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.

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 Big Dipper AND The Little Dipper

So I have been getting a lot of feedback from readers saying that I am reaching too far and expecting too much. Not only have I been qualified for every job I have applied for, but as I’ve responded to one doubting reader, how else am I supposed to eventually land the dream job? While I may be reaching for the stars, I have not zoomed exclusively passed everything else. It just so happens, that in this economy- it seems that only the big names still have any money to pay even minimum wage. Mind you, its minimum wage and nothing else, but at least they provide more than a ‘monthly metro card and lunch’.

Still though, at this point I am open to any experience, even if it means I live in the subway and eat only the middle meal.

On another slow job posting day last winter, I decided to see what I could find in places that weren't necessarily looking to hire. By my reaching out, they might be able to find a spot for me- or at least know how to find me if they ever have a spot. But how to find these places?
In addition to searching New York production companies in Google, I wanted to find a list of actual potential contacts in the media field.
Well, my university didn’t, and still doesn’t, have a film program. But that’s what happens when you go into college as ‘undecided’ and then realize when you have to ‘decide’, that you have decided on something that isn’t offered. No matter for the determined and creative right? I created my own major. But that’s another story. This story is starts off with the thought ‘what might have been’.

I couldn't get too much help from my school, so I tried to think outside the box. What if I had gone to a different school that could help me? Ideally, I supposed, if I had known what I wanted to do when I was applying to schools, I would have applied to NYU. And if I had gotten in and done what I wanted to do, I guess I would have gone to Tisch. There went the light bulb over my head.

I went on the NYU Tisch website. I searched around for a while, until I found a list of places that Tisch students intern and eventually get jobs. I looked up every name and ever company on that list, found their contact email and information, and emailed them my cover letter and resume. While it still hasn’t netted me a job, the names I am continuously adding to my contacts are going to make my little black book quite valuable one day.