I had coffee this morning with an extremely nice guy who works for New Line Cinema. He moved here a dozen years ago, but even back then he and several of his friends had difficulties with the Entertainment Placement Agency that gave me the runaround about the CAA interview. He never got any work out of them, and he is the third person who has told me a tale of woe regarding that agency.
He highly recommended another agency in town, but I don't know if I have the stomach right now to resume the employment agency dance. I just had a very difficult week at my current job though and seriously considered telling them the job was not for me. I did, in fact, tell my boss that I was not in any rush to gain "permanent" status. Everyone treats me with kid gloves the minute I hint I'm about to walk! They know it's a bad job. I found out tonight that my coworker will be out sick tomorrow, so I am now looking at a hellish Monday on top of the grinding week I just wrapped up.
I don't want to quit until I have a plan of action in place though. I did apply to the library system a couple of weeks ago so am biding my time to see what happens with that situation.
Just like the guy who went to Largo with me on Wednesday, my coffee date encouraged me to stick it out here at least a year, saying that he went back and forth for the first four years he lived in L.A. about whether or not he wanted to stay. He agreed that the uncertain "contract" nature of a lot of work in the entertainment industry is not for most people and that L.A. is a difficult place to have your accomplishments recognized in order to land a job. He also said that it's challenging to meet people here and that he had tried meetup.com (scrabble, poker) with decidedly mixed results.
After my coffee date I drove to an afternoon cocktail party in Venice where I met a Los Angeles native who had lived all over the country before moving back to L.A. She told me a familiar story: that Los Angeles is the most difficult city she's ever lived in regarding socializing and has the fewest activities to facilitate meeting people of any city she's ever lived in. She, however, did have great success with meetup.com and had a new Latin American boyfriend on her arm that she met at a Spanish language meetup group!
My property manager in Austin has already placed my condo on the rental market, so pretty soon I will no longer have the option of turning tail and running back to Austin and will have to stick it out another year regardless.
2 comments:
in any city you can be a librarian or work a temp job that's a grind.
but if you wanna work in showbiz you gotta be here and you are. you changed your life to get here. give it a chance to succeed. it seems like that's where your heart is.
contact the new employment agency the new line guy told you about. put up with the bumps in the road. call in sick at your current job if you have to, in order to interview somewhere else. go for it.
great blog. i really enjoy it. (bud kennedy in fort worth emailed me in santa monica about it.)
good luck!
I agree with Matt that you should contact the employment agency that guy told you about -- all the more because your current job isn't exactly the bee's knees!
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