Hire Me.

I absolutely loathe updating my resume. It's something I have to do at least once a semester and I can never fit everything I want to fit on it. I don't know which jobs are more important than others, I don't know what "other stuff" to list, and I always screw up the formatting. Plus, it's pretty difficult to make tasks like "alphabetizing" and "hole-punching papers" sound enticing. HOW do I get YOU to hire me? What do you want to see on my resume? Do you want to hear about my steady office job at school or my one-day stint as a talent escort? Do you want to know that I have conversational Spanish abilities or that I participated in a research project with a well-respected professor last semester? Where do I list my cinema minor? How big does my name have to be? Should I print it on pink paper and finish it with perfume a la Elle Woods or turn it into a candy bar wrapper a la this guy? (EDIT: an article on Yahoo News this morning about '11 Resumes That Got Worldwide Attention' how do I compete???) How can I make my resume better than the rest of the ones in the pile on your desk? HELP ME. I guess it's a good thing that my biggest resume problem at the age of nineteen is that I can't fit all my work experience on it. But I have to start applying for summer internships right now and I don't know how to tackle this issue. I need advice, but I don't think I have enough time to GET advice. I want to start applying NOW, not in two weeks. I haven't decided where or for whom I want to work this summer but I've got to start getting my name out there. Please. Hire me.

I'd Probably Trip Up the Stairs Too

I already bragged about it on Facebook, but since the Oscars were tonight and since this blog is supposed to be Career Oriented and I'm supposed to Blog About Happenings In My Field, I figure I should blog about the Oscars. I'm in a really really really cool film class this semester. I got lucky and I happened upon a spot in this amazing class and every Thursday I look forward to spending 7:00pm-11:00pm in a theatre. Each week we get to see a film and have a q&a with someone who worked on the film. These films may or may not have been released yet, but as the professor is the famous movie critic Leonard Maltin, the films and the speakers are usually pretty freaking good. We have only had six classes and we've seen four of this years Oscar nominated films and had q&a's with their directors. Only one of them won this year, but I'm still in awe at this statistic. FOUR. OSCAR. NOMINEES. Every day, every week, every month, every semester, I find new reasons to love my school more than I already do.

Alright so in my class we had the privilege to see and hear from
Paperman - WON for Short Film, Animated - director John Kahrs
The Gatekeepers - Nominated for Documentary Feature - director Dror Moreh
A Royal Affair - Nominated for Foreign Language Film - director Nikolaj Arcel
Beasts of the Southern Wild - Nominated for Best Picture, Directing, Writing- Adapted Screenplay, and Actress in a Leading Role - director Benh Zeitlin

I'm not going to discuss these in detail, but I am just so privileged to be in such a wonderful world of film. In terms of the award ceremony, I LOVED Seth MacFarlane as a host, I absolutely adored the musical tributes, I'm so glad Jennifer Lawrence won Best Actress, I'm very glad I watched Argo last night instead of Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty (since it won Best Picture over the others), I'm bitter that Anna Karenina didn't win for Production Design, and I cried during Ben Affleck's speech. I think that about sums it up?

I never really care about award shows in general (unless I'm attending them) and I never really care about the Oscars. I know I should - this is the industry I want to work in, I should have watched the past years worth of Emmys, Globes, Grammys, and Oscars. But alas, I have just never really cared. This year was a bit different. I don't have a TV right now and I was so disappointed I couldn't watch Tina and Amy rock the Globes (although I did watch clips online, thanks Hulu!) and I wasn't looking forward to begging my friend to let me use her TV to watch the Oscars (thankfully she too wanted to watch them). I made a valiant effort to watch as many of the nominated films as I could (before the show I hadn't seen four, Django Unchained, Amour, Lincoln, and Zero Dark Thirty. I watched Lincoln after the show and I plan on watching the rest plus The Master and The Impossible) whereas last year I hadn't seen ANY of the nominees. It's important. And I know it's important and I've always known it's important but I've just never really cared.

If I could join the ranks of Oscar nominees, Oscar attendees, or even Oscar-appreciated deaths in my future, I would be so unbelievably grateful. It's time to start caring.

Tacos and Mexican Coke

If you never toured the beautiful campus of USC or conducted extensive research on the wonderful aspects of it, you may have never heard of the existence of the "Trojan Family." And if you have heard of it, there's a possibility you may have been skeptical about it. But let me assure you that the Trojan Family is a real family; it's not some idea the admissions center contrived to lure you into an expensive private institution. When you meet another Trojan, whether they're a current student or an alumni, there's an instant connection and an instant desire to help them. "After you graduate no one cares that you went to USC unless they went to USC." I heard this quote last night during my Trojan SCupper. What is a Trojan SCupper you ask? Well, I'm a member of the Student Alumni Society which is spearheaded by Society 53 which is an exclusive student-alumni connecting group. Every year Society 53 puts on a bunch of "SCuppers" - dinners hosted by a handful of USC alumni with the end goal of networking. Last year I went to one in Newport Beach at someone's BEAUTIFUL house and there was delicious catering and it was a pretty good time. Unfortunately for me, the alumni had absolutely no connection with my career goals AND they didn't even live in LA. While I talked with some alums, I didn't really see the need in trying very hard to make a connection. This year was a bit different.

For starters, instead of attending a SCupper at a beautiful mansion in Orange County, my SCupper was at a town house in Studio City. I was a little shocked and disappointed because of the size of the place (okay, if you go to USC you're held to pretty high standards because. You. Go. Somewhere. Or you're expected to, at least) but I then learned that the host of the SCupper was only 25 years old. I stepped into a beautiful two-story "town house" (as she called it) and was suddenly transported five years into my future. If this was where I was living, I would be doing something right.

After dining from the delicious homemade taco bar and slurping down glass bottles of Mexican Coke, the alumni told us about their experiences thus far. They were all part of the Young Alumni Club so they all had just graduated USC pretty recently. While they all had their stories of success and failure, I was enamored with the host, Julie. She described her college self as "a communication major, business and cinema minor" who "knew [she] wanted to work in the industry but didn't know where." Literally me. Well, except the business minor. She also mentioned that she studied abroad through Annenberg in London, which is my plan for next spring. She works at Warner Bros. in the HR department, even though she didn't think she wanted to go into HR at all and she absolutely loves her job and she has a dog and lives alone in the beautiful two story town house and she works as a "page" for the Oscars every year and dated an Australian actor and had "stories" about Ben Affleck and Tom Cruise and basically had me hanging on her every word. She was strong and level-headed and hilarious. I didn't really get a chance to talk to her or any of the other alumni because of the nature of the SCupper and because we ran out of time very quickly, but I hope/plan to send her an email to stay in contact. I felt like this woman exemplified my five-year goal. Not that I really have a five year goal, but if in five years I'm working in the industry in a job I love in a cute house I purchased with a dog and good friends and hosting USC students in my house, I would be so damn happy.

"It's not about what you know, it's about who you know"

Coffee, Tea and M&Ms

Hello friends, today marks my fifteenth day at my internship. Yes, I just went through my calendar and counted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the past two months. It's weird to think that even though I started working here on January 14th and it's currently February 20th (sidebar: I started this post two days before I published it), it's really only been two weeks of work. Now, I'm not going to lie and tell you all that I do a whole lot of really important work here at this internship, as you can tell by the fact that I created this blog and am writing this post whilst sitting at my desk at the company. Today was, however, the busiest day I've had here. And I should be spending this free time working on my 3-5 page paper due tomorrow night (that I, um, haven't started yet) but alas blogging is much more entertaining.

This is my very first internship. Sure I've had plenty of other jobs (for my age, at least) but this is my first, bonafide, unpaid, "learning-experience" internship. And I can't really tell how I feel about it just yet. On the whole I do a lot of hole-punching, copy-making, and thumb-twiddling but I've had a handful of days I've enjoyed a lot more than others - for instance I went to a screening of a Sundance film that one of our clients wrote and starred in, and I drove a very fun and spunky British client to an audition all the way across town. While these may not seem like Super Fun Intern Activities I really enjoyed them.

I've realized here, on days when I spend eight hours picking my cuticles, that I don't think I can spend the rest of my life in an office. I never thought I was one of those people who "Can Not Live in a Cubicle My Whole Life!!" but it looks like things have changed. I know that I'll be working in and out of offices for the next few years and I'm totally okay with that but I can't visualize my future sitting at a desk ordering my assistant to get coffee for me. I think I see myself on set or in audition rooms or something, just not staring at the walls of an office building (even if they are made out of glass and have beautiful views of the Hollywood hills, which I'm staring at right now). When I realized this it scared the hell out of me - for the past year I've been considering becoming an agent or a manager, two jobs that require you to basically live in your office. Suddenly I had NO idea what I wanted to do or where I was going. For years I've known that I wanted to work in the industry and I knew I needed time to explore, but recently I thought I knew exactly where in the industry I wanted to go. Now I have no idea.

This freak out forced me to think hard about my future but it also forced me to reflect. I have had quite a lot of jobs "for my age" and I am "getting started so young!" Reflect with me in detail. My very first job ever was on the ESPN Espy Awards - I didn't do anything really exciting, but my favorite parts of the six day job were standing on the carpet and watching the arrivals and then getting to watch the show from backstage. My next job was the X Games, which consisted of a LOT of grunt work. I think my favorite part about that was the friendships I made - I liked the events but I didn't find myself drooling over them and I didn't really enjoy having to wear sneakers every day. For my next three jobs I was an extra - I did one episode of Dexter and two episodes of Glee. I don't include this work on my resume because it's not really that related to what I want to do, but I had a blast and trust me when I say I enjoying watching the gif of me from Glee walking behind Blaine and Kurt... My next job was by far my absolute favorite. Well, technically I guess they're two different jobs but they were at the same company and they were both my favorites. First I worked on The Voice as a PA during the open call auditions. I worked directly with an A&R person and I got to sit in and watch all of the auditions and gauge his opinions on the talent. I prepped the auditionees and then I cut their wristbands after they didn't make it. While I did have to sit through a LOT of crappy Adele songs I really enjoyed it on the whole. This is the experience that's made me consider casting. A few weeks after those two fateful days I was asked to interview for the season. When asked what department I wanted to work in, I quickly muttered "Contestant." That single word made all the difference.

I'm a people person. I'm pretty shy initially and I have trouble starting conversations with strangers unless I need them for something or I think they need me for something, but overall I love getting to know people and talking to them and working with them. I was a junior counselor in high school and I adored working with the children. I pride myself on giving good advice to my friends and family when given the opportunity. I didn't know what to expect working in the contestant department but I was excited nonetheless. I first started working during casting week and dealt with tons and tons of different people and personalities. I did my best to memorize about 200 names and made sure everyone was where they needed to be when they needed to be there. I think after casting week there were about 125 people left and yes, I knew who everyone was and I had interacted with everyone to the point where they knew me as Hannah or as The Girl Who Always Tells Me What To Do. It gets to be a bit difficult ordering people around when you're only 18 and you're trying to get people anywhere from 16-65 to listen to you, but after awhile they do realize that you're in charge. Sort of. Anyway, I worked with the contestants and wardrobe and travel and the vocal coaches and transportation and it was really, really great. Although days would be frustrating when I was literally running down hallways and wasting cell phone minutes and trying to find missing contestants, but at the end of the day I was always looking forward to the next one. I worked on the show during my ("forced") semester off and I was living in Burbank with my dad and I didn't have any friends around me and it was probably the only thing that made me happy. During the first day of the blind auditions I was at the hotel waiting for the contestants to arrive from set after they had their auditions. I had to keep them level-headed if they made it onto a team and I had to comfort them if they didn't, but most of all I had to make sure all of their affairs were in order. It was definitely difficult seeing a van pull up and knowing the outcome just by the look of the relative in the front seat. The next day I had prepped myself to do the same, but I was called in to work in the hair & makeup / family holding room area on set. It was my responsibility to make sure everyone was ready to go on when they needed to be, was happy and excited before they went on, and make sure their families were prepped and ready when they needed to be. It was a lot of running around and talking to people but again I loved it. After the four days of the blind auditions were over we took a month hiatus and I was a bit down in the dumps. We started back up again with the battle rounds and this time around I was on the lot a lot, working in the hair and makeup/ contestant holding area. A bit of the same as the first time, but it was a lot more fast paced and every single contestant had a LOT more going on in terms of hair and makeup and wardrobe. Basically I LOVED working on The Voice and at one point I seriously considered not attending USC so I could start getting serious about working full-time instead. Alas, I knew I had to go to school and I'm so glad that I did.

Blah blah blah this post is so unbelievably long. I had to quit The Voice to go to school and I ended up getting a boring office job on campus for income. Again over the summer I worked the Espy's and the X Games and again I made some really good friends but I just know I don't want to work in sports or operations. I will NOT and CANNOT work those two jobs again. It's a great source of income and X Games is such great bonding (10 hour days, 21 days straight) but I just need to get new experiences.

Because this blog was started for my intern class (hello Professor Lawrence-Hughes!), I have to mention the fact that I have recently discovered Deadline Hollywood and I love it. I don't always read the articles but just a quick scroll gives me great updates about the industry. It's funny because last semester I was the social media coordinator for The SCoop, USC's entertainment news show, and I would always want to post entertainment news but by the time I found out about said "news", every other entertainment news source had already posted it. I had NO idea where they all got their information from but now I know it's freaking from Deadline. So basically I now have a love affair with Deadline Hollywood.

Whenever I start blogs or Tumblrs I always tell myself "I love this! I am going to keep up with it!!" and then I never really do. I think because of the nature of this blog (and because at least four posts are required for class) I am going to try very hard to keep up with it. My friend Jenna from X Games is a script supervisor and just started a blog about her "lifeonset" and I find it so interesting! So maybe there are people out there who find what I do (or rather what I'm TRYING to do) interesting and want to hear about my career-life. Welcome to my blog :)