Just Network

A good friend wrote me yesterday to ask for advice on how to get a job in a new country. She has lived there for a bit but was not getting anywhere in her job search and wanted to know if she should just give up on her theatre career and take an office job or try and start over as an intern. My answer was “either.” The most important thing she needs to be doing right now is expanding her network and meeting new people. In order to do that she needs to be doing something. Interning or an office job could lead to her next job. I said go to work. Meet new people and then meet their friends. And find people with interest in the area you want to work in.

It is rare that a job will come find you out (although it has happened to me once). More likely than not you will gain employment by the people you know. So when in a new town or country in her case, get out and meet as many people as you can and turn one of those connections into a job.

Networking Paying Off

There is a director in DC who is a good friend of mine and I have watched over the last couple of years make strategic moves in networking. He always reaches out to Artistic Directors and makes a point email them, take them to dinner and meet them when they attend shows he’s involved in.

I think he is a very talented director but I have no doubt that he has gotten as far as he did by the networking he has done with all the Artistic Directors. He is my age and about to direct a main stage production for one of the hottest theatres in Washington DC.

Just another example of how good networking pays off.

Be Aggressive

I was talking to a good friend in New York, and she was in a rut about her career. She decided she wanted to break into Broadway. My response was, "Okay, go and do it."

How can you go from not knowing many people working on Broadway to working on Broadway yourself? I told her to connect with anyone she knows who has ties. Turned out I even had someone for her to meet. I told her to follow up. Have people introduce her or introduce herself and have her connection make the follow up call and talk about how great she was. And fortunately for her, she is one of the best.

This business is about connections. It won’t just land in your lap. As I was talking to her, I thought about my connection. I send out about 15 cards or letters every month. I get about 3 responses a month to those notes. That’s a 20% return rate. Not too good. But that’s three more contacts per month that I get than someone who sends no notes.

And some of those notes that don’t get responses pay off later. The job I have now, for instance. I was at a Technical Cattle Call for DC and noticed a new person in the room. It was the Director of Production from Shakespeare Theatre, and she had to take off before I got the chance to meet her. So I thought this was the perfect opportunity to make a connection. I collected all the resumes she missed. Then, the next day, I wrote a note welcoming her to town and included all the resumes she missed. I never heard anything from her, but when I interviewed it was one of the first things we talked about. She thought it was sweet and forgot to send a note.

I don’t think it got me the job, but it made her remember my name and sure didn’t hurt. So when you are looking to change things up or even just looking to improve your network (which you should always be doing), be aggressive and send notes. You never know when it will pay off.

Building a Network

There is more to Facebook than meets the eye. When I first started using Facebook I was afraid that it would take up to much time to maintain and not be worth the extra time. Boy was I wrong! I think Facebook is one of the best tools to build a network and stay in touch with people and in some cases maybe even reach out to people you don’t know. My good friend Ed Reggi told me he had a goal of a certain number of Facebook friends everyday. I laughed because I thought it was so ridiculous. What good could come of having that many friends on Facebook? People you didn’t even know.

Well, it was only a couple of weeks later I started to set goals for myself. Granted I know most of the people but I do add people I don’t know, people that have similar interests. Why? Well Reggi, who is now close to 4,000 friends, has access to all those people. That is more than a lot of local theatres mailing lists.

When you have a large network like that you can do lots of things fast. Promote a show. Raise money. And the more active you are the better to keep your “audiences” attention. I use a couple of different methods of keeping my network. The first one I used was Facebook. Then I started to use Twitter. And now I use this blog to maybe reach more people. What are ways you could build your network and what would you use it for?

Are we friends on Facebook yet?

Job Market Part 1

Today one of my colleges noted that he was looking to fill a position with our company. Someone else said it should be an easy time to fill a job because so many people are looking. I know in the DC area many theatres have had to lay off staff to try and make their fiscal goals. So I wondered what kinds of jobs are out there right now.

I have personally found only two sights to be really useful when looking for work. First, Playbill.com has a great jobs page but is geared more toward NYC and commercial theatre whereas Artsearch (my other favorite) is geared more toward regional and educational theatre.

Yesterday I went through the Artsearch site and looked at the job data to see what kind of jobs were posted this month. I split them into 11 categories and the descriptions and results are below. There were 101 jobs posted on Artsearch for the month of April.

27 Technical – TD, ME, Shop Managers, Crews, ect. (costumes included)
18 Education – Education Department for a theatre or Faculty at a college
13 Interns – Any kind of Intern or Apprentice
9 Leadership – Artistic Directors, Managing Directors, General Managers
8 Sales / Marketing – includes Group Sales, Marketing, PR, Box Office
7 Management – Production Man, Stage Man, ASM, Company Man.
7 Other – Random jobs that did not fit anywhere else
5 Development – Development Staff and Directors
4 Design – Costume, Scene, Lighting, Sound Designers and Assistants
2 Business – Accounting, Bookkeepers
1 Artistic – Directors, Choreographers

Are they posting jobs you are qualified for? Should you be learning more about the technical or educational fields? People ask why I am always looking at job postings if I am happy in my job, which I am. The reason is to know what’s out there and be aware of tends. Plus I like to be helpful and if I see a job that is right for someone I know I pass along that information. Being aware of the job market in my industry makes me an asset to my friends and to my network.

When I have more time I will do a bigger analysis of the jobs by expanding the time frame. Again this is from one site and that site caters more toward Educational and Regional Theatres.