The Process of Hiring Interns

While the boys of my office are at the Toronto Film Festival, it means only the VP and I are at the office. I think it is the first time ever that only females have been in the office! We are normally outnumbered two to one. To make things even weirder since she doesn’t work Fridays, I am all alone at the office for two Fridays. I have been alone at the office before but not for an entire day. Let me say after my first alone Friday, it was very strange. I thought it might be nice to have the office all to myself, but I was wrong. The day started productively, but by noon I had finished literally all of my work. Amazing how productive I can be when the phone isn’t ringing off the hook. I’ll let you know next week, if my second “alone” Friday is just as uneventful. Also while the office was quiet, I was put in charge of hiring new interns.  

Well this is definitely a new experience for me! Since I have always been the interviewee, it was interesting to be on the other side of things. First off, I received some BAD resumes. Maybe I am just picky because I was a journalism student. Writing standout resumes was pretty much hardwired into us. It’s hard for me to overlook glaring mistakes that some industries see as fine. First off, please refrain from “fun” fonts. There is a time and a place for these fonts, and your resume is not it. Second, you graduated last year. Why is your resume two-pages long? I understand how important being a cashier at your college concession stand was to you, but it means nothing to the entertainment industry or me. Third, use some variation in your bullet points! If more than three start with the same word, you need to spice it up a little bit and pull out a thesaurus. Fourth, please use a professional email. Brainwasher@hotmail.com is never acceptable. If Brainwasher wasn’t bad enough, a hotmail account shows you are out of date. Fifth, I absolutely don’t care about your middle school GPA. If you are in college, don’t even put your high school GPA unless you were valedictorian, and you are a freshman. The one that pained me the most was from a graduate with an English degree who contributed to their campus newspaper! How were you not familiar with AP style?! Sorry for the rant, but I cringe that the important skill of resume writing is obviously not being taught at other universities.

After I have sifted the okay resumes from the terrible, it was time for the interview process. Normally our other assistant handles this, but it fell on me since he is in Toronto. The night before the interviews, I tossed and turned thinking about what I could possibly ask these potential interns. They were going to realize I have never done this, or the fact I am younger than many of them. I did my best to calm my nerves, but when the first potential intern arrived I was shaking slightly. Thankfully I pulled it together and did my best, “Hi. Nice to meet you. You can follow me to the conference room.” Some interviews were short. I am talking less then 10 minutes. They had nothing to say, and I was all out of questions. I could tell one guy was really nervous. I mean the works: swaying the chair back and forth, sweating and continually rubbing his hands on his legs. I feel bad because I have been in the hot seat so many times before, but there was nothing I could do to calm his nerves. After eight grueling interviews, I narrowed 25 submissions into four new interns! All together I think I had a successful few days alone in the office but will be glad when everyone is back in the office!!

A Year of Job Searching in Hollywood

Has it really been a year? No. Yes. Whoa. I turned my life upside down when I decided to move to Los Angeles. I am Midwest born and raised. Before I packed up my Uhaul and headed west, I had probably spent a cumulative two weeks in California since I was five, but the lure of sandy beaches and a big city overtook me. I wanted to move here more than anything, and I was going to no matter what. Did I have a plan? Not really. (I don’t suggest this) Did I have a job? Nope. Was I even sure what I wanted to do? Nope. Yes, I thought of all these things before I moved, but I didn’t care. I just kept telling myself that it would all work out.

Well at the six-month mark, I was working at BCBG (kill me) and interning two days a week at a film production office. I loved my internship, but my retail job was making me go brain dead. I knew I had to find a real job asap. I began my long search for really any type of entry-level job in the entertainment industry. The one thing that continually kept getting in my way was my lack of experience. Seriously? All the jobs wanted the same thing. At least one year working on a desk at a talent agency. OK, well then I will go be an assistant at a talent agency. Nope, it is not that easy. There are thousands of people who want to be assistants at talent agencies, which is why the agencies have their “agent-in-training” program. This is a joke. Your first job in the program is delivering the mail. I am not kidding, and everyone in the mailroom has at least a college degree if not a J.D. After a couple months of learning your way around the office and everyone’s names, you are pulled out of the mailroom into the “floater” pool. As a floater you fill in on agents’ desks when their assistants are either out of town or sick. You could be a floater from anywhere to a day to a year. When a desk (finally) opens up, the agent usually interviews candidates out of the floater pool. Usually. Sometimes they bring in outside people, so it’s back to the floater pool until another desk opens. Your day finally comes, and you have been hired as an agent’s assistant! Yeah! You are so happy that you giddily sign a year contract without thinking about the fact the last two assistants needed therapy after being on this desk. There you have it, the gateway to any job in Hollywood. Crazy. For me, I wanted it. I heard horror story after horror story, but I didn’t care. I wanted into the elite club of a male-dominate field. Unfortunately it is next to impossible to get into this club unless you are a male or went to an Ivy, which I’m not and didn’t. Also, if you don’t have a referral good luck even getting HR to email you back! There is always the option at working for a boutique agency, but unless it’s a big boutique there isn’t much room for advancement. You want to work for the big four! After numerous attempts and a couple of interviews, the reality of me working at an agency was looking bleak. Great. If I can’t get the gateway, how am I going to get any of the other jobs I really want?

I pondered this for another couple months as I applied to an endless amount of jobs. I lost count on the number of jobs I applied for around 100. I applied for 100 jobs! Maybe you are thinking that I am a slacker or that I didn’t do well in college. Both false. I graduated with distinction with two degrees from the University of Kansas. I ran the student-run PR firm and was an executive member of the PR club. I was in countless honor societies and was even an executive member of my sorority. I’m a catch! Somehow all this stuff adds up to nothing, zilch in Hollywood. It is now month 11, and I am completely unemployed. I have enough money for six more months in LA if I continue to be unemployed, and I am about to sign a year lease. I hope you are starting to feel my panic just a mere two weeks ago. Maybe it was time to pack up my bags and admit defeat. Things were looking grim, but I still had my faith that I was going to find a job! I could feel it in my bones that change was right around the corner. Boom! Out of nowhere, my internship offered me a job! I have already gone on and on about how much I love this company, but I could not have asked for a better opportunity. I had to keep myself from crying when they offered me the position. The best part, I get to skip the elusive agency desk. No mailroom for me with my two degrees! I am on the path to my dream job as a producer and literally couldn’t be happier. I smile a lot. I mean a lot. I am pretty sure people think I am crazy because I am so happy. Whatever. I live in gorgeous Los Angeles and have an amazing job.

The lesson of the story is this. Finding a job is LA is hard. Finding a job in the entertainment industry next to impossible, but if you bide your time something amazing will eventually happen!

New Experiences: Week 2 and 3

I started this blog post last week, but I didn’t quite get around to finishing it since my life was turned upside down by getting a job! So please forgive the fact that some of the events come prior to my last post.

Okay so my new experiences for this (two weeks ago) week might not be exciting for everyone, but they were big steps for me. I have been looking for a roommate for the past few weeks, and my search was beginning to look slim. Finally on Tuesday, I had a breakthrough! I met my potential new roommate for coffee over in West Hollywood to see if we would be a good match. After some light conversation, we both laughed at the fact this felt the way online dating probably feels like. Thankfully she turned out to be super nice and normal! As an added bonus she has a puggle, which I’m very excited about because I am a huge dog lover. I finally felt like my apartment search could officially begin because I now was for sure looking for two bedrooms. On Thursday, I went to my first apartment showing all by myself. Sometimes I get nervous doing things by myself, but LA has definitely helped me to break out of my shell. For me both of these were big steps toward my new adventures in Los Angeles.

Now onto last week! Last week I was offered and accepted my first real job in the entertainment industry. It could not have come at a better time! After a crazy week, I am already getting into the groove at the office. I know I am at the right company, and this job is better than any others I have interviewed for! After almost a year as an intern, I always covered the desk (ie: answered the phones) during my company’s “Monday Meeting.” Since my job is more front of office, I figured I would still be covering the phones during this meeting. The producer of my company surprised me last week by inviting me to the Monday meetings. I have always wanted to sit in on these meetings because it is when a lot of important decision are made. Yesterday I experience my first five-hour meeting, and I loved every minute of it! I was able to contribute my opinion, and it wasn’t scoffed because I am new. From this part of my job, I will be able to get a firm base and further understanding of the industry and the developmental process. This knowledge will help me move up the totem pole to one day be an full-fledged assistant, then a developmental executive, then the vice president of development and production and finally a producer!

Life is good, and I can’t wait to update everyone on all my new weekly adventures! I promise I will try to make them more exciting new time!