Women In Film

By Pamela Rodi
April 23, 2010

It’s one of the most exciting and terrifying events in ones career – applying for a job you are really interested in and getting asked for an interview. You suddenly go from being able to spend hours compiling a single piece of correspondence to having to answer questions on the fly, talk about yourself, be coherent and professional while you’re nervous at the same time. And the nervousness and excitement can sometimes make us forget to ask some questions, or to be focusing on the wrong thing. You need to be able to be relaxed, confident and yourself. And the best way to accomplish that is to be prepared.

One thing to keep in mind no matter how hard you prepared or how qualified you might be for a job - people hire people they like to be around, which is no surprise. There are a vast number of factors that go into choosing a candidate for a job, and chemistry between the individuals is one of them. It’s an element we don’t have control over and we forget this sometimes when we have an interview that felt great but doesn’t result in an offer. And it needs to work for you as much as it does for the employer. And so you can stop beating yourself up for doing something wrong and move on.

CAREER RESOLUTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR

By Pamela Rodi
Jan 05, 2010

What Type-A alpha personality invented the New Year’s Resolution, anyway?

Apparently it was invented by the industrious Babylonians 4,000 years ago, so they would remember to return borrowed farm equipment. The Romans then picked up on it, as a way to repent for the debauchery they enjoyed during the winter solstice holidays.

Since I was a kid, making New Year’s Resolutions and breaking them has been as much a part of celebrating the New Year as a champagne toast. But wait – if cutting back on drinking is your resolution, then there can be be no celebratory toast. Or if you have resolved to lose weight, then you have to stop eating those delicious treats at the stroke of midnight. Right in the middle of the party.

Working On Your Career During The Holidays

By Pamela Rodi
Dec 09, 2009

My father says the world has become too complicated, and I tend to agree. Sometimes just getting through the day with the hundred details we have to address can aggravate us into a frenzy. The cable goes down, and you know you will be on the phone with Time Warner for an hour figuring it out – and you’ll still have to wait for the tech to come between the hours of 8am and midnight. An errant charge of $38.00 shows up on your credit card bill and you debate whether it is worth wasting 45 minutes to wade through the land mine of phone prompts. The car needs to be registered, kids picked up, dental appointments made and canceled and made again.

And this doesn’t even include any time spent on your job or career.

Career Lounge Update - Summer 2009

By Pamela Rodi
July 28, 2009

Summer is the toughest time to be out there job-hunting when what we really want to be doing is hanging at the beach or drinking margueritas. And with vacations aplenty and people out of town, it can be hard to keep the momentum going. Taking a "job hunting vacation" is not a bad idea when you feel like the search is leaving you exhausted, depressed and beleaguered. You won't be at your best for meetings or interviews if you are feeling wiped out. The goal, of course, is to not let the break extend too long!

The Career Lounge has some exciting new plans for the fall, when we are all back in gear. For those of you who missed the Master Class with Madelyn Hammond last week, she is going to host for a Boot Camp Workshop for executives looking for change. Keep your eyes peeled for this schedule as she is one of the best and smartest Hollywood executives out there, and has a track record to prove it. But don’t expect to be coddled – she lives and breathes in the real world and when you are done with her session, you’ll be able to climb the Mt. Everest of job hunting.

10 GREAT JOB-HUNTING SITES

By Pamela Rodi
June 10, 2009

Professional career advisors and human resources executives will often offer a bit of advice, on the side to eager job hunters, that only about 2% of people who use online job listing services actually get jobs online. Too bad it isn’t higher, because it’s one of the least stressful ways to job-hunt – you can spend hours sending out emails and resumes to people without getting out of bed or having to face someone in person.

But even if the percentage is accurate, if there are a million people scouring websites for jobs and only 2% of them get jobs, that means 20,000 people got jobs online.

There is also the charge that online job listing sites regularly use the “bait and switch” practice – where they attract the applicant with an open position that doesn’t exist or was already filled. Sad to think that businesses would resort to such tactics – and sadder yet to know they all too often do – but this need not be a deterrent if you think of using these sites for the general knowledge you will gain as well as looking for openings.