If At First You Don't Succeed, Do Something Else While You Keep On Trying

For those readers who doubt me ever making it in my chosen career, here’s something that might make you feel better about yourself. After all, some do find pleasure in others failures. I do have a Plan B. And after that, I have a plan C. Plan B isn’t too exciting at the moment, so lets move on to Plan C.
If it's true, at least for this year, that I am not destined to get a job alongside any famous TV Star, or even have the privilege of getting coffee for a brilliant and broke small time producer, I would like to work at Banana Republic.
But for those readers who are suddenly eyeing me as a sellout, let me reassure you that I have been going about this Plan C search in the same way I am going about Plan A. Driven.
A few months back when I was visiting New York, on a day that I had no interviews scheduled, I put on my best Banana Republic dress, and hit the streets. In my workbag, I had a portfolio of 20 copies of my resume, and 20 Banana Republic applications, filled out and ready to go. And I started shopping.
At every store I immediately asked for the manager and explained that I was looking to work at their company. After being told that they have a website to where I can submit my information online, I reassure them that I have already submitted, but I have a personal copy I wanted to deliver myself. Now, while some floor managers are just confused with a ‘What am I supposed to do with this paper now?’ look on their faces, others are impressed, and immediately begin glancing through my credentials.
So what is the point of this story?
The point is, to all of you potential employers out there, that all of my other tricks to fight my way into the door have not just been ways of sucking up to get a job in the entertainment industry. Instead, no matter the task, I will put forth 150%. While it may not be a dream career move to work in the interim time at Banana Republic, their clothes fit me perfectly and I’ll get to use my discount to start creating the working women’s wardrobe for when I do finally land that contract job.
Plus, there is always the hope that it will help pay the rent for my apartment in New York City.

Linked In.......To What?

How is LinkedIn supposed to help you get a job?

My friends and I signed up for LinkedIn when we realized that we were entering the professional world, or so we hoped. But after 'friending' all of the people we already knew personally, and the few people we met at our internships that we felt comfortable enough 'join networks' with, we were done.

So I've been asking around. Basically here is what I have surmised. You stalk famous people on LinkedIn. Not famous like the cover of People magazine. More like, the CEO of your dream company. Then, you see if you have any connections, no matter how far they are, and you ask to be introduced. How weird is that?

As far as my experience with LinkedIn goes, I know I am not utilizing it in the right way. I don't think checking the LinkedIn profiles of people I am looking to buy things off craigslist to make sure they are not sketchy classifies as appropriate LinkedIn usage. But I want to use it. I want to be a success story. I can see the headline (of my next blog post) now: Job Seeker Finally Landing Career Through LinkedIn.

If you or someone you know will be in the online area in the next week, and have gotten a job because of your LinkedIn account, we want to hear from you! Please write in!!!

CBS Sports: You haven’t heard the last of them!

So nothing came from my first interview with CBS Sports. We said hello, we said goodbye, and we left things open for the future.
But remembering back to the way I first landed that interview at CBS Sports, (the aunt’s friend’s neighbor who works there and sent out my resume to his colleagues?) and we realize that while I thought I had used up the connection, really those forwards that he sent out were still circulating through West 57th street.

About a month after the bittersweet ending with the first guy from CBS Sports, and the day after I still hadn’t heard from Letterman, I once again got a call from an unknown number. This time, on the other end of the line, was a researcher from CBS Sports calling to schedule an interview with me for a position opening in the fall. Knowing that CBS Sports and I probably aren’t destined to be soul mates, I didn’t rearrange my travel plans to fly in to New York for the 25 minute interview. Instead, I scheduled a phone interview. And again, like all the others, it went great. Well, mostly great. We spent over 45 minutes on the phone (which is a helluva lot of time considering it was an international call) and I could tell he liked me for the position. Just as we were saying our goodbyes with the ‘we should definitely be in touch next week’, he hit me with, ‘Oh, one more thing.”
“Sure,” I said, trying to keep the nervousness out of my voice.
“Did you watch the Superbowl last year?” he asked.
“Yes of course,” I answered, leaving out that it was only for the commercials.
“Who won?” he shot at me.
Well, I froze. I'm sure that somewhere in my head I knew the answer, but at that moment, I got nothing. So I told him what I did know.
"Well," I said, "In 2008 the Giants won."
"Yes, but what about 2009?"
I blanked.
Then I got drilled on sports trivia for the next 6 minutes. Which is a long time when you don't know who the UMD basketball coach is, or the names of all of the American players going to the US Open, or who won the World Series in 1999.
Finally, the questioning ended. But I couldn't just let him hang up with that weak last impression of me. So I said, "Listen, I have not spent the past years of my life filling my head with sports trivia. I was in college, and I spent my brainpower on other things. But if given this opportunity at CBS Sports, I know I am capable of learning all of this information. If this was my job, I would do it right. If given the chance to immerse in this culture, I would absorb everything."
He told me not to worry about it, and less than confident, I hung up.
About 3 weeks later I received a call from him, telling me that the position had been filled. Shocking. However, they still needed help and I had left an impression on him, therefore he would like to offer me a chance to freelance for CBS Sports during the NFL Season.

So yay! Woo Hoo! But working three hours on a Sunday afternoon is no incentive to give up on the rest of my job search.

The Search for The Mystery Man

In December of 2007, I was visiting friends up in Boston. And yes, I did say ‘December’ and ‘Boston’ in the same sentence, so all of you from the New England area can predict what I am going to say next.
Snow.
After a lovely weekend visiting friends, I trudged through the snow to the train station, to catch the train to the airport. I chose a bench, dropped my bag, and sat down to huddle and wait for the welcome ‘chuga chuga’ sound.
15 feet away sat another guy, clearly in the same predicament. Small rolling suitcase, oversize gym bag with luggage tags on it, and a backpack perched on his knees.
The train was scheduled to arrive in 7 minutes.
7 + 25 minutes later, and still no train. Both of us checking our watches, checking our phones, looking down the tracks trying to decide what to do. On one stroll to the end of the platform, I noticed a small sign with the phone number for the train company, suggesting calling if there were any problems. A few frostbitten fingers and some catchy hold music later, I found out the train was stuck because of the snow, and couldn’t be expected to arrive at the station for at least another 45 minutes. As I hung up, the guy walked by me heading out of the station muttering, ‘this is ridiculous’ as he passed. I told him about the phone call and he said he was going to try for a cab- he had to catch a plane.
Lucky for me. Within a few moments we were sharing a 45-minute cab ride to the airport.
But my luck wasn’t over for the day, and that’s where the relevance of this story kicks in.
We were both so relieved at the situation that we became fast friends, talked enough to discover a few mutual friends, and continued our companionship while waiting at the terminal.
And before we shook hands and continued on our separate ways, I learned his name, where he was from, that he had been visiting his girlfriend at school, that his sister’s boyfriend was good friends with the friend I had been visiting, that he started the satirical newspaper at his university, and that there were a group of them from the paper that were all working for The Onion’s video department.
As a first semester junior, I was not yet carrying my resume with me like a security blanket, but we made the connection with our career interests, and he casually recommended that I should get in touch with him once I graduate.
That was almost two years ago.


Flash forward to a few weeks ago, when I was at a wedding, sitting with a group of people who went to school in Boston. After sharing some stories of my job search, I suddenly had another light bulb flash over my head!
However, it had been a long time, and I had never done even the facebook follow up with this guy, so some of the details escaped me. But I had to try. Soon, we were all on a mission to find the name of the mystery man from the ride to the Boston Airport.
A few hours later, with many yearbook pages turned and tossed aside, we finally came up with a name. The name of the guy that his sister was dating. A few days later, one of the friends I had made at the wedding got an email from another friend (I know it’s confusing! Just try and bear with me!) telling her that the sister and now husband had just had a baby. So now we had the sisters name. And once we had that, we figured out his name. It took a few more calls, but this week, I finally got his email address.
So now I am deliberating. After all that, I now have a way to contact the mystery name from the cab right who used to work for The Onion. Is that good enough to follow up with my resume and see if he can help me?
My answer: Yes.
It’s just going to take me a day or two to compose an email that doesn’t make me sound like a creeper and gently remind him who I am. Then who knows? Worst-case scenario: restraining order.

Do They Have Cotton Candy at Your Career Fair?

Back in March, my University began advertising its big Spring Career Fair! Finally, some hope for those of us with still no answer to the ‘So what are you going to do next year?’ question on the tip of every adults tongue. Unfortunately this year, unless you had already applied to medical school, most of my friends were still in the ‘Not sure yet’ boat. At least I had company in there right?
A few days before the career fair, when we all had our resumes printed and our interview suits dry-cleaned, the university released the schedule for the three-day event. The schedule had a map of where the different booths would be, who would be at what booths, and what time each company was scheduled to be there. The schedule was made up of a few different documents, and that the information was organized in multiple ways- so that every student could easily find the needs that matched their criteria.
Well, as I’ve mentioned before, there was no film school at my university. No media department, no advertising, television, marketing, radio, or production. Plus, the journalism school helps the journalism students, the business school helps the business students, and the theatre school helps the theatre students.
As a part of the Individual Studies Department, there isn’t really an alumni system that can help out, because the alumni didn’t necessarily study the things you are studying. So it is really up to you to forge the road ahead and make your plans for the upcoming year. Now my roommate (lets call her ‘the honors history student of the year’ to sum up all of her awards in one title) and I looked through the lists for the career fair, and found not a single thing appropriate to either of our job searches. But we were not about to let the system beat us down. She expressed her disappointment to me and grew jealous of friends at other private institutions who had received perfect positions from career fairs specifically geared towards the students and their interests. With that note of inspiration, I began to search for career fairs happening at other universities in the metropolitan area. And by metropolitan area, I mean- schools we could get to using the metro.
I thought it was a pretty snazzy idea. Until I found out that these career fairs are not just something you can walk into with your heels on and your briefcase of resumes. They check ID's, to make sure that they are only helping out their own students.
So we were stuck with our own career fair. The one with all the government jobs and 'consulting' positions. Now seriously, what does it really mean to be a consultant?

*No offense to any consultants out there. I just really don't get what your job does. If you can explain it to me though. I will publicly apologize for questioning your career choice.

A Doubly Whammy!

This past Tuesday, I had four interviews.
In between interview’s #3 and #4, I had an hour to kill as I walked from East 58th street to West 58th Street. As I was looking to a nice place to sit, I saw a whole group of trucks down the street. That many trucks can only mean one thing in New York City- filming.
Armed with 50 copies of my resume and with the air of professionalism that only an interview suit and heels can provide, I quickly headed over to the set. And suddenly, there, 10 feet in front of me, the four Sex and the City girls in their Manolo’s were filming the sequel: Sex and The City 2. Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte. And of course, don’t forget the thousands of women trying to fight their way to the front and take pictures on their camera phones.
While at first I too was giddy with excitement and reaching into my pocket for my phone, I quickly caught myself. Think! Now is the time! Be professional. Get a job!
So instead of walking in towards the set, I started walking in a large circle around the perimeter of the set. I walked up to everyone I saw wearing a headset and politely said, “Excuse me, I’m sorry to bother you but if you need a PA (Production Assistant), here’s my resume.” I then handed them a resume, smiled, and walked away.
I did that to about 20 people. All in headsets and working on the film. Most of them gave me confused looks, and then appreciative smiles. Some just stayed confused. But they all took my resume.
As I was finishing my circuit, they stopped filming and the crowd dispersed. So I continued on my way, going west down 58th street. I was looking at my phone, texting people about my brush with fame, when I felt a hand on my back. I turned around and realized I was walking next to Cynthia Nixon, and our arms were brushing against each other so her bodyguard was trying to move me away. I quickly apologized and explained that I didn’t even realize and I was just on my way to an interview. As we continued to walk side-by-side, the voices inside me began to debate.


“You have to say something! You shouldn’t say anything! But you have to say something! No don’t bother her!”


I looked up at her and quietly said, “I’m sorry about this crowd, I cannot imagine how annoying that must be for you.” She half smiled in acknowledgment. I went back to staring straight ahead and realized that the woman walking in front of me whose shoes I was trying hard not to step on was Kristin Davis. I try and control my excitement. As we reached their trailers there was a whole new slew of crew members in headsets, and as Cynthia Nixon looked on, I handed my resume to a woman with a badge, and offered my services as a Production Assistant. She looked at me with admiration and said, “I just do make up. But right over there, that blond woman? She’s one of the directors. She’s the one you want to talk to.” And together we marched up to the woman, and one more time I gave my spiel. “Sorry to bother you but if you need a PA…” She was caught off guard but appreciative with a genuine “Ok thanks!” that drew a loud “Good for you!” in my direction from the makeup woman.
And on that high, I kept walking towards my next interview.

But Wait!! There’s More!!

At the end of the day, when all of the interviews were finally over, I took the subway uptown to my cousin’s apartment. I walked out of the 86th Street station and headed west over to West End Avenue. Right away, I see another truck full of lighting equipment. Still on a high from my celebrity encounter, I brazenly go up into the back of the truck and ask the man moving equipment what they are filming. “Law and Order” is his reply. I again reach for my resume, and explain that I am looking for a position as a Production Assistant. I then discover that he is the lighting director, and we end up chatting for a bit about working on Law and Order, sports, and lighting. Finally he says, ‘you really want to work on Law and Order? I’m telling you, the hours are terrible.” I must have convinced him that I did and he said, “Ok, well then come with me, I’ll introduce you to the director.”
And so he did. He introduced me to the director, the assistants, the rest of the crew, and some of the cast. I gave out resumes until I had none left in my bag.

All in all, it was a very exciting day.

Oh yea, and then on Wednesday, I saw Matt Damon walking by me on the street. I waved. He smiled and head nodded back. It was glorious. I didn't give him my resume. Less because I didn't want to bother him, more because I thought he would get mad.

MORE STORIES! And then I found 5 dollars.

Two weeks ago, I saw on the Turner website that Campbell Brown at CNN in New York was looking to hire entry-level production assistants. Now, I don’t know why I even bother to apply to anything online, because I have never had anything materialize from it. In fact, I don’t know anyone who applied for a job at one of these big places online and ever got a sound positive response. But they make it hard to find out about the job openings anywhere but their career sites, so I guess it’s what you have to do. So, I submitted my cover letter, resume, and information online for a Production Assistant position at Campbell Brown at CNN New York.
But I decided that wasn’t enough. I wanted to make personal contact with someone working there so they would know to keep an eye out for my application. Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone who works for CNN in New York. I know someone at CNN Atlanta, but I didn’t want to bother him quite yet.
I spent 20 minutes on my computer, and I finally found an address and phone number for CNN in New York City. I called the number, which connected to me to main switchboard. Quickly I made something up.
“Hi, I am calling for Suzanne at the Campbell Brown show,” I said with force.
“Hold on please,’ he said as he transferred me.
Now, while the hold music played in my ear, I’ll explain to you why I chose Suzanne. Do I know a Suzanne who works at CNN? No. But I figure it is a common enough name, or a potentially mispronounced version of so many others (Susan, Suzy, Suzette, Susannah, Ann, Roseanne), that there is bound to be someone I could potentially be transferred to.
“Campbell Brown- this is Tina,” someone answered.
Again I mustered up a voice of confidence. “Hi, this is ____ _____ calling for Suzanne.”
"Sure," she answered, "Hold on please."
More hold music. More waiting.
I’m thinking, 'What do I do when Suzanne answers?' Why have I not thought this completely through? Truthfully, I didn’t actually think I would get past all of the secretaries and operators and actually get to speak to someone. If I had thought that my silly plan might work, I would’ve prepared more. I figured I would just explain to her that I had applied online for the Production Assistant position, and I wanted to follow up on the status of my application, as well as offer to come in and meet with them in person so that they might consider me further.
What I didn’t prepare- was a back story.
A voice suddenly appeared on the line.
“I’m sorry,” she said. It was Tina again. “But who may is say is calling?”
I got flustered and hung up.

Ok yes, it is a terrible story. Because I didn't even follow through with it the whole way.
But, I have since talked to my contact at CNN in Atlanta and talked to a few more people who have given me a few more names. First thing tomorrow- I will be calling them back, this time determined to see it all the way through.

‘Catchy Title’

Here’s a time where I would like to poll the audience.
We all get spam. No matter the filter, the subject, or the content- we all get spam. Even gmail. (Gasp! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!)
So how do you make your email appear legitimate? Mind you, my emails are still legitimate even if I do find some of email addresses I send to on the internet and have to address them ‘To Whom It May Concern’. The first blind emails I sent were to staff at HBO. There was a debate on what to put in the subject heading of those emails. Networking Question? College Grad Looking for Work? Entry Level Position? None of those emails can be read without also having an inappropriate meaning for a spam email. Finally, we settled on: Job Inquiry. They now know exactly why I am writing, and that it is safe enough to open. On the flip side, who wants to be pestered with a job inquiry? My hope is that people are at least kind enough to forward it along to the Human Resources Department, even if they don’t bother to read it themselves. ‘Job Inquiry’ has been my go-to subject heading ever since. Sometimes I add in the name of the position I am applying for, other times I add in entry-level or the name of the company.
But sometimes, you want to make sure you are noticed. Professional, creative, basically someone who is on top of her game.
It was when I started sending blind emails to people at Comedy Central that I decided we needed to spice it up a little. Add some oomph.
Again, there was a lot of debate. Finally, I wrote a haiku:

Comedy Central.
Respects Creativity.
A Job Inquiry.

Yes, it’s a weird thing to put in the subject line of an email. But hopefully it will reach the inbox of someone who goes, “Oh. 5 – 7 – 5. Clever."
Sometimes I put in front of it
‘A Haiku: Comedy Central. Respects Creativity. A Job Inquiry.’
Just so they understand what I did.
Although I guess if I have to explain to them what I was doing that was so witty and clever, it kind of negates the wittiness and cleverness of the whole thing.
So I’m back to my original idea of polling the audience.
What is a clever, catchy, informative, attention grabbing, interest sparking, safe, non spam sounding line, that one could write in the subject box of a blind email to a potential employer or networking opportunity that might inspire them to actually open the email?