Once and for all, who does the hiring???

I agree with the previous poster—read the article on the homepage of Ed about how Ed staffers got their first jobs … one thing I noticed that everyone had in common is that everyone really displayed creativity, tenacity, and grit in their job search process.

But, to answer your question, HR and editors often work in tandem to get candidates. Oftentimes, the best route in is through an editor, but you’ll often still need to go through HR. My best recommendation is to e-mail editors at magazines you admire and tell them you want to work at their magazine. Don’t tell them you NEED a job—everyone does! Instead, send a friendly inquiry e-mail explaining why you want to work at THAT magazine and see what happens. And, in the meantime, get yourself registered in the HR system. It can’t hurt and good luck.

I know it’s frustrating, but no one is deliberately trying to screw you here. When there is an open position, you generally meet with the department head and/or executive editor, although I’ve met with everyone from editorial assistants to copy chiefs to creative directors to editors in chief. It all depends on what the position is—the people who are going to be dealing with you are the people you will most likely have to interview with. However, unless there is a position specifically open that they are hiring for at the moment you call, there is most likely not an editor who holds onto resumes that just come in over the transom. Often editors will hang on to resumes from candidates they’ve interviewed before and liked, but there isn’t a designated person on staff who collects resumes from cold calls—HR does, in fact, deal with cold calls like the kind you’ve been making.

A better bet is to write nice emails to editors and editorial assistants stating your interest and inquiring about openings at the magazine, and then following up regularly with the ones who get back to you. Phone calls are often invasive and inconvenient, and most editors won’t take calls from complete strangers—that’s how you end up trapped on the phone with a crazy person.

An even better idea is to adjust your expectations. There is no silver bullet that guarantees you will find a job fast, and unfortunately, you are not entitled to a job in this industry. I hate to be harsh about it, but if that kind of attitude is filtering into your calls, and you are demanding jobs and contact info from innocent editorial assistants (by the way, since it’s THEIR job you’re after, you better be nice to them, because they have NO reason to bring in competition for their own jobs) you are not going to get terribly far. I do wish you the best, and I hope this advice is somewhat helpful—really I just mean that focusing on relationship building and networking, with HR and staff, is the attitude you should be taking, rather than being antagonistic about not being helped.