Entertainment Industry Jobs: A Guided Tour Before Jumping In

There are entertainment industry jobs available for just about anyone who wants to be an extra in a movie. Extras are always needed for every kind of films, and a specific look is not always required. Producers will be interested in all types of people, and though most of these entertainment industry jobs do not have speaking parts, they do give people without necessarily any type of acting ability a chance to participate.

When were young and full of ideals, we consider only the cream in the world of entertainment industry jobs and, if we feel entertainment is our calling, aim for acting, directing, or maybe writing roles. But there are also thousands of other equally important positions available, from the grips to the CGI assistants to the editors, of both the writing and the film. And this is just for the movie industry. What about those reality shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race? Take just the singers alone, how many different styles and types of entertainment industry jobs are there? There are the cruise ship singers, the piano lounge singers, the so-accused Chippendale and Karaoke performers and many more. Put another way, not every one is cut out to be a rock star or a pop icon. And again, that reference is to just one show, one niche in the industry, one genre, one example of millions possible.

That’s just television alone. Theres also film, music, theatre, etc. Then think about the entertainment industry jobs within subordinate yet collaborative niches: take for instance, what besides Survivor or any other hot shows, is one of the biggest selling events on Television? Football! Cheerleaders, Announcers. This makes us think of newscasters, maybe camera men, then what about those special effects professionals. Come up with your own associations list. While you are doing that, remember the execs, the emcees, the paper-pushers, the makeup artists, the go-cart mechanics and caterers, etc. I will round up a couple more sources for entertainment industry jobs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics features entertainment industry jobs, and discusses and describes the job duties, the trends, the requirements, and much more for thousands of jobs. (Their site, bls.gov, reminds me of other entertainment industry jobs, like amusement park attendants and entertainers, hotel work, museum work, etc. etc.!)

Go through the entertainment industry jobs boards as well. Many have a database of information and resources to help you define, determine, and decide what to go for. Some will require a couple of dollars, while others may offer a free trial period.

While you’re at it, check up the union – the union websites like screenwriters guilds, etcl. You will certainly end up finding a huge or tiny but imperative position!

Easy Tips To Land A Job Speaking In Public

You can make it easy if you really want to. Although there are those who would give the usual advice of attending a meeting with the famous Toastmasters in order to hone your impromptu speaking skills, this is not as necessary as being aware of yourself and the skills you could objectively define as good, better, best, or needs improvement.

If you know the level of your ability and if you feel you are ready for an actual job speaking in public, the following could be a convenient and effective means to land that speaking job you have always wanted.

Search, search, search and search

Google and Yahoo search is there to help anyone and everyone so make use of it. It is free and is also a quick and efficient way to find what you are looking for. You could enter the words, speaker jobs, or wanted speakers, in the search bar and click search.

Wait for a few seconds and opportunities will be right there at your feet in your easy beck and call. Note down the companies, organizations, or seminar conferences that you are interested in. Or follow the links. There is a definite pot of public speaking job gold to anyone who seeks it.

Patience is the key

Sometimes it happens that there are few websites that teems with jobs in public speaking. Do not lose hope. There may be an instance where you will hit a jackpot and get lucky. There is a forum for speakers that is available on the internet. You could also try to check them out. What you would call a usual good fortune might actually be your perseverance paying off.

Take notes of schedules of conferences

Usually, there are organizations who annually or semi-annually host a seminar or conference where a lot of speakers are needed. This is the perfect occasion to put your foot inside the public speaking door. The typical search for speakers normally begins about six months or eight months in advance. The best thing to do is to check out their schedules and call or communicate with the organization at that time.

Try your hand at training companies

It wouldn’t hurt if you try or at least apply. There is such a company named CareerTracks which hires speakers on a contract basis. The job requires a bit of traveling as well as the skill to be able to sell products to audience attendees. For speakers who are just starting out, this experience is a good one to actually take a crack at.

Starting Your Career In Information Technology Or Accelerating Your Current One

Many newcomers to the IT field are surprised when they find out it’s tougher to get that first job than they thought it would be. I know exactly what that’s like. I’ve had a great career in IT and I’d recommend it to anyone, but I had a tough time breaking in as well. I’d like to share some tips with you on how to get started on what can be a financially rewarding and personally satisfying career in Information Technology.

School systems are a great place to start. A lot of newcomers forget that schools around the world need IT personnel to support school networks, printers, etc. I began my career with a public school system and it was the best move I could ever have made. If you land such a job, you’ll be doing everything from unjamming printers to supporting the school’s Local Area Network (LAN). You get experience that is going to look great on your resume – you’ll have a big advantage over those whose job responsibilities are narrower. You won’t make a lot of money, but what you need at the beginning of your career is experience, not money. Which brings me to my second point ….

Don’t chase the dollars. I know, I know. We all like money, and besides, maybe you’ve got some bills to pay! I’m not suggesting you work for free, but the question you must ask yourself when starting your IT career is this: “What do I want my resume to look like in three years?” The money will be there – if your resume shows a broad range of experience. That’s what you need to get when you’re considering your first job. Use your long-term vision to decide what kind of IT job you want to be in three years from now, and get a job that will give you the necessary experience.

Get certified. You have entered a field where you are always learning – or at least, you better be! If you stand still and stop learning, your skills will become obsolete and your IT career will stall. Start adding certifications to your resume to go along with your experience. Look into programs that deal primarily with PCs, such as A+, and then look at more advanced certifications such as the MCSE and the CCNA. When you are certified in all three major networking areas (hardware, server OS, and routers), you are a “triple threat”! Combine that with some experience and you will end up with a very impressive resume.

Network. Networking has two different meanings in IT, and you know the first one. But besides computer networking, there’s human networking. Get out there and meet people. Your local newspaper has a business section -check it for IT group meetings. The more you’re seen, the more chance you have of being remembered. It’s a small world, and IT is a small world as well. Meet the business leaders of your area as well. It is amazing how a quick face-to-face meeting or conversation can lead to great things down the road.

Having a successful IT career isn’t just about knowing a lot about computers and networks. It’s knowing the right way to get started, getting the right combination of experience and certifications, and meeting people. I know from experience that it’s tough to get started. I also know from experience that no career field rewards individual drive like IT does. So get started today – and if you feel your IT career is stalled, take a step back, list the reasons why this has happened, and then do something about it!

How To Prepare For A Potential Job Loss

What do you do when you have that gut feeling of impending doom about your job? Is the writing on the wall? Are you about to be laid off or fired? Is the company going under? Or is it going to come out of the blue that you no longer have a job. If you have these feeling then now is the time to take action in order to soften the blow. You need to start today to get your affairs in order. If the ax falls you will be in a much better position than your coworkers. If you follow these steps and nothing happens you will still be much better off than you are now.

First off, is your resume up to date? If you have not updated it in a few years, now is the time. You may want to consider hiring a professional to do it for you. You need to put your best foot forward. You want to be able to start sending it out before or right after you become unemployed. Searching for a new job can be a full time job by itself. Do you job skills need updating? While you are still working may be a good time to take a few classes and update your skills or start training for a new career. You may want to sign up with a temp agency now so they can place you later. Advantages of temp agencies are they pay well, they find a job for you, you won’t be competing for a position with dozens of others and you can usually start immediately.

Start networking. Ask everyone you know if they know of any job openings. If you have not lost your job yet, explain to them you may be laid off and will be looking for a new job. Maybe they can give you a contact name within their company. Someone to send your resume to letting them know if they have any openings in the future you would like to be considered. Start the process now. It is not what you know, it is who you know.

Get your financial house in order. This is always easier said than done. If you are like most people you may already be living paycheck to paycheck and there is nothing extra. If you become unemployed you need as much cash as possible to carry you through. Most experts recommend 3-6 months cash to meet your living needs. What if you can’t find a job for 8 months or a year? Gather all your cash reserve or sources for cash. Stash as much as possible to meet you needs.

If you are laid off, the next day you should start filling out any paperwork for unemployment benefits you may qualify for.

You will get through this, it will just take time. Start taking these important steps today and you will be far better prepared for tomorrow.

Acting Auditions Tips

If your looking for acting audition tips this is a good place to start, It’ll give you a few things to consider though because of space its not totally exhaustive, so just consider this a starting point.

Acting auditions can broken down into roughly three sections, The Preparation, The Performance and The Result. We’ll look at all three which will give you enough ideas to make you a little more relaxed about the whole process.

THE PREPARATION

Preparation, as any job interview book will tell you, is essential.

Firstly, do as much research as you can, be it the character you going to play, the director, the company or even the writer. It will show thoroughness and dedication that could be the deciding factor in your favor.

Secondly, make sure you know your monologues, you should have practiced them out loud in front of a variety of people to get as any opinions as possible, if you can’t get a wide range of opinions you may find it useful to record yourself(video or audio), this gives you the chance to evaluate your own performance from a slightly different perspective.

Thirdly, know exactly where the location of the interview is, how long it takes to get there and arrive early. This allows you to relax and find some where to warm up.

You could be hanging around for a long time so take a book, some water and food or something like an ipod to keep you relaxed and occupied.

When in the audition environment it pays dividends to be nice to everyone, remember, todays rival actor could be tomorrows hot new director. This Don’t be intimidated by the other actors auditioning with you, they will be just as nervous as you are. even if they appear cocky that doesn’t make them a better actor than you!

THE PERFORMANCE

First impressions count, so upon entering the acting audition room be confident, positive and friendly. It may be helpful to remind yourself that these people in front of you are on your side, they actually want you to be great! Its good to be as open and personable as possible because you want the director to want to work with you personally as well as professionally and any advantage is an advantage.

Try to keep any questions you may have to a minimum, these are busy people and too many questions can seem overly ingratiating.

Your initial monologue should not really be more than two minutes long, have others prepared, these should show your range and diversity, and also have a longer monologue prepared, just in case the Director requests it.

The director may ask you to reread after direction, so good listening skills are important, at this point its better to ask questions than to assume that you know what the director wants, accepting direction also requires flexibility, so don’t stick too tightly to the same old way you’ve done the reading in the past.

THE RESULT

No article on acting audition tips would be complete without a word or two about rejection.

As you have read there are many ways that you can improve your chances of getting a role, but most actors will get turned down for most jobs most of the time. You could do all of the above and more and still be overlooked, but you should not take this as a comment on your ability. It just indicates that the casting panel thought that someone else was more suitable to that particular role at that particular time.

If you do get called back for a second audition then well done. The same basic rules apply with a few subtle tweaks that will have to wait for another article.

Thanks for taking the time to read my acting audition tips and I hope it gave you a few things to think about.

Starting Your Career In Information Technology Or Accelerating Your Current One

Many newcomers to the IT field are surprised when they find out it’s tougher to get that first job than they thought it would be. I know exactly what that’s like. I’ve had a great career in IT and I’d recommend it to anyone, but I had a tough time breaking in as well. I’d like to share some tips with you on how to get started on what can be a financially rewarding and personally satisfying career in Information Technology.

School systems are a great place to start. A lot of newcomers forget that schools around the world need IT personnel to support school networks, printers, etc. I began my career with a public school system and it was the best move I could ever have made. If you land such a job, you’ll be doing everything from unjamming printers to supporting the school’s Local Area Network (LAN). You get experience that is going to look great on your resume – you’ll have a big advantage over those whose job responsibilities are narrower. You won’t make a lot of money, but what you need at the beginning of your career is experience, not money. Which brings me to my second point ….

Don’t chase the dollars. I know, I know. We all like money, and besides, maybe you’ve got some bills to pay! I’m not suggesting you work for free, but the question you must ask yourself when starting your IT career is this: “What do I want my resume to look like in three years?” The money will be there – if your resume shows a broad range of experience. That’s what you need to get when you’re considering your first job. Use your long-term vision to decide what kind of IT job you want to be in three years from now, and get a job that will give you the necessary experience.

Get certified. You have entered a field where you are always learning – or at least, you better be! If you stand still and stop learning, your skills will become obsolete and your IT career will stall. Start adding certifications to your resume to go along with your experience. Look into programs that deal primarily with PCs, such as A+, and then look at more advanced certifications such as the MCSE and the CCNA. When you are certified in all three major networking areas (hardware, server OS, and routers), you are a “triple threat”! Combine that with some experience and you will end up with a very impressive resume.

Network. Networking has two different meanings in IT, and you know the first one. But besides computer networking, there’s human networking. Get out there and meet people. Your local newspaper has a business section -check it for IT group meetings. The more you’re seen, the more chance you have of being remembered. It’s a small world, and IT is a small world as well. Meet the business leaders of your area as well. It is amazing how a quick face-to-face meeting or conversation can lead to great things down the road.

Having a successful IT career isn’t just about knowing a lot about computers and networks. It’s knowing the right way to get started, getting the right combination of experience and certifications, and meeting people. I know from experience that it’s tough to get started. I also know from experience that no career field rewards individual drive like IT does. So get started today – and if you feel your IT career is stalled, take a step back, list the reasons why this has happened, and then do something about it!