Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The lottery rules of job hunting

I want you all to take a minute and think back to your days in high school. Now I want you to name every person in the school you never talked to.

Can't do it, right?

Well, it's the same as asking a News Director to name every job applicant he didn't want to hire.

We've talked about this topic before, but it needs to be visited again. You have absolutely nothing to lose by sending a tape anywhere.

I continue to get questions like, "Will they think badly of me if I send a tape?" and "Suppose they laugh at my tape?" and "I don't have enough experience to send a tape."

Well, let's see. What could happen if you send a tape?

A News Director might eject your tape after 15 seconds. He might roll his eyes watching your first standup. He might just think, "Not what I'm looking for."

The horror! Just imagine how it would feel if a News Director 1,000 miles away that you'll never meet doesn't like your work! How will you ever get through the day? And what happens when the resume tape police show up in your newsroom, point fingers, and laugh at you!

The other thing that could happen if you send a tape? Uh, you could get the job.

Trust me, I can't remember a single tape I watched over the years that I didn't like. When you're watching hundreds of tapes, you don't have time to worry about the mindset of the person sending it. You watch for a few seconds and eject the ones you don't like. At the end of the day you can't remember the names of the tapes you ejected.

And here's another news flash. If you send another tape a few months later, the ND that didn't hire you the first time won't remember that you previously sent a tape.

Will you people just send the damn tapes and stop worrying about what people think? You might just get your dream job. Just like the lottery, you can't win if you don't play the game.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I get the job of going through all the resume tapes sent to the station before giving my top choices to the news director. One thing I can't figure out---why is it only the undesirable candidates that continually call and email asking if I've received their reel? If we want to talk to you, we'll make it happen! It's ridiculously annoying.