Sean Mallia is a life-long resident of Peabody and is also my older brother. He graduated from Peabody High School in 2003 and attended North Shore Community College where he majored in Liberal Arts and graduated in 2005. After, he wasn't sure where he wanted to continue school, but he knew he wanted to be on TV.
During the next few months he looked at different schools and finally found the perfect college for himself: Keene State College in Keene, N.H. While attending, he specialized in broadcasting and minored in writing.
Some job duties included doing weekly broadcasts for the college's news station KSC-TV, writing news stories under deadlines for live newscasts, fielding produced stories for air, floor directing live newscasts, and was also the Assistant Assignment Editor.
While working these jobs Mallia was awarded the best news anchor for KSC-TV. He also got the chance to interview former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, which earned him an award for best interview that year. Mallia graduated Keene State College in 2007 with a Bachelor's degree in journalism.
Finding a job after graduating college was a long and tedious process. He sent out his resume to many public relations' firms and news stations. A month after graduating, he heard back from "Gray and Rice," a Boston PR agency.
However, that was just an internship where he wouldn't get paid. Mallia figured he needed some experience in his field before going into the real world, so he took it and worked there from June to October of 2007.
The job hunt continued for three more years when Mallia finally got his break. In April 2010, WHDH in Boston called and hired him as a Production Assistant. Although he was not going to be on television just yet, because he worked behind the scenes, it was still a step in the right direction.
At WHDH, he assisted the producer and director every morning, prepared for the morning news, assisted with research, and shadowed anchors and reporters so he could become more knowledgeable in his journalistic endeavors.
During his down time, Mallia was able to create video resumes of himself sitting at the news desk reciting stories. Luckily, he was able to edit and send these reels to news stations across the country.
In June 2011, Mallia received the most exciting news yet; a news station in Lafayette, La. wanted to hire him as one of their news reporters. So he made a big decision to pack up, and leave his family and friends behind by heading down south, just three weeks after hearing the good news.
Today, Mallia is working as a General Assignment Reporter for KLFY TV-10, a CBS affiliate in Lafayette. He goes by the name Rob Mallia (Rob is his middle name) because there are two other people working on camera named Sean. He has his own camera, hair crew, driver, writes his own stories, and he interviews the local and surrounding communities for breaking news.
Mallia said he's happy that he made the choice of moving down South and the friendliness of the people is only an added bonus. Sometimes he even feels like a celebrity because people will stop him in the streets because they recognize him from the news.
Right now Mallia has met many new people and is working there on a two-year contract. He also continues to send out new video resume reels for even larger news stations in places such as New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Boston. He hopes to catch another big break in the future.
Students going into college sometimes aren't always sure what they want to major in, but stories like these give college students hope. No matter what field someone wants to go into and no matter how hard it is to get a foot in the door, keep at it and something good will come from it.
is a member of the 
Be the first to comment on this article!