The Coveted Personal Assistant Position

Before moving to L.A., the job I wanted, and despite everything, continue to want, is "personal assistant" to someone in a creative field.* My last job as a collection development librarian was satisfying intellectually, but I am hoping for something outside the 9-6 cubicle world now.

Little did I know that, despite having a terrible rap, "personal assistant" has become the job du jour. I might as well be an aspiring actress! The book "Fame Junkies" devotes a chapter to personal assistants, describing the downside of the career. My issue with the book is that "regular" jobs can also involve demanding bosses, long hours, lack of appreciation, etc., but the author portrays these difficulties as specific to working with celebrities.

Months before moving to L.A., when the idea of moving was just a glimmer, I filled out an online application for an agency in L.A. that places personal assistants, fully expecting to never hear back. To my surprise, someone from the company called back the same day and told me to come in and speak with her if I moved to L.A. This may, in retrospect, be one of the worst things that could have happened, in that it set up false expectations on how easy it would be to get a job here. That particular employee left the company. Since then another rep responds to my e-mails but hasn't called with any potential jobs, and the other agencies in town don't respond to my e-mails and telephone calls.

I'm not even sure if those agencies are the best way for me to go, as I'm hoping to work for a "scruffy mutt" type, whether a writer, director, actor, musician, etc., and I doubt they would even use a placement agency. I like the "scruffs;" i.e., Stephen Frears, John Doe, Jack Black. Most comedians. Also, there are certain women I'd like to work for-- Kathy Griffin, Francis McDormand. I wouldn't want to work for a Sharon Stone, but I would definitely work for Dwight Yoakam. It's hard for me to imagine that I would have to meticulously wrap hundreds of Christmas presents for such folk, but then again, who knows. I definitely lean more toward script reading, correspondence, travel-planning, and errand-running than elaborate party-planning. The company I spoke with said it would be hard to place someone from out of town, as I wouldn't know the best caterers in L.A. I wanted to respond that the President of our country is a complete incompetent, and I think I have the ability to google a caterer, but I bit it.

I have been advised by friends to contact the person I want to work for and just show up on his/ her door until I am hired. Well, that could get me a job, or it could get me a restraining order. Not to mention that gaining access to a celebrity is no easy feat.

I think I'd be a good assistant. I can put up with all kinds of difficult behavior except bullying. All that thirtysomething female energy that would typically be going into two kids, a dog, and a husband would all be devoted to one person. Who would turn that down?

Too bad I can't go to a pound and pick me up a cute celebrity mutt!

*If you are a celebrity looking for an assistant, I promise to remove the blog! Or at least not to write about you.