Job Hunting - My Experience

This shit has been so heavy on my chest recently. If you go to a smaller state school in Midwest, there's like no one to help you get a job in entertainment. I thought I would make this post so others don't have to suffer the way that I have. I am recently post grad looking for assistant/entry level jobs. My background is in production and I'm not from a major city.

I am looking to get away from production and move in office. I've done the traditional search through individual production companies for openings and IT DOESN'T WORK! It has literally worked for one person I know and they went to one of the big film schools. Everyone else I know has gotten their assistant job from a friend or connection. And getting a well connected friend/connection really only works if you're in one of the major cities.

I was recommended Hollylist by a mentor. THAT SITE IS THE SCAM OF ALL SCAMS!!! I CANNOT SAY THAT ENOUGH!!! DO NOT USE THAT SITE. IT IS A WASTE OF MONEY. If you are going to pay for a job site (and I'm not saying you have to), I would suggest Entertainment Careers. I have gotten several interviews from that site, both the public postings and the confidential posting. If you don't know how EC works, companies can choose to post anonymously on the site so the only way you'll know who the job is for is if you get an interview.

If you are from a smaller city like me, you need to get good at making online friends quickly! A lot of my interviews have come from online friends vouching for me or letting me know when jobs were opening up so I could be one of the first to apply. You also need to get good at lying! I hate to put it that way, but it's the truth. I lie about where I'm located almost all of the time. Telling people you would have to relocate for the job has been a turn off in my experience.

I guess to wrap this up I must say that I do not have a job YET! But given the current state of the industry getting an interview is a success in itself. Once I really focused on connecting with other people like me, lying about my location, and using EC I saw a huge jump in the amount of interviews I've gotten. I spent my last semester getting dozens of automated rejection emails. But through my new, amazing friends I am now connected to job openings that don't even get posted sometimes. And EC is a job board that has ACTUAL JOBS ON IT and not just reposting Disney and NBCU jobs that are easy to find! I'm not trying to glaze EC because you do have to pay for it, but at least they don't falsely advertise and you get the service you pay for.