Hello, everyone on this wonderful gray day!
I’ve gone on about 10 interviews, in the past 6 months and every person has said the same thing “you are great, we love your resume and cover letter, but we are going with someone with more experience” So my question is how am I to get experience after I’ve passed the internship stage..I am beyond ready to start a career.
Also, I studied photography, but I don’t think my portfolio is strong enough at this point to land a freelance job. I’ve tried the few connections I have and they seem to be trying very hard to help me. I’ve also applied and interviewed for magazine, studio and representative positions.
Now people are suggesting i look outside my field, (which i have been doing recently) but how is that going to help when I am getting turned down by people in my field?
What kinds of magazines are
What kinds of magazines are you interviewing with? It might help to look for a job at a smaller publication where you can get a little bit of experience in your in-between phase from internship to dream job.
exactly. small pubs are are
exactly. small pubs are are great place to start your career and there are tons in nyc.
do you have internships at large consumer mags? that is super important…
are they saying what type of experience you are lacking?
i recently hired a photo asst and i interviewed 8 great candidates. i did have to say no to lots of qualified candidates, so it’s not necessarily the lack of experience, but not finding the perfect fit. i did however look for people who were only interested in photo, rather than fashion, design, etc too since i want someone who is in for the long haul. i also looked for a person who knew a bit about photo research - knew the sites to look and how to negotiate rates, etc. you can study this on your own and be prepared with stock site names and what they specialize in. and then, in the end after i narrowed it down to 2-3 people- i chose the person who had the best personality and vibe and who didn’t have any sort of “i am awesome. i know everything” type of attitude. photo assts are assts, they aren’t expected to know everything and that’s ok.
just my 2 cents.
thanks for the input
After all of my “good” interviews, it has been “We think you are great, very nice, awesome personality, charming,great resume etc. but we decided to go with someone with more experience(I.e. 3+ years or their masters)
I am just so eager and ready to work! and I really want to continue my education while learning hands on. Also I was wondering where I can find info on how to negotiate rates and so forth. Thank you again. I will start looking into the smaller publications
(my 2 internships were directly with a photographer and a printing company)
why not take an internship
why not take an internship at a mag photo dept? if they are telling you that you don’t have enough experience to be a photo asst, maybe you should get more and that’s a great way to do it.
I thought about it
I really thought about taking an internship. it is also hard to take an internship since I already graduated from college, so I can’t get credit. I am also looking into paid internships. Working as a photo asst for a mag would be great but I am checking other avenues as well, such as studios and production companies!