Personnel Agencies and Headhunters and Hiring Managers, Oh My!

I run into this a lot with my clients who are just out of college or grad school and are looking for their first all-important “career” job. These grads get frustrated because they want to work at such & such a type of company or even a specific company and their personnel agency or headhunter (aka executive search professional) keeps sending them on interviews for completely different types of jobs.

Okay, here’s the deal…

Personnel agencies and headhunters don’t work for you.

Their clients are the companies they work for who pay them a commission to find someone appropriate to fill a specific job. They are not going to call Yahoo and pitch you as a candidate in case there is a suitable opening for you. They may want Yahoo’s business, but they won’t be using you to get it.

So what do you do if you have very specific needs- say, a company that you have been dying to work at?

If their website doesn’t contain a job board, you can call the company and schmooze the receptionist into telling you who at the company is responsible for filling the company’s openings. Contact them directly with a cover letter that is specific (about why you want to work at that company and what you have to offer for likely openings) and a resume that shines like a well-polished gem.

Be gracious and passionate and eye-catching and convey the unique qualities that you possess that make you someone they shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to at least interview. (Hire someone to write that cover letter and resume if you are not able to get it done right- it is worth the effort and expense if you really want to get your foot properly wedged in the door to your dream company).

Follow up via phone with the internal person and if they tell you there are no openings, ask for an informational interview to find out about the field, companies like that one and how to get the right opportunity at the right place. You never know. You could end up with a job out of that interview and, at the very least, you will have good solid insider information to help you on your search.

Be gracious with the personnel agency, too, and don’t rule out the possibility that one of their clients may have the exact right position for you. But take my word for it- the agencies don’t stay in business by landing you your dream job. That’s YOUR responsibility. When the two coincide and they find you your dream job, that’s excellent. When they don’t, candidates often get frustrated. Instead, they should just move along.

Getting OUT of Showbiz

When I tell people who are already in the entertainment industry that one of the things I do is help recent grads and others get jobs in the entertainment industry, they often ask me, with tongue only sort-of planted in cheek, if I can help them get OUT of the entertainment industry.

If you aren’t in entertainment, then you might think they must be kidding. But, alas, they are not. Here are some reasons people might want to get out of entertainment:

THE PAY when you first start out, especially when you are in support positions, can be terrible.

THE PEOPLE in the industry aren’t all nice, reasonable or even sane.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT isn’t always something to be proud of.

THE HOURS are sometimes long and unpredictable, sometimes even brutal and around-the-clock.

THE PHYSICAL TOLL is often too much. The physical nature of the job, as in the case of many crew positions (camera department, art department, costumes, electrical, etc.), makes it difficult for people to continue the work past the point in their lives when they are young and hungry. 

The good news- or maybe just the telling news- is that those entertainment industry veterans who ask me about getting out of the industry rarely do. What keeps them there? What is the upside?

THE PAY when you get established can be very good.

THE PEOPLE in the industry are often some of the most generous and creative you will ever meet.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT is sometimes something you can be very proud of.

THE FREEDOM you have when you are freelance to take time off when you want to can make up for the long hours when you do work. You are ultimately your own boss.

THE PHYSICAL TOLL can often be worked around. When you reach a certain level, you can hire people who are young and hungry to do the heavy lifting.

And when all else fails, there’s always THE SWAG. I am right now wearing a FIGHT CLUB tee shirt that I received when I worked as the Executive Assistant to the Executive Producer of FIGHT CLUB.

I also own a MR. & MRS. SMITH baseball cap from my tenure with his company. And maybe even a FREE WILLY plushy toy. Can you imagine??

So to those who are thinking about getting into the industry: I hope this gives you an idea of what you are getting- and not getting- when you get into the biz. Because I’m not giving you my FIGHT CLUB tee shirt. No way.

Got Career Advice?

I graduated from college a while back, but I’m guessing it’s not much different now than it was then.

The only advice I got in high school about my career path was from my parents and other well-meaning adults giving their best guesses, and maybe a few minutes spent with a harried “guidance counselor” at my school. (My vague recollection is of being guided to a very, VERY large book that listed every college in the US and provided two pages of information on each one. Overwhelming? Yes. Helpful? Not so much.)

In college and as graduation loomed, I don’t remember getting much career advice at all. There was no one helping me make informed choices on what summer internship between junior and senior year would be most beneficial, what paying jobs I should aim for during school. There was no one specifically focused on helping me land the right first job out of school. There was probably a “career planning center” at my college, but the experience with my high school “guidance counselor” scared me off exploring that route.

I can only imagine how much better it would’ve felt to have a professional sit down with me and discuss my options- my interests, my passions, my needs- as I went out into the work world, and how much more competent and capable I would’ve been if I’d had someone really prepare me for job hunting, giving me solid advice, and skills I could use not just then, but throughout my career as I moved from job to job. A professional resume and cover letter? That would’ve been great, too.

Though I can’t say it would’ve changed the overall shape of my career, that sort of professional guidance  would’ve given me more options, better options, less guessing. It would’ve empowered me to reach higher, to move on more readily when the job was no longer stimulating, confident that I could get something else, something better. In short, I wish there’d been someone like me around doing what I’m doing now when I’d graduated from college.

Are You in the Middle of a Career Transition?

You are in the middle of a CAREER TRANSITION if:

• You just graduated from college and you are trying to land your first job- or even just figure out what that first job should be.
• You are a mid-career professional unsatisfied with your current line of work and you know you need to make a change. But how? And to what?
• You have been out of the job market for a while (raising a kid, retired, recovering from an illness) and you want to get back in to the professional world, albeit maybe doing something different from what you did before you left the work world.

You have come to the right place. This is where I will be sharing information just for you. Advice, guidance, cautionary tales… all designed to help you get from where you are to where you want to be.

Feel free to comment, ask questions, suggest topics. This is for you.