Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The "Seinfeld Syndrome" is alive and well when it comes to resume tapes

If you were a fan of the comedy "Seinfeld" you know that Jerry always found some little fault with any woman he was dating. Man hands, low talker, bad lighting girl, you name it. The running joke was that he could never find the perfect woman.

When it comes to hiring someone, a lot of managers channel Seinfeld as they look at tapes. At various times I've taken tapes I liked to upper management, and gotten these comments:

"She's kinda top heavy."

"He's losing his hair."

"Too thin."

"Bad dye job."

"Needs a nose job."

"He looks too young / too old."

"He's already getting a double chin."

Sounds a lot like Jerry, huh? Note that all the above comments have absolutely nothing to do with reporting or anchoring skills. Everything is superficial.

And the thing to keep in mind is that when it comes to the superficial part of this business, everyone has different tastes.

One day in the newsroom someone started a poll as to who the best looking movie star was. The women were mostly going for Brad Pitt, the men were divided between Nicole Kidman, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Charlize Theron. Then one of the guys chimed in with "Sarah Jessica Parker" and every other guy went, "Huh?"

Like I said, different tastes.

You may be the most qualified reporter, you may have the best anchor tape in the stack, but if you don't fit the taste of management (not just the News Director) then you might not get the job.

As George Costanza would say, "It's not you... it's me."

So if you don't get the gig, it might not be you. It's them.

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Monday, May 21, 2012

A good source of unposted job leads at the end of sweeps

Okay, sweeps are just about over for the news business. (As mentioned earlier, the networks bailed a week or two ago, giving us season finales in early May before segueing to reality show garbage.)

Anyway, that means the summer job hunting season officially begins Thursday and runs till the beginning of November sweeps. So most of you will be sending out bushels of tapes and scouring the Internet for job openings.

Here's a news flash: a lot of News Directors are doing the same thing.

A few things happen after sweeps. If the ratings come in and they're not good, the ND might get canned. He might move on before the guillotine that he knows will fall begins to fall. Or he might just want to move up the ladder.

What does this mean to you? Well, most NDs who arrive in a new place often want some new people. Despite the fact that your new News Director will tell you that "nothing is going to change" trust me, some things, and probably staff members, are going to be new.

So why not greet the new guy with a tape just as he arrives and figures out who he wants to replace?

Go to tvjobs.com, then scroll down the right side of the page to "News Directors Named." You'll find announcements of new management hires. They might not even be at their jobs yet, but you already know that job postings are inevitable in their future. So send a tape to the new guy.

In part two of this, you also know what station the guy left, so a new ND will be there as well. Send a tape to the new person there.

Remember, you don't have to wait for a posting to send a tape. The resume tape police won't show up at your door and put you in handcuffs. But this is just a way to get a little jump on the rest of the crowd.

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