Because I Actually Do Have A Bucket List. Typed Up In A Word Document.

Now, even before the movie The Bucket List came out, I have had a list of my own that I just call ‘Things I Want To Do Before I Die’. Doesn’t sound as good I know, but if Morgan Freeman had uttered it in a soothing voice on thousands of the big screen you might feel differently.
Get a drink named after me. Check.
Go skydiving. Check.
Go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef. Check.
Be in People Magazine. _____

Now, there are way more things besides being in People that I haven’t yet accomplished (see a Blue Whale, see a man eating clam- I swear, my AP Bio teacher said they exist) but that is the one we are going to focus on today.
You see, just before I started this blog, something else hit the web and exploded! Bigger than Charlie Bit Me and bigger than FML. Why bigger? Who is the judge? Because this thing that hit every computer screen somewhere, got written up in the next issue of People Magazine. (It has since then even been incorporated into my favorite TV show (spoiler alert for those of you who still haven’t caught up on this season), The Office.
So congratulations Kevin and Jill, you have hit that goal before me. Congratulations on your wedding too. And on being in People magazine. Oh ya, and for trying to turn a brief youtube phenomenon into a charity organization.

So what does this have to do with my blog, my job search, or me?

Not much, other than I too had a good 5 seconds of fame (this definitely didn’t count as part of my 15 minutes) recently, and I just wanted to share it with you all.
A few nights ago, a more than an acquaintance, not quite a good friend, (lets call her a ‘friendly’), started chatting to me about my life. She opened with, “I have been thinking about you all week.”
Really? I asked. Why?
“Earlier this week, a friend of mine in the CBS Page Program sent me a blog to read saying ‘this person writes my life’. So then I started reading it and I just wanted to share it with you, because it is hilarious, all of my friends read it now, and I feel like it is your life too!”

Well now I am intrigued! What is this blog?

The friendly laughs. She says, “Its called ambitious and funemployed.”
Before she finishes my jaw has unhinged and is resting on the floor. But within a split second, I think I am shrieking. I hope I wasn’t, because I can get very high-pitched, but I think my still ringing ears would attest- there was shrieking.
Did I start this blog with the intentions of being famous? No.
Do I think that because one group of post-college grads found it on the internet and now read it that I am famous? No.
Does this in any way accomplish my goal of getting into People magazine? No.
Am I still loving the fact that someone unknowingly recommended that I read my own work? Hell yes!

Into The Wild, There Goes Another Resume

Yesterday I gave out my resume, not to a celebrity, not to a reporter, not to an awesome job contact. Yesterday I gave out my resume to a guy on the street. During my wild promoting for a film at my current internship, I got stopped in Union Square by one of the many of flyer wielding carnivores. When he realized that I was not a potential customer but rather someone who was soon going to be fighting for the same 10 square foot area of sidewalk battlefield, he introduced himself, and we began to chat. Over the next few hours, I learned that Rob (*names have been changed) made a huge amount of moolah from just handing out fliers. Rob, an aspiring actor, is also of course involved somewhat in the film industry. And by that I mean, makes mini documentaries with no budget to speak of, but just because he is an arts person, and no money no matter.
While him having my resume in no way gets me closer to getting me a job, I met someone cool on the street, and now will potentially be a production assistant for one of his films some random Sunday in Brooklyn. By the time that happens though and I get to put it on my resume, I hope I will have better information for him instead of ‘guy on the street’.

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.

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.

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.

The Art Of Networking

I follow up with every networking opportunity that I get. I keep my resume in my coat pockets, purse, backpack, and laptop case. I even have some folded up copies in the back pockets of my favorite jeans. You never know where you might meet someone, who might lead you to that next someone, who might have an cousin somewhere, who used to work for someone, who will eventually offer you a job. Or when you bump into that random person on the subway, and it turns out they are the executive producer of Oprah’s show (that hasn’t happened…..yet). How much more memorable and impressive are you when after making that connection, you are able to whip out a copy of your resume right then and there, and exchange it for their business card?

So I’ve got everyone I know on the prowl for connections. My entire extended family, worldwide, has a copy of my resume. Countless relatives of each of my roommates, parents and coworkers of my elementary school classmates, and every previous employer and supervisor of mine have copies with the instructions: forward it like it’s hot.

So about 7 months ago, my aunt tells me she has a friend, and that friend’s neighbor is a big name at CBS Sports. Forward it like it’s hot. I get in touch with the friend, the friend gets in touch with the neighbor, and soon after, I am personally emailing an executive at CBS Sports. He is very nice, and tells me that he is passing along my resume to his coworkers.

Four months later, I get a call for an interview at CBS Sports in New York City.

I also have a cousin who works at the deli where Stephen Colbert buys his lunches. Now if only I can get him to start wrapping those sandwiches in my resume….