Resume Help Blog

One of my all time favorite shows is “America’s Got Talent.” You can be 8 or 80 and try out, it makes no difference. The only problem with this show is that out of thousands of auditions they only choose 20 acts to go through, then weed those 20 down to 1 winner.

But do you know how huge the entertainment industry is?! Did you also know that you can live just about anywhere near a big city in the US and find work in entertainment if you have some talent?

I had a friend a few years ago that took some acting classes through a junior college. It just so happened that the professor also produced commercials and he when he saw how good she was he offered to hook her up with some commercial directors. There’s local commercials produced in every state (for both radio and TV) that are constantly looking for local actors and good voices.

Another friend I grew up with was good at making clothes. She got a job working at Orange County Performing Arts Center in their costume department. Soon she was hired by one of the traveling Broadway companies for a major production and her career took off from there.

Anyway, the point is that if you have a little bit of talent you might just find your way into the entertainment industry in your local area. You can make it a career or just do it part time, but there’s money to be had!

Check out local colleges for acting classes, art and costume design, computer graphics, sound and animation. These are great places to meet people that might hook you up with an interview. Also, any certificate you earn looks good on a resume.

Also, if you have a talent for:

• Singing – any type
• Dancing
• Playing an instrument well, no matter what it is.
• Acrobatics
• Costume design
• Stage set design
• Lighting and sound production
• Writing
• Video
• Film editing
• Modeling

Look to see if there’s any dinner theaters or local playhouses in your area. These places usually hire local talent for all the positions.

Do you have a pleasant voice and know how to sound animated? Contact some of the radio stations in town and offer your services for commercials. They might not pay much but it’s a great experience and you can create a demo CD for bigger jobs by doing local ones first. As a commercial producer for a local radio station in my town I hired just about anybody that had a knack for animated sounding voice work.

If you have a talent for modeling all (ages and sizes) then look for professional managers in your area. You might wind up in a newspaper print ad or catalog. Maybe even modeling a local designer’s wear in a professional show.