Week 1

Pretend that a significant length of time has elapsed since that introductory post. I've started this blog a week into my job-search but I didn't want to group all of my as-of-yet unsuccessful tactics with my introduction. And oh, how they've been unsuccessful.

Disclaimer: I know I've only been on the ground a week here and that I'm trying to find a job in a high profile industry during a recession in what is probably the most depressed state in the union, competing against people who have been unemployed for months, if not years. I get that much. I'm not that naive that I would expect to find a job a week after having moved somewhere.

That being said, it would be nice to get a phone call. To date, my job search has revolved around what I'm qualified for. Believe it or not, the film industry seems to have a slew of entry-level openings for people with business/finance degrees. Paramount, Warner Brothers, Universal, all the major studios have openings almost daily for positions such as "Financial Analyst, Entertainment Analyst, Participations Analyst, etc". Lots of analyzing is needed apparently. Most of them require a degree in finance or accounting (got it), experience in the financial world (got it), basic office skills (got 'em), and some "preferred entertainment experience" (eh, not so much). The downside to approaching the job search in this manner is A) Most of the major studios are owned by parent companies and navigating through their career pages can be tedious and B) I don't really know what I'm looking for. Mostly I'm just making sure I'm qualified for something and hitting "apply". No luck so far.

While it would be nice to have a steady pay-check, benefits and the beginnings of a retirement account, there are other ways to go about finding a job here. The real fun is landing a job as a production assistant. Aside from working in a mail room, it's about as classic of a start as you can get here. The real trick is finding openings. There are a couple of places to find posting about productions needing assistants (As in "Variety" and www.productionweekly.com) but those resources and still no guarantee (obviously) of finding employment.

More to come.