Nature of the Industry

The most frustrating part of being an intern is trying to become an intern, or even have someone look at one of the numerous resumes you send out.

Things you need to know about applying for jobs:

1) Since the recession, most businesses are trying to get the most work for the least amount of money. Therefore they now hire more interns for no money rather than paying entry-level positions. However, internships are mostly for college students, so the businesses can provide college credit as compensation and don't violate labor laws. In other words, if you have a chance, do as many internships as you can during school, and not just in the summer time because you'll have to pay your institution for the credits outside of the normal semesters. In short, you have to pay to work and gain experience.

2) Employers want to hire people with experience, but the only way to gain experience is to get hired.

3) The best and fastest way to get noticed and hired is to have contacts, but for those of us who don't have an Uncle Steven Spielberg or a friend-of-a-friend Meryl Streep, it's incredibly difficult to build contacts until you get hired.

4) I visit over a dozen websites at least 3 times a week and apply for nearly a dozen jobs each time. Most of the time your coverletter and resume end up in what I like to refer to as "the blackhole". I don't even think that people check these caches of desperation. The chances of receiving more than an automated email message saying, "Thank you for your submission, here's your reference number. Good luck in your job search. Don't reply to this email address" are slim to none.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that there are people that are sympathetic to our plight and eventually something will work out.

Here's my list of entertainment job sites that I keep tabs on. I hope this helps.
1) mandy.com
2) entertainmentcareers.net
3) NBC/Universal: nbcunicareers.com
4) Fox: foxcareers.com
5) Warner Brothers: warnerbroscareers.com
6) Mediabizjobs.com
7) MTV, Nickelodeon, TVLand: mtvnetworkscareers.com
8) Paramount: paramount.com/studio/jobs
9) A&E, Lifetime, History Channel: aetn.com/careers.html
10) Disney/ABC Corp., Marvel, ESPN, Disney Resorts: corporate.disney.go.com/careers/index.html
11) Media Match: media-match.com/usa/jobsboard.php
12) CBS Network: https://sjobs.brassring.com/1033/ASP/TG/cim_home.asp?partnerid=25084&siteid=5129