HEA
Los Angeles, CA
Female, 0
High-Level Assistant to Chairmen & CEOs of Fortune 100 Companies & Hollywood Executive Producers. Ask me anything! "Like" my answers, especially if you submitted the question so I know you read it! :D Thx!
What a great question! For a first timer, here are some things I suggest you try. 1) Focus your resume on your skills/talents vs the job title/chronology. You want to highlight how similar your skill set is to what they are seeking. Whatever bullet points and items they list that you do well, lift those sentences verbatim from the job description and put them in your resume. 2) Temp while you look for a job so you can say you have executive or admin assistant experience and within entertainment. Call every single temping agency in town. Most major companies also have one on site already. 3) Ready my blog to make sure you want to work in entertainment and for an executive. There's nothing quite like it out there! 4) Try to network or search online for that job posting on other sites or thru other people. Sometimes you can figure out which company it is and tailor your cover letter and resume or find the HR or hiring manager's email address online. 5) Be prepared to take tests. Sometimes companies will give you tests on Word, Excel, Grammar, Listening, Logic, etc. There are about 10 different types of tests out there. 6) The largest obstacle you will face is the catch 22. You need experience to get the job, but you need the job to get the experience. Aim for entry level work where you only need 1-3 years of experience. 7) Get on LinkedIn and make sure you have an online presence that is professional. It will help you brand and sell yourself better and network! "Like" my answers, especially if you submitted the question so I know you read it! :D This is my blog: musingsofahighlevelexecutiveassistant.blogspot.com/
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Borclans asked a related question on 5/9/12 so you may want to see that one as well. The answer really depends on what kind of executive you want to be. While some do start out on the assistant track or in the mailroom, you have to be superb to make it thru the ranks. You can pay your dues by starting out as an assistant, but the surest way to your dream career is to do exactly what you want now, on your own dime and on your own time. The best ones create their own luck WHILE holding down a full time job. The most successful of the Hollywood elite - whether CEOs, Network Executives, Film Directors, or Executive Producers - carved their territory early on, made their mark while relatively young, and/or went rogue and truly did their own thing and started their own projects because that's what they do for fun. It is ingrained in them. And where they end up is really just a natural trajectory of where they began. If you ever read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers you'll see the concept of 10,000 hours reflected everywhere and Hollywood is no exception. 10,000 hours of precise, goal-oriented practice equals about ten years of working at one's craft whether it be business strategy and vision, visual and creative storytelling, or finding a great team of people to work with that compensate your weaknesses. You have to really really want it and breathe it and you can't imagine yourself doing anything else. You will die trying. You will be extremely committed to your career. You will not accept no for an answer. You will be constantly learning and growing within your craft and always feel thisclose to succeeding. That's when you know you are doing something right. Hollywood is filled with a million others wanting the same dream you have, it's filled with rejection and patience and people just as smart and creative as you. It's filled with people who are trust fund babies or who have great connections. Hollywood has no safe routes or guaranteed ladders to climb. It's true, a lot of agents start out in the mailroom. If you want to be an agent become great at meeting people and connecting groups of people to projects. Know how to network and be helpful. The best become partners in their own firm or the CEO. SOME studio executives or filmmakers have the assistant background. But the most successful studio executives went to great schools, had brilliant mentors, and amazing internships. They often come from a business/mergers background or in writing/publishing and probably got a graduate degree/MBA and joined a company on the lower rungs of management or mid-level of their craft right out of the gate. That all counts toward their 10,000 hours of preparation. Great filmmakers had buzz while in college, entered contests and garnered attention locally, perhaps even online. Again, they took the time to master their craft to satisfy their own curiosity and passion. The reality is, anyone with enough drive will just be happy CREATING along the way and the icing on the cake is the Oscar, becoming Chairmen/CEO, or signing a great deal. Many successful people come from humble beginnings and this is why the overnight success and being discovered is so coveted, unbelievable, YET believable. Whether you are 20, 30, or 40, if you start on your 10,000 hours today, you'll be further ahead than a great majority. Like Nike says, JUST DO IT.
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Of course! :)
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I have a BA from a state university where I majored in Broadcasting. Believe it or not, some assistant jobs actually prefer you have an Ivy League degree even if they ask for a career assistant or to promote them up the chain. As to whether I feel overqualified for what I do... It might help to give a little background. When I was a teenager, I was already working part time jobs on-air or had clients who were 30-50 years older with very advanced degrees. Before I graduated college, I also did a lot of internships alongside well-respected people in the industry or at well-known companies. When I entered the workforce, my resume was already pretty lengthy so I didn't have to start from the very bottom. Over the years, I've been steadily promoted in regular intervals and given more responsibility so my career actually hasn't stagnated. Within a few years, I was being headhunted consistently by Fortune companies ranked in the top 50 since I had started my career working at Fortune-ranked companies. At times, it's not that I felt overqualified, but assistant/admin work to a degree is the same skill set utilized repeatedly without creativity injected. At the heart of it, you are organizing someone's day and business life. (Most other jobs revolve around a product or an idea in marketing, advertising, software, or what have you, that is constantly changing.) The daily grind can get quite repetitive with no end in sight at times. On the very worst day when boredom would set in from so much repetition, I wondered if I was actually killing brain cells and getting dumber. For an assistant who isn't rising in the ranks, or anyone who does have a degree, I think the perception is being an assistant is too beneath them. Why go to college if you will just be an assistant? The stigma of being an assistant coupled with the role being largely undervalued and under appreciated adds to that thought. I think anyone should have a degree if you can afford it without going into too much debt over it. Regardless of what you major in, if you can say you have a degree from a 4-year university it says a lot about your character. You can juggle studying, you can follow thru on a goal, you most likely work part time while having a social life, it means you're committed and invested in yourself. People can also show these qualities in other ways without going to school like starting a small business, etc. A BA will only improve your chances of finding work because the standard for getting a BA is the same everywhere. Everyone knows what is required to get one and how long 4 years is. This is why anyone who works at Trader Joe's must have a degree, it demonstrates a higher set of skills, thinking, and attitude. Studies have stated that the assistant is the most powerful person in the office because they are the gatekeeper and run the office. Because it can be a very behind-the-scenes role with "minor" duties that seem easy or unimpressive, it's often misunderstood that anyone can just come in to do the job. Finding the right assistant, that's outstanding, and one who is happy to be there is really really hard to find. There are only so many personality types or people that will thrive in this sort of environment. The very detailed, little tasks that assistants manage don't seem like much because 80% of the work is preparation, 10% of the work is while the event is happening, and 10% of the work occurs afterward. Most people only see 10% of what you do, until you take a step back and look at the bigger picture. You're running an executive's life, you're saving him time, effort, money, energy, stress, and you're keeping him sane. He trusts you with his life and reputation. You're a mini-me, a clone, and help him run a multi-million or billion dollar dept or company. Without you he would be lost. The best attitude to have while being in an assistant role is to realize you are among some of the best and brightest minds of your company. It's an inside look on how decisions are made, companies are run, and how to sharpen your soft skills. I love my career which is why I've been doing it for so long.
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I've never really had a boss that was messing up so bad I had to cover for them. Part of it is because I wouldn't let it get that bad. Believe it or not, the assistant manages the boss - his time, his schedule, his to do list, and about 90% of his life. Even before too much time had passed, I'd reach out to someone and say we haven't forgotten about them. On the off chance my boss did mess up, when someone is so high-ranking, they are truly that busy and it's not that they forgot, they just didn't have the chance to address it yet. It's a good rule to never throw your boss under the bus. If they make a horrible mistake, apologize profusely, ask that person to always go thru you to reach your boss, and say something like: Wow! I'm really surprised he didn't take care of it! It's so unlike him and I'm not quite sure what happened. I will definitely look into it and I will get back to you by the end of the day/week.
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Hi, Ruiz T - LOL What a great question! I can see why you would be inclined to ask it, however, everyone I worked for actually was very qualified and wasn’t lucky in the sense that they were “born into a Hollywood family." If anything, almost everyone I worked for had zero Hollywood background, per se, but succeeded either because they were very, very brilliant in well-rounded ways with people skills, knew other elements of Hollywood such a story/character arcs, or were driven and passionate about the business that they came in from the very bottom in an entry level role and worked their a**es off for decades to then run an entire company. With credentials such as that, one doesn’t “fail up” to become CEO or a major executive and run a Fortune 100 company.
In case you are curious, what I did learn from all my business reading is three fold.
1) Failing up is used as a tactic when a dept head doesn’t want to deal with someone so they promote them out of their own dept so the next higher up inherits the problem person. In this way, an unqualified executive does not fail up to become a CEO and run a company because they won’t be qualified enough and sooner or later the inheriting executive/dept head will realize what’s going on. So then the problem person either ends up never getting promoted past an invisible ceiling, gets passed around depts at the same company or competeing companies in the same industry, laid off, or they leave to pursue a different/sister field.
2) Most executives are hired for their smarts, but are let go for their hearts. This means they don’t know how to run a team, network, lack emotional intelligence, and/or make some sort of social or political misstep that is such a huge PR blunder, they can’t stay at the company. This emphasizes more and more that generally everyone is qualified/smart in a role, what matter is if people like you.
3) Hard work and sheer determination will get you a lot further if you want it bad enough and hang in there long enough. Enthusiasm, passion, wanting to learn/grow, being great to work for and being smart enough is a better asset than just being innately brilliant without people skills. How you apply the aforementioned qualitiese and strengths will benefit your team, dept, and company is demonstrated through one's managerial, leadership, visionary, strategic, and financial skill set. I will leave you with this quote.
“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” -Calvin Coolidge
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