Paul Gross, Meteorologist, CBM and CCM

Paul Gross, Meteorologist, CBM and CCM

Please include details about your educational background and what sparked your interest in atmospheric or related sciences.  

I was terrified of storms when I was a little boy. My second grade teacher sensed this and, one day, took me to the school library and pointed out a section of books about weather. She told me that if I read about thunder and lightning and learned what caused them, perhaps I would become less scared of them. She was right and, by the end of second grade, I told my family that someday I wanted to be a weatherman at Channel 4 in Detroit!

What was your first job in the field and how did you end up in the job you are in now?

I have worked my entire thirty-seven year career at WDIV-TV (Channel 4) in Detroit. I was an intern in 1981, and then managed to get a part-time job helping out in the weather office during my senior year at the University of Michigan. Over the next two years, I added the weekend meteorologist position at WJIM (now WLNS)-TV in Lansing, as well as the backup meteorologist at WJBK-TV in Detroit. Eventually, WDIV let me start filling in on the air so, by 1987, I was working part-time at three different television stations at the same time...and sometimes on the air at two of them on the same day!

What opportunities did you pursue that you knew would be beneficial to securing a job in the profession?  

Internship. Internship. Internship. I cannot adequately express how important it is to pursue internships. College professors can teach you a lot about meteorology, but applying this knowledge in a real working environment is critical to getting that first job.

What other courses/skills beyond the required math and science courses do you think would be the most helpful to individuals wanting a career in your profession?  

 Communication skills. If you want to be a broadcast meteorologist, you need to get in front of the camera as much as you can during your college years. Nothing, of course, can truly replicate a real-world television newsroom, but some colleges have actual TV studios on campus where the students do real broadcasts to the college campus and perhaps the surrounding city. That experience before you graduate is invaluable.

What is your typical day on the job like?

There is no typical day on the job for me. I fill in on all newscasts, so some days I'm up at 1:00 a.m. and work until 12:30 p.m. Or, if I'm covering the weekend shift, which is a double shift both days, I do the early morning, 6pm and 11pm newscasts. Yes, it's brutal, and I don't get much sleep. If I'm covering the evening shift, I start work at 2:00 p.m. and work until 11:30 p.m. On days I'm not on the air, I start work around lunchtime and work into the evening. On days after a tornado event, or when a snowstorm / ice storm is in progress (I'll report live outside about the conditions or damage).

What do you like most about your job? What is the most challenging thing about your job?

First and foremost, broadcast meteorologists have a job of public safety. I cannot begin to convey how it made me feel when a viewer once e-mailed to tell me that I directly saved her life. I've had a highly successful career just because of that one e-mail.

The most challenging part of the job is the sacrifices you have to make to work in this field. Most of the country enjoys holidays off. Not broadcast meteorologists...we're there on the news while you enjoy your holiday. Also, the shifts are not conducive to family life. If you work the evening shift and have kids, you wake up in the morning as the kids head off to school, and then leave for work before they get home. Unless you can get home for dinner, you hardly see them the entire week. If you work the morning shift, you aren't even home when they leave for school, but you do have the afternoon off to help in their classrooms, coach their teams, help with homework, and have dinner with them. But THEY then have to tuck YOU into bed in the evening. And if you have to work weekends...well, I don't need to explain what that does to your social life. You'd better have an understanding spouse.

Does your job allow for a good work/life balance? If not, why?  

Not always...see the above answer.

Over the course of your career what is the most exciting thing that has happened to you?

As mentioned above, getting the e-mail from the viewer that I directly saved her life is easily number one. But this career has given me the ability to do so many exciting stories...such as spending 3 1/2 years researching the weather and how it affected D-Day in World War II...my half-hour documentary was deemed so historically significant that it was added to the official D-Day archive at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, the British Meteorological Archives, and the Museums of Television and Radio History in New York and Chicago. I've flown with the Blue Angels. I've had exclusive one-on-one interviews with some of the most well known professional athletes in several sports. I got a law passed in the State of Michigan requiring all public schools to conduct a minimum of two tornado safety drills per school year, and was with the governor when he signed "The Gross Weather bill" into law. I have been blessed with so many exciting experiences in my career.

Is there anything you wish you had done differently in your career?  

Not really. My dream was to work at my hometown Channel 4, and I've had the privilege of doing that my entire career. Any other decisions would have likely taken me to other cities (such as accepting highly tempting offers from friends/colleagues in both Boston and Chicago asking me to join their respective weather staffs). I never take for granted the privilege of working in my hometown, especially having so many friends/colleagues who have either spent many years away from home before getting back, or who are currently working over 1000 miles from home.

What are some ‘must haves’’ on a resume if a person wants to gain employment in your field?

Broadcast experience. I cannot emphasize this enough. A news director in a small town knows that he or she is hiring a beginner. If you want to differentiate from the other students trying to get that first job, you need to show in the first fifteen seconds of your video that you already do very well with your weather presentations, and show real promise. You should get that experience on campus if possible, but internships at real television stations is the top priority. A news director that sees a better than average beginner's presentation, along with some experience in a real world situation in a TV station, will give you a good, hard look. Obviously, knowing your meteorology and being able to handle yourself in a severe or extreme weather situation is also important.