Ian Antonoff ’16 recently returned to Hamilton to speak to students as part of a Career Center event called “Connect to Careers in Communications: Broadcasting in the Age of Streaming.” The event, moderated by two members of the Career Center’s Communications Connect Team, Jackie Bussgang ’19 and Adriana Jonas ’21, gave Antonoff a chance to shed light on his career and gave students looking to pursue a career in communications a chance to ask him questions.
Antonoff began by discussing his current job as a creative producer at the Shorty Awards. The Shorty Awards is an award show that honors the best of social media and, according to its website, “recognizes people, brands, and organizations on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, Musically, and more.” Antonoff explained that the reason his resume stuck out from other applicants was, oddly enough, because of his theatre minor. The company believed that his experience with live performance and writing scripts would be a great asset to the team and the award show itself.
Major: Creative Writing
Clubs & Organizations: Adirondack Adventure
Sports: Men's Tennis
Prior to The Shorty Awards, Antonoff held a slew of other impressive positions that included a job as a researcher at CBS Sports and an internship at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He credits networking and his connections, as well as the communication, writing, and researching skills that he learned at Hamilton, as reasons for his success in his jobs so far. As a creative writing major, he learned how to give and receive constructive criticism, and then use it to improve his work. He feels this skill has helped him tremendously in his specific career field.
Antonoff offered advice to students as they accept future internships. He explains that, as an intern, “You should ask as many questions at the beginning of the internship as possible to figure out how and why things work at the company, and to gain a better understanding of how you could impact the company.”
