6abc Anchor Matt O’Donnell Visits O'Hara Career Day

“What’s up, O’Hara Lions?” Matt O’Donnell asked students in St. John Vianney Hall.

Some half-hearted cheers erupted. The students were at school on a Saturday after all…but for good reason. It was Career Day—an event organized by teacher and counselor Christine Tickman for students and parents to meet and listen to professionals from over 20 fields about their jobs. One notable guest was Channel 6 Action News anchor, Matt O’Donnell.

O’Donnell, a West Chester native, creatively and humorously spoke of his experiences as a broadcast journalist and the most important thing for students to remember in finding a job—that persistence, hard work and practice are the keys to success, not necessarily natural talent. He noted his secret formula to success: “99 percent perspiration and one percent inspiration.”

At the beginning of his talk, O’Donnell mentioned that he normally does not prepare things to say when asked to give a speech, which allows for ideas to flow naturally to him and enables him to fill up allotted time with words as they come.

“It’s almost like an experiment with my mind,” he joked. But for this particular occasion, he had scratched out more than a few pages of what he would cover. He also had a title for his speech: “How to One Day Get Up at 2:16 a.m. Every Morning,” which describes a required part of his job.

To relate to the Catholic school students, and as a means of making his talk more entertaining, O’Donnell included funny but informative Top Five lists on various subjects surrounding his life throughout. For example, the third most important thing he learned in Catholic school at St. Phillip & James in Exton was, “Don’t insert green clip-on tie into the pencil sharpener just to see what happens.” His number one prediction for the future was, “6abc will always be your favorite news station.”

On a more serious note, O'Donnell said that in order to attain the level of success he has achieved thus far in life, he has had to work very hard. While working toward his degree in Journalism with a minor in Political Science at the University of Delaware, he was involved in his college’s radio station and newspaper, was an assistant at his campus library and freelanced for the Daily Local News. He also completed summer internships at WLYH-TV and Action News.

He learned a few things in college that he shared in another Top Five list. He said that students must gain work experience in addition to going to class, get plenty of rest and find a quiet place to study each day.

“It’s easier to take a test when you know what it’s about,” he said, adding students should begin their job search during their junior—not senior—year, and not to take ‘no’ for an answer when discouraged or turned down.

While O'Donnell was still a college student in 1994, he had to visit various news stations in person before finally landing a job with WIC-Z in Binghamton, New York—before graduation –“It’s the best feeling to be able to sit at graduation knowing that you have a job you’ll be starting within the next week,” he said.

The number one thing he learned in college was that “the formula for getting that first job is simple.” He said that students must “Number one: Be prepared. Number two: Show up early. And number three: Try harder than everyone else.”

He reminded students that they don’t need to be the most talented in their field to reach their goals in life, and that the “person who works the hardest” is likely to get the farthest. He compared his theory of hard work to Beethoven.

“I’d hate to use the ‘s’ word, but Beethoven’s earlier works kind of sucked.” O’Donnell said the composer had to gain lots of experience to become great.

Overall, O’Donnell’s persistence is what’s really paid off in the long run for him, eventually landing him his current job at Action News in 1996, which he said he loves. Through his job, he gets to stay ahead of the game, which, with the necessity of waking up at 2:16 a.m. everyday, is difficult not to do, he said.

O'Donnell's loves getting to use his communication and writing skills—“two of the greatest skills anyone can have,” he said. Meeting different people, like Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton, going different places like England and Brazil and getting to know things “before everyone else” is what he enjoys. The number one reason he loves his job, he said melodramatically, making sure his camera men were paying attention, was: “I get to work at the best TV station in the world.”

O’Donnell ended his speech saying, “Do something you love. Find a job where you’re not looking forward to Saturday.”