Episode 18 - Career Pivots: Jason Mikell's journey from working as a Recruiter to being a TV Anchor/Meteorologist
“As you climb, you should also lift.” — Jason Mikell
Guest Spotlight
Jason Mikell has served as a meteorologist and traffic anchor at KVUE in Austin, Texas for the past three and a half years. This September 2021, he will join a new family at WKYC in Cleveland, Ohio (see the exciting announcement on his Facebook page found in the links below).
Jason joined the KVUE Storm team in January 2018 as the Weekend Daybreak meteorologist. In July 2020, Jason joined the Daybreak team anchoring the 4:30am half hour newscast as well as traffic anchor 5:00am-7:00am.
Prior to moving to Austin, he served as the Chief Meteorologist at WLIO in Lima, Ohio where he began as weekend meteorologist in April 2016, then was promoted to chief meteorologist in December of that year. He also held dual internships with National Weather Service and WTXF In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Born and raised in Columbia, Mississippi, Mikell has earned an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts from Pearl River Community College, a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Bachelor’s Degree in Operational Meteorology from Mississippi State University.
Prior to launching a career in meteorology, Mikell worked in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a corporate recruiter for a healthcare staffing agency and also the creative industry. Having grown up in South Mississippi, he was always devoted to his fascination and love of severe weather due to living first-hand through some of the nation’s most memorable and threatening storms: Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Rita. Additionally, while living in Philadelphia, he experienced the city’s second, third and fourth largest snowstorms on record.
In the summer of 2015, Mikell also had the unique opportunity to participate in three separate storm damage survey assessments with National Weather Service with one of the storms dropping an EF-1 tornado in the community of Honey Brook, Pennsylvania. These experiences served as catalysts for Jason’s devotion to weather awareness, preparedness and accuracy upon forecasting for thousands of Americans watching and listening to his forecasts.
During his meteorological career, Mikell has met and learned from meteorologists across the country at various conferences by the American Meteorological Society and has secured mentorships with scientists at some of the nation’s top TV markets including The Weather Channel.
He is a member of the Gamma Theta Upsilon fraternity, the Phi Theta Kappa fraternity, the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association.
Questions Jason Addresses in this Episode
Please walk me through your career journey.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?
When did you know you wanted to become a meteorologist?
Contemplating a career pivot can be intimidating. How did you get past that and into the action stage of the transition process?
How much research went into your decision when applying to Mississippi State’s Atmospheric Sciences and Operational Meteorology program? Did you look a specific website or other resource to identify that school?
How big of a role did networking play in your transition process?
Any networking tips for people, since that can be tough to get started?
How did you land that first internships in meteorology?
Any advice for interview prep, especially for a high-profile career like yours?
How do you continue to grow as a professional at this stage in your career?
For people who know they want a change, but they are not sure what they want to do instead, what would you recommend they do to begin to explore other career options?
You made big moves across the country for your career. Any advice for job seekers looking for roles in another city?
Going back to your recruiting days, what made candidates stand out to you for the right reasons? What should they avoid?
What advice do you have for job seekers in general? What about aspiring meteorologists?
Connect with Jason
Resources Mentioned in the Episode
Additional Episodes
Interested in a career in Hollywood? - Check out Episode 16
Need help with networking? - See Episode 9
Considering going to grad school? - Don’t miss Episode 11