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By Michael Mel
In this business, the adage “It’s not what you know, but who you know” is
especially apt. This is not to say that talent and ability don’t play a
significant part, but that the career ladder climbed in the public assembly
industry is not as straight as it is in other more conventional industries.
Keri Obleton had a great article in the February/March 2008 issue of
Facility Manager called “Passing the Torch.” It is a discussion of the
necessity and benefits of mentoring someone, both to the mentee as well as
the mentor. This is often where a young person begins accumulating the
experiences, expertise and, most importantly, friendships that will guide
them into and through their careers.
Many of us have drifted into this profession; we found we had an aptitude
and interest, and without necessarily being aware of it, settled in for the
long haul. Over the past 10 to 20 years, college- and IAAM-sponsored
programs have
 developed to offer an intentional path to those interested. In
either case, a young person just starting out will not likely find a job
based upon their necessarily meager résumé unless it is bolstered by the
recommendation of a mentor, teacher or some other established person. These
people vouchsafe our latent abilities and say that we have the right stuff
for the job, despite what may be a significant lack of experience. After
working a few years in a few jobs, we gain experience and develop more
substantial references to put on a résumé, but often find that particular
piece of paper is not so necessary anymore and networking takes over.
Working in your venue, you meet people. Attending conferences and other
industry-related events, you meet people.
Walking down the street, you meet people. And the more people you meet in
our profession, the greater the likelihood a job
will come your way. After 10 years or so, you will be intimately connected
to the industry grapevine and find out about new jobs before they are
advertised.
Sometimes inside industry knowledge will allow you to create a position at a
venue where none existed previously. Before you know it, people will be
contacting you to see if you know about any open positions. One job leads to
the next, which leads to the next and leads to the next. This unique
character of our industry’s web of contacts and friendships ensures movement
between jobs with relative ease.
Job Hunting
Death and taxes are the only sure things in life, the old trope goes, and
there is no guarantee that the rosy picture painted above will continue
indefinitely. Indeed, you may be so comfortable that it may take a while to
realize that “it” isn’t happening. Wait a minute — this can’t be happening
to me! After 10, 20, 30 years, it’s all supposed to roll on smoothly with
hardly any effort.
So, you break out your Rolodex and call/e-mail/write everyone you have ever
known or worked with in the biz. You contact family, friends and friends of
friends. Everyone is sympathetic and willing to help and give support in
your time of unemployment crisis. You hit the industry job boards and then Monster.com or something similar.
You will work on this for many hours each day, because you don’t have a job
to keep you busy and the bills keep coming. Soon the creditors start calling
you and are very sympathetic, but a payment plan — even a reduced payment
plan — is no use when there is no money coming in. It’s an emotional roller
coaster and you want to talk about stress? This will make an accidental
triggering of the sprinkler system seem like a picnic.
Weeks and months can go by and despite your best efforts, nothing has worked
out except maybe a few short- term gigs at nowhere near the money you had
been earning. Did I mention the creditors will call you every day?
Eventually you will reach the point where it becomes time to ‘give up the
baby’; that is, look for work in a completely different field. This is
perhaps one of the tougher experiences you will ever have. How is it that,
after so many years successfully pursuing your life in the theater, all of a
sudden it stops? I don’t have an answer, but I know it can be true.
Developing a Plan B
In this situation, the first idea to embrace is that changing career paths
does not mean that you have failed in any sense of the word. If it means
anything at all, it’s just that you have decided to try something new, and
something new can be exciting. As when you were younger, all roads are open
and the one to take is up to you. You have learned many valuable skills and
have experience and expertise in areas that will be valuable to any
business. Working in any type of venue means that you will have experience
in team leadership, consensus building, project management, human resources,
conflict resolution, budgeting, strategic planning, negotiations, customer
relations, vendor relations, logistics (which is a fancy word for organizing
people and events), capital and operational planning, analysis, facility
management, etc. The key is to cast these in an appropriate light.
The Internet is a wonderful resource for finding information about potential
advertised jobs (newspapers, job boards, etc.) and unadvertised jobs (press
releases, industry periodicals, company Web sites, etc.), industries, and
companies. Find out as much as you can before contacting anyone. Employers
are interested in what you can do for them, what problems you can solve and
how quickly you can do it. Keep this in mind as you put your résumé and
cover letter together, because sending an uninformed, unsolicited résumé
will only get you scanned into a database and forgotten. At worst, it will
just get trashed.
There are books and online resources that will help to craft a résumé and
cover letter that will demonstrate how you have used your skills, experience
and expertise to solve problems. These resources will also cover the myriad
other considerations you will need to make. On a practical note, keep your
initial résumé to one page. Choose an easy-to-read font, such as Times New
Roman. Don’t be fancy schmancy — keep it simple and straightforward. Don’t
feel obliged to include absolutely every thing on that one page. This
initial résumé is intended to get an employer’s attention and convince him
or her to call you. Save something new for the telephone or in-person interview. Depending upon the range of choices you are pursuing, you
will likely need several résumés and cover letters, each emphasizing items
related to a specific choice. There is much more to consider that is beyond
the scope of this article, but as with any Internet search, one thing leads
to another. There are firms that will assist you to market yourself and
provide an objective view of how best to transfer your unique abilities into
a job that will make you happy to go to work in the morning.
One last thing to remember is that finding a new job is a job in itself and
should be addressed with the same dedication and vigor. Plan your campaign.
Set realistic short- and long-term goals and time tables. Keep all the
information you accrue organized and easily accessible. Know that the
average time to find a new career/job is said to be nine months and, given
the current economic climate, may take longer. Work every day, and don’t
beat yourself up if you don’t. Remember that you are still entitled to
weekends off and to continue to live your life. After all, it’s just a
job .fm
Michael Mell gave up his baby last January. He
may be reached at michaelmell@live.com.
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