Here’s what I want. If there’s an internship or a chance to prove myself… If there’s an internship I can get in traditional media. Well, I say “traditional,” but that’s all there was at the time. Eventually, I wanted to be able to work… to work in media. But I really… I remember a friend of mine who had an internship around then, at Québecor’s Journal de Trois-Rivières. Well, I thought she was really lucky. That’s what I wanted to do, and she managed to get the job once her internship was over. But I really wanted to work in… well, in print media, television, radio. Anyway, it was at a newspaper that the opportunity presented itself, so that’s where I ended up.