Click here to read more from B&C's Classifieds
By Jean W.
Williams, Director, Compliance & Special Projects, Motion Picture
Association of America, Inc.
I had been living and working in New York for the country's largest
independent producer of sports & entertainment television for 7 years when
9/11 happened. Our industry was greatly
affected; multiple rounds of downsizing and wage freezes left me tired,
stressed and in serious need of a change.
Not 2 weeks after I made up my mind to leave both the
company and New York, I saw a blind ad in Broadcasting
& Cable for my present position.
My company had an attorney in D.C. for this work (cable & satellite
TV copyright royalty collections), so I picked up the phone and called him to
ask whether he knew which organization was hiring. He told me that not only did he know the
organization, he knew the exact hiring manager, and asked whether I'd like an
introduction.
About 2 weeks later, I was in D.C. for my first and only
interview. That was 2003.
Times are hard for a lot of people right now -- including
me -- so the best advice I can give anyone involved in broadcast and/or cable
is to keep reading B&C -- and
keep looking at those ads. And I'd also
like to encourage employers who do have precious positions these days when
budgets are tight to consider advertising more disparate
broadcast/cable-related jobs in your publication, no matter how esoteric. You never know who might be reading!
