 Detail-oriented. Strong written and verbal communication skills. Go-getter. These are the soft skills that are most often listed in job postings. They’re also the easiest ones for hiring managers to assess during the hiring process! And no, this is not because you’ve listed them on your resume. In fact, if you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you know that we recommend avoiding listing soft skills on your resume, and instead showing how you used those skills through bullet points that reflect tangible accomplishments. One of the reasons we make that recommendation is because anyone can claim a soft skill, and without evidence to back it up, why would a hiring manager believe you? Beyond that, hiring managers can directly see if you have some of the soft skills they require through the application process. Let's go through a few examples how they assess these three skills. Hiring managers can tell if you’re detail-oriented very easily. First, did you follow the application instructions in the job posting? If they asked for a cover letter, and you didn’t send one, you obviously missed that detail. If they asked you to include your top three favorite TV shows in the cover letter, and you don’t, they know you don’t pay attention to details or follow instructions. (That kind of call out is actually designed almost exclusively as a soft skills test, which is why it’s listed more in entry-level postings where applicants may not have proven their soft skills professionally yet!). Another way to see if you’re detail-oriented – does your resume match the job posting? Is it clear why you applied? Or did you send a production-oriented resume for a development executive role? A detail-oriented person will read the posting carefully and thoroughly and review their resume to make sure it aligns with the role. Similarly, communication skills become evident throughout the application process. For example, if a person with strong written communication skills is applying for a job over email, they’ll send a short, well-written cover email instead of a blank email or a one-line “See attached.” When they’re contacted for an interview, they’ll respond professionally, with full, punctuated sentences, and no typos or grammatical errors. If a hiring manager reaches out to set an interview, and you reply to the email, “Yupp Monday 10am is good Thx,” you’re not demonstrating strong written communication skills for a professional environment. It’s also easy for hiring managers to get a sense of your verbal communication skills during the job interview. Sure, they’re looking to see if you’re really a fit based on a deeper dive into your professional background, but they’ll also know in a moment or two whether you are able to communicate your thoughts concisely and articulately. A skill like “go-getter” is obvious to hiring managers too! Someone who truly takes initiative will do so during their job search. First, they’ll make sure their materials are as strong as can be and tailored to the job posting. Then, they’ll go the extra mile to see if they can get a referral to the position through their network or try to find a recruiter on LinkedIn who they can speak to directly. Even if they can’t find a connection, if they do get an interview, they’ll show proactivity by arriving on time, answering questions that demonstrate they've researched the company and projects, and sending a thank you note within 24 hours. As you apply for jobs, keep in mind that hiring managers are vetting you beyond what’s written on your resume or said in your interview. One of the biggest missteps candidates can make is claiming a soft skill they don’t have, as it raises red flags about all their other qualifications the moment a hiring manager discovers one is a misrepresentation. Make sure you cultivate these skills (coaching can help!) and demonstrate them throughout the application process. -- Angela Silak & Cindy Kaplan
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 When you first start out in Hollywood, chances are you’re an assistant of some sort, whether that’s supporting an executive on a desk or supporting a production. And being an assistant is a great way to get your foot in the door! But too many people get caught with one foot through the threshold and that’s it…stuck in Hollywood assistant-dom for years with no real advancement. We don’t want that for you! Your Hollywood dream job lies beyond the admin stuff, and we want to help you get there. Our latest e-book, The Hollywood Assistant Guide: How to Roll Calls, Manage Calendars, Write Script Coverage and Maintain Organization on a Busy Entertainment Desk, will help you become a great assistant. And once you master the art of being a great assistant, you can hone your skills further to get that well-earned promotion. Here’s how: Showcase your taste. When you’ve got a strong understanding of the basics -- phones, scheduling, tracking -- you’ll have earned the right to engage with your boss on larger creative conversations. A good boss will want to give you opportunities to weigh in with script notes, take the first stab at a treatment, make initial talent selects, pitch a joke or two in the writers’ room, or suggest a workaround for an issue on set. Take advantage of these opportunities, politely and humbly, and consider asking for more chances to expand your creative input. Maybe you can hip pocket a client, bring monthly suggestions of books for potential acquisition, or simply join higher-level meetings. Initiate solutions. There are a million things that are backlogged in every office. Consider what processes you can improve or what tasks you can take off your boss’s plate. Take initiative to make things better and more efficient. For example, if your boss has been meaning to expand their list of writers of historically underrepresented groups but doesn’t have a minute to do the required research, offer to take that project on by curating a list of scripts from contests, fellowships, or peer recommendations. If your production office has a sloppy crew database because no one’s had the time to update it for the last few production cycles, create an easily-maintainable system. Talk to your boss. Very few bosses have the capacity to remember to advocate for you – which means you have to advocate for yourself. Your boss may not be keeping a close eye on the calendar the way you are and has no idea your year on their desk is almost up. Make a list of your achievements and added responsibilities since you first started and ask your boss to have a discussion about your future. Explain to your boss what your goals are and ask for a promotion and/or growth plan. If you’re on a show or movie, talk to the line producer about how you’d love to be considered for coordinator positions on their next project, and mention this to other crew members in your department as well. The answer might be “no” if you ask, but it’s almost definitely “no” if you don’t ask. Move on if you can’t move up. It’s possible there’s no room for growth at your current company, or that your boss will refuse to promote you (and even gets upset by the ask). If this happens, it’s time to get out! You don’t owe anyone loyalty but yourself. It’s understood that people won’t stay assistants forever, so you should feel completely comfortable and qualm-free about looking elsewhere to level up. There are some higher-ups who will consider it a personal affront that you dared to leave their desk, but trust us from experience – they’re not worth your time. These people will not help you down the line, and they will only hold you back. You’ve done a great job as their assistant, which was the maximum you owed them, even if they tell you otherwise. Tell your contacts you’re looking for a new role at a higher level, and adapt your materials to highlight the more advanced skills you took on in your role. Be patient. There are more assistant roles in Hollywood than higher-level roles, and as you level up throughout your career, you’ll notice things thin out at the top. Not everyone can be CEO. It’s perfectly natural to have a longer job search when you’re looking for a more competitive position than when you were trying to get your foot in the door at whatever agency mailroom had an opening. Accept this and remain confident in your job search. If you’re strategic – targeting specific roles and specific companies, leaning into your network to generate new connections and referrals to jobs, tailoring your materials to each open position – you will get there, even if it takes a little while. You can get and do deserve your Hollywood dream job and to move beyond the desk or past PA roles. Put in the effort to be the best you can be in your current role, build on that, and take control of your career so you can make it to the next step. And we’re here to support you every step of the way. -- Angela Silak & Cindy Kaplan If you’re actively on the hunt for a new job, you know you need an updated resume and LinkedIn profile. But what about when you’re settled into a role? On one hand, you know you should tailor your resume to the specific roles you’re targeting, which is hard to do if you don’t have a role in mind. On the other hand, you know Hollywood hires quickly, and you don’t want to be caught without a great resume when your dream job opens up! There are a few different ways to approach this. If you’re primarily freelancing and hopping from show to show, you should update your credits list, IMDB, and/or StaffMeUp profile as soon as you get a new gig, so you can pass your most recent document along after wrap. Your LinkedIn profile should be stable, with a strong evergreen summary that includes your key projects (you can update those as you get more recent credits), and you can list all your freelance experience together, so you don’t find yourself constantly adding jobs every time you start a new gig. If you’re not actively searching but casually open to opportunities should the right one come along, you should have an updated resume that’s geared to the types of roles you’d pivot for. For example, if you’re a development executive at a production company, but you’d jump ship if you had the opportunity to work at a network, make sure your LinkedIn is polished so recruiters can find you. Just don't be too overt about the job search, so your current colleagues and boss won’t think you have one foot out the door. Keep your descriptions in line with your current role and professional persona, while highlighting the key skills you bring to the table to increase searchability. On your resume, add your current role and update the job description as you garner more achievements, work on new projects, or expand your duties. You’ll want to keep the bullets tailored to the roles you’d leave for, so when something opens up, all you have to do is convert to PDF and press send. If you’re happy where you are with no plans to leave, and you’re not even sure what you’d do if you were to embark on a job search, you should use your LinkedIn and resume differently. Your LinkedIn should tell the story of who you are in your current role and reflect an interest in building relationships for your current company. For your resume, we recommend creating an overview document that you can pull from when you are ready for the job search. Include everything you’ve done in current or past roles, even if you’re not sure if they’re relevant. This way, you can select bullets to match a particular job description when the time comes. It’s a good idea to update this document every few months or every time you finish a major project, so you don’t forget your accomplishments. This can also be helpful in case there’s a swift change in your employment status. You don’t want to find yourself with a resume that’s five years old when you’re suddenly laid off and need to find a job stat. Don’t worry too much about this document, though – it doesn't need to be perfect. You just want to have a handy record of your experience that you can easily pull from, so if and when you do decide to start on the job search, you’re ahead of the game. -- Angela Silak & Cindy Kaplan As you progress in your career, you'll likely find that you're asked for a professional bio. Bios are used for a variety of things -- when you're invited to speak on a panel or at an event, when your company creates a press release or internal memo announcing your hiring, when you're launching a personal website to get clients, when you're creating a deck to attract film investors, or even when applying to fellowships and film festivals. Your bio is like your resume in that it showcases your career highlights, but it's less about proving your skills for a specific job and more about conveying your overall persona. It's also not exactly like your LinkedIn "About" section, which should have more of an approachable tone. A professional bio is a distinct document in your larger personal branding portfolio. Here are 5 key tips to remember when crafting yours: 1. Determine the appropriate length. Bios can come in all different lengths – most are relatively short (a paragraph to half a page), but those who are very advanced in their careers sometimes will have page-long bios. You may need multiple bios depending on what you are planning on using them for, but when writing, it’s good to have a target to know how granular you may need to get. If you’re creating something to be presented to promote a panel you’ll be speaking on, then a paragraph is plenty. When applying for fellowships or other professional programs, most applications will give you a word count limit. But if you need a bio for your website or pitch deck, you’ll probably want to delve a little deeper to give more insight into your background. 2. Lead with your current role. The first sentence of your bio should contain your title or a descriptor of your main role (or the role that is most relevant depending on how the bio will be used). It’s a good idea to qualify the role with some descriptors – for example, “Jane is the SVP of Alternative Programming at XYZ network, where she leads development and production of unscripted series targeted at female audiences.” Or “Joe is an LA-based TV drama writer with a passion for telling stories about the intersection of the personal with the political.” If you have some key credits, it’s not a bad idea to add these at the beginning too. 3. Create a structure and stick to it. After your lead in, you’ll need to decide the order of the rest of your story. Most often, people work in reverse chronological order (e.g. "Prior to XYZ network, Jane served as VP of Development at ZYX Studios, where..."), but it might make more sense for you to start at the beginning if some of your early career experiences led to later ones, or if the more significant projects you worked on happened several years ago. You might also want to group experiences by their type, especially if you're a multi-hyphenate (e.g. "Joe's credits include SHOW NAME, SHOW NAME, and MOVIE, and his prose has appeared in The New Yorker and The Paris Review. Joe is also a professor of screenwriting at UCLA Extension.") The key is to pick one way of framing your background and sticking to it, instead of jumping back and forth between projects or highlights. Read your bio out loud and consider whether it makes sense as a story, or if you're left with confusion about how and when you got from point A to point B. 4. Highlight your biggest achievements. Depending on how long of a career you’ve had, there may be too much to list in a short bio. And that’s okay – most people won’t read too much anyway! Much like a resume, you’ll want to highlight the most important achievements for the audience you are targeting. Make sure your proudest accomplishments make the cut, and you can even label them as your proudest accomplishments! It’s also a good idea to get specific with some of the titles of projects you have worked on or name some of your top clients (if they are recognizable). Any major awards you’ve received, prominent film festival selections, or notable speaking engagements also belong in your bio. 5. Include something personal. If there’s something that drives you to do the type of work that you do, you should spell it out in your bio. It’s great to say what you’re most passionate about or what type of impact you are hoping to have with the content you are creating. If you have side projects that you work on or organizations you are a part of, include them to offer a fuller picture of yourself. Many people will also share where they live, where they studied, the names of their spouses, children, or pets, or even list out a few hobbies or interests. These types of things humanize you and give readers a way to connect with you on a more personal level. The thing that makes bio writing extra-difficult is that it requires a bit of bragging. In addition, we’ve found that sometimes people aren’t able to see the big picture when it comes to their accomplishments or how others view them. We strongly recommend getting a second set of eyes on your bio, or letting someone write a first draft for you (we would be happy to help!). -- Angela Silak & Cindy Kaplan |
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