As many of you already know, attaining success as an actor often depends upon being able to stick at it for long enough to get that “just right” opportunity, or to weather the dry seasons between right opportunities. But how can you pay the bills when you're pursuing your dream career?
Related: 3 Reasons No Experience Will Land You That Dream Job
It was my pleasure to give the keynote talk at the Educational Opportunities Fest and Education Fair last June, where I gave the attendees advice on identifying and creating a side pursuit or even a parallel career that's compatible to their acting.
Pursuing Your Dream Career
Here are some of the key points from my talk:
Empower Yourself
Decide right now that you are going to find a supplementary source of income that will work with your acting career and provide you some stability and personal satisfaction. You are not too old, too unqualified, or too whatever. You can and you will do it.
Recognize What You Already Have
Between your acting-related skills and your work experience, you already have marketable skills. From acting alone, you have communications skills, improvisational skills, listening skills, and probably some ability to read people. If you’ve managed to develop a following using the web, you also have computer skills and social media skills. If you’ve been producing your own content, such as a web series, you also have project management skills.
Think Broadly At First
Don’t try to pick a job title if that’s too daunting. Just identify what you like to do and what you’re good at and then explore options. Ask trusted friends and professional mentors what they could see you doing, or what jobs they know about that utilize X, Y, and Z skills. Go online and do Google broad searches like, “social media jobs in Los Angeles” or “professional training programs in Los Angeles.” Think like a detective and follow the paths that seem most appealing.
Consider Going Back To School
Once you identify jobs that you are interested in, consider getting further education. It doesn’t have to be a traditional degree program (though it can be). It can be as simple as learning a new computer program or as extensive as getting an MBA.
Be A Small Business Owner
Even if you are looking for a job within an organization and not freelance work, you should consider your career a small business. Always look for ways to diversify to bring in new revenue streams. Keep existing skills current and learn new ones.
Network and create win-win relationships with others. Anticipate changes in the industry and be proactive in adjusting your path to reflect them. You are probably already treating your acting career this way, but you need to broaden it out to your professional career as a whole.
The idea here is to create a livelihood that allows you to have the life you want, whether you fulfill your childhood dream or not. And acting itself might be more joyful and go better when you are not relying on it as your sole source of income or enduring a day job you don’t like in order to pursue it.
This post was originally published on an earlier date.
Is your job search turning into a grind with no end in sight? It may be time to take a step back and reevaluate your entire approach.
In cold weather climates, the beginning of spring is a time to clean the house and get organized—a practice known as spring cleaning. Through the years, spring cleaning has taken on a larger meaning with people using the time to organize and declutter things in their lives.
For professionals on the job hunt, a little spring cleaning (metaphorically speaking) could be a great way to reinvigorate your job search. Here are a few strategies your job search spring cleaning should include.
Reevaluate Your Job Search Approach
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Make a list of the last handful of jobs you applied for and see if you can identify any positive or negative trends. Consider things like:
How did I learn about this job?
How did I apply for the job?
Did I earn an interview?
What was the ultimate result?
A lot can be learned about your job search approach just by answering these questions and identifying patterns. For example:
Negative Trends
You discovered five jobs through job boards, applied to all of them via the job boards, and never heard back from any of them.
The common pattern here is applying through job boards. This isn't to say that job boards don't serve a purpose in the job search process, but they have their limitations, and you can't run your job search entirely off of them. When you apply through a job board, there's a good chance that your materials will never get past the applicant tracking system (ATS) and never be seen by an actual person.
One simple fix is to research who the hiring manager or recruiter is that posted the position and email your materials to them directly.
The more efficient fix would be to take a proactive approach by putting together a bucket list of companies that you want to work for and start making connections on LinkedIn with people who work at those companies. You may already know some people who work there or have connections that can refer you to some individuals.
This is a great way to network your way onto a company's radar.
Positive Trends
You applied to three jobs via referral, were invited to two job interviews, and made it through multiple rounds of interviews for one of the jobs before being passed over for someone with a little more experience.
The pattern here is that getting referred to a job by a professional acquaintance is a great way to land a job interview. This indicates that you're leveraging your network well and you should continue to focus on your networking efforts.
The next step is to review the interview process and determine what went well and what needs to be improved. Sometimes the interviewer will provide feedback, and that feedback can be valuable. However, not everyone is comfortable with giving feedback.
Chances are you probably have a good idea about areas of improvement and the skills you need to gain. Put together a plan for addressing those shortfalls.
The good news in making it deep into any interview process is that it indicates that the company likes you as a potential employee (even if the timing just wasn't right) and the experience could be a roadmap to a job with that company at a later date, or another similar opportunity elsewhere.
Give Your Resume & Cover Letter Some Much-Needed Attention
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Are you continuously sending similar resumes and cover letters to each job opening with only minor adjustments? If so, your strategy needs some serious spring cleaning.
The reason why it's so important to tailor your resume is that throughout your career, you acquire numerous skills, but the job you're applying for may only be focusing on 6-8 of those skills. In that case, those skills must rise to the top of the resume with quantifiable examples of how you successfully used those skills at previous jobs.
Remember, recruiters go through hundreds of resumes. They need to be able to tell from a quick glance whether or not you're a potential candidate for the position.
While updating your resume, you could also spruce up your LinkedIn profile by highlighting the skill sets that you want to be noticed for by recruiters.
As for writing a good cover letter, the key to success is writing a disruptive cover letter. When you write a disruptive cover letter, you're basically telling a story. The story should focus on how you connect with the particular company and job position. The story could also focus on your personal journey, and how you got to where you currently are in your career.
If your resumes and cover letters aren't unique, now is the time to clean things up and get on track.
Build Your Personal Brand
Just because you're looking for work doesn't mean that you don't have anything to offer. Use previous career experiences and passions to build your personal brand.
Ask yourself, "How do I want other professionals to view me?"
Pick an area of expertise and start sharing your knowledge and experience with your professional network by pushing out content on your LinkedIn and social media accounts. Good content can include blogs, social media posts, and videos.
By sharing content about your experiences and passions, you slowly build your personal brand, and others will start to notice. The content could lead to good discussions with others in your network. It could also lead to reconnecting with connections that you haven't spoken to in years, or making new connections.
You never know when one of these connections could turn into a job lead or referral. The trick is to get on people's radars. So, when you're cleaning up your job search, be sure to build a plan for personal branding.
Maintain Healthy Habits During Your Job Search
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Your job search is important, but it's even more important to know when to pull back and focus on personal health and spending time with family and friends.
There are actually things that you can do for your own enjoyment that could help your job search in the long run, such as:
Grab coffee with a friend - It's good to engage in light conversation with friends during challenging times. And if your job search does come up, remember that most people have been through it themselves and you never know when a friend may provide you with a good idea or lead on a job.
Volunteer - Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the community and help others. In addition, if you develop a little bit of a career gap while looking for a job, you can always talk about how you filled that time volunteering, if you're asked about it during a job interview.
Continue to focus on other passions - Are you a fitness nut? Blogger? Crafter? Continue to do the things that bring you happiness. And if you're in a position to profit from your passion through a freelance job or side hustle, even better!
Spring is the perfect time to clean up and improve your job search so you can land the job you want. If you're struggling to find a job, follow the tips above to reinvigorate your job search—and watch your career blossom!
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.