Dramatic Drama – Part 4 of 7: Job Search & Grad School

I love college. Really I do. But I never appreciated it more until I was no longer enrolled in it. It took a hard real world labor job to make me realize what I was missing. In retrospect, I don’t think I would have figured out what I wanted to do in life (films, theater, video editing & webmastering) unless I took college, but I wouldn’t realize how many importantly precious opportunities were in college until after I worked a job. A catch-22.
One of the things that I needed and which I feared would hinder me from getting into graduate school is the lack of a portfolio. I had done some research and found most graduate school students are 28 years old in certain cities. So I felt I had more time to research schools and my topic of choice. I didn’t want to jump back into paying for college without being a savvy shopper. Colleges are a business too. Just ask any alumni and they’ll agree they are getting asked for donations a lot after graduation.
During my term working with my mail sorting job I had a lot of time to ponder while saving up cash. I could read books on my breaks and lunch period. So I found it useful to bring a little radio to listen to news and a book. But mostly I read a lot because as an actor, you’re always trying to get better at your craft. Shakespeare even said that “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”. Thus, the lessons can be applied to non-actors. And we are even salespersons trying to promote ourselves and learn more to improve our sale of our best product, us. In fact confidence is the key to success not only to an actor, but any other field.
I remember trying to pitch myself to a few jobs such as a civil-service job as a secretary for my former high-school. It had benefits and higher pay. Of course I was scared by leaping head first back into the job market and potential rejection. I saw an all female candidate pool which scared me at first, and I was scared of trying something new. But I was even more scared not of rejection, but of the feeling of failing to go for an open opportunity. I was raised to respect my Dad most of all who had struggled to reach America and to give up was to personally let him down in my mind and of course myself.
The secretary selection committee on that had four high school staff members and I felt under-prepared. I answered all questions fairly and equally, but it came down to selling yourself again, your image. If I had been more confident and established better rapport I would no doubt have increased my chances even more.
Another job I was looking at sounded too good to be true. It was in a local job ad newspaper saying an air pollution controller would pay $20/hr. I was skeptical since most places require a lot of experience and supervising familiarity, but this job said it would train and had all these benefits. I scheduled an appointment for an interview, but I left after sometime. For one, it was a group interview presentation lecture which was sort of like a cattle call for job candidates and I thought it was just too impersonal. Secondly, it involved sales. I already had a sales job let down and didn’t want to repeat it.
I also replied to a University web master position and a speech language pathologist. I learned from the first one I could have raised my chances if I executed the fine art of following up weekly, but I didn’t know this at the time. And I tested out the latter position, but found I needed credentials.
Morale of the story: jump into the job market and fight. You’ll learn a lot in the crash test school of hard knocks if you get in than if you’re just watching.