5 Ways to Get Hired On Your Next Gig
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For the Job Seeker...
Getting your first job or even your next job in the industry is really hard. I’ve sifted through tens of thousands of resumes, interviewed thousands of candidates and worked with hundreds more. With that in mind, I wanted to share my 5 ways for getting your next gig. Hopefully, you’ll come away with some helpful tips and / or friendly reminders.
Jordi’s Fast Five:
Send a Thank You Note. This used to be hold hat. Now, and this is anecdotal, I see less than 5% of candidates send a thank you note. Maybe it’s because there’s a lot of gigs / jobs they’re applying to. Maybe it’s because we live in the digital age. Regardless, it’s a way to send a hiring manager a strong signal that you care about the position and that you’re motivated. For extra credit, be specific about what excited you in the conversation. That specificity translates into authenticity, which will surely make you stand out from the crowd.
Ask How You Can Help. These days, I find candidates regularly asking good questions either over e-mail or in actual screenings and interviews. They’re asking about basic things like start date, pay, responsibilities, etc. What I don’t find people ask about enough is how they can help. That may seem basic or redundant even. However, I can assure you that it’s not. Asking how you can help, fosters a deeper understanding about the role and its place within the production.
Search for Common Ground. You’re talking to a producer or a production manager about the next gig. Sure, it can be awkward. And the last thing you want to do is engage in small talk. Instead, do your homework by looking up their background online. Maybe they have a LinkedIn or an IMDB profile. You can find common ground in geography, alma mater, or even just similar interest in TV shows and films. Regardless, it will set you up to have a more human interaction.
Play the Long Game. You’re evaluating the gig. Either for experience, the money, your resume / portfolio or a combination of the three. Great. Yet make sure you aren’t treating this as the only gig. This gig may not be perfect, but the next one from this producer could be. Now I’m not talking about working for free or doing “copy/meals/credit”. I’m simply saying to keep an open mind. J.J. Abrams was crewing for much smaller stuff before Lost, Mission Impossible, and Star Trek. So long as the production team that you meet with is professional, offers reasonable compensation, and isn’t asking you to work under dangerous conditions, give them a fair shake. And if the gig still isn’t for you, great. Just make sure to turn it down in a gracious manner. Who knows, you may be turning down the next J.J. Abrams.
Be Clear and Honest About Your Skill Set - Production is highly complex and requires a number of highly specialized skill sets. Even if you are an editor, there are so many kinds of editors with different kinds of strengths. My production company tends to hire a lot of editors who have motion graphics experience. However, that doesn’t mean that we don’t hire more traditional editors to cut dialogue, interviews, and commercials. That said, we put a premium on getting an honest evaluation of what an editor’s strengths are. If an editor tells us that s/he doesn’t excel at After Effects, does that mean we will not hire them? Absolutely not. In fact, we often come back to candidates that did not fit a past project we were working on. At the same token, when editors have told us they could take on a specific skill and it turned out that they could not, well let’s just say those tended to be short lived relationships.
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