Lauren Chick

For spring break I went to sunny (yeah right) Los Angeles to job hunt. I say yeah right because it hailed the first day I was there and didn’t go above 60 degrees the entire trip. Anyways, I had a great time seeing old friends and doing all of the usual touristy things. We even went to Vegas for a night which was eventful, to say the least, since at one point in the night we ended up loosing my best friend for the better part of an hour. That was interesting! We also went to Venice Beach for a day, Long Beach one night, and a few other cities in between.

I had a few job interviews lined up and ended up taking the one I did with The Ad Group, TAG for short. TAG is located in LA about 4 blocks from Beverly Hills and backs up to the Universal Studios lot. At first glance it seemed like a great company to work for. They are a promotional advertising/marketing firm whose clientel comes from an aray of Fortune 500 companies. I shadowed an associate for a day and at the close of the evening I was offered a position at the firm, start date May 15. I took the job and was ellated for about a day. Then I discussed the company with my parents…

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Well the job search continues. It is still very difficult to find anything so I have decided to broaded my horizons and search beyond the music industy for now. I will still work in the industry, just not right away and just not as my main bread winner for the not so distant future.

I have been looking into Sales, Marketing, PR and Advertising Jobs in the Los Angeles area. I am actually really excited about the progress I have made so far. After a rigorous, and not to mention dead end, search for music jobs this job search has been like a breath of fresh air.

I already have several interviews lined up in LA when I am out there for spring break with several Ad agencies and Sales companies. The one I am most excited about is my interview with The Ad Group in LA. They selected me, along with a few others, out of over 300 applicants to interview. How exciting!

So, my revised plan: I will get a job in one of the fore mentioned industries and get a good foothold whereever I end up moving. I will continue seeking jobs and networking in the local music scene and see where I go from there. I am excited about the possibility of starting my own label as well! That has always been a dream of mine: complete representation of MY music taste and showing it to the world! Fun! Also, it is something that I can do on the side, that way if I like whatever job I take I can stick to it, which ain’t half bad

So the job search started about two or three weeks ago. It is definitally not fun, though I didn’t think it would be. Not only is it tedious (fill out application, submit resume, fill out ‘about me’ section, make sure you meet the requirements, if not convince them it doesn’t matter, blah blah blah, about 50 times in a row) but there isn’t anything out there!

Well, scratch that. There are tons of jobs out there, just none that are being advertised. To clarify again, I’m looking for a job in the music industry and as the search goes on it is getting harder to find anything. It has been made very clear to me that labels just plain do not advertise open positions! I had been told that in the past. You know that saying: It’s all about who you know? Well, that is definitally true in this case.

Most labels like to promote from within or hire by word-of-mouth and recomendation, at least thats my assumtion thus far. So unless I want to start at the bottom of the rung, a.k.a. coffee slave, I’m going to have to really start pressing my contacts. All those years of internships and networking had better start paying off right about now.

I have a few leads out in California (yay!) but so far they are just “Well my friend knows this guy who owns this label” or “My boyfriend’s brother’s sister owns Sony”. Things like that, as you may know, can go either way…. we will see.

On a similar note, I have my first ‘real’ job interview tomorrow. It is an internet company based out of NYC. I’m really nervous, we’ll see how it goes!

and the search goes on…