Music Industry Resume Blunder (And What to Include Instead)

Music business resumes can be daunting to put together, especially if you're new to the music industry and are assembling one to try to get an internship or entry-level job behind the scenes.

If you want a behind the scenes job in the music industry, or any creative industry for that matter, you must remember one very important thing:

You must actually want to work behind the scenes. (You'd be amazed at how many people forget that part.)

Your resume must demonstrate that. Here's why:

If you want to promote your own music career, working for another musician probably isn't going to get you there. You'll be too busy trying to move your own career ahead to do a great job on the tasks that can move your boss's career ahead, and vice-versa.

If you want to be famous, you more than likely won't cut it at all.  

That would be kind of like working for the royal family and thinking that by doing so, you could become a king or queen yourself. Ain't gonna happen, my friend. Not in today's music industry, and especially not on someone else's dime.

As the saying goes, "it ain't about you."

I'm writing about this because more and more, when I review internship applications I see resumes highlighting the person's musical abilities rather than skills they can bring to the tasks at hand. I also meet and get emails from people who think they want to work behind the scenes and ask for advice how to get in, but after a question or two it's clear they really just want to be famous themselves.

That's not what an employer wants.

Approaching a job with that mindset also isn't healthy for you. Your employer is not going to hear you sing.

If, on the other hand, you're the kind of person who really likes to know--and can handle the realities of--what goes on behind proverbial circus tent, you might have a shot.

You must also enjoy dealing with all that goes into pulling the rabbit out of the hat to make the magic happen*. In a pinch, you might even have to help do some of the hoisting or make a run for carrots when that bunny doesn't want to budge (though if you're good at your job, you already have those carrots in your back pocket just in case).

I love all that stuff. The first time I was backstage at a big show, I found all that frenetic activity far more fascinating than anything my own band was doing. I quit my band the next week and never looked back.

More importantly, until years later when I actually had to do a bio, I didn't include my musical experience in my resume. Instead, I highlighted the fact that I'd managed our band.

Consider that your test if you want to work behind the scenes: do you freak out at the thought of not including your musical experience in your resume? Are you OK with it if the subject never comes up?

Think about it very carefully before you apply for a job behind the scenes in the entertainment industry.

There was a time when an aspiring musician could use a behind-the-scenes job as an entry to his or her own career. With the shrinking of the music industry, those days are over.

No more reality show contestant wannabes working behind the scenes, please. Just people who can deal with reality!**



*No bunnies were harmed in the writing of this post, or at any time during my career. (It's a metaphor, people.) Although there was a guy who ate live crickets onstage...

**No, I'm not hiring. I'm speaking in general terms.

Holy Crap, I'm Quoted on Forbes.com 7/27/14 (How to Land a Job In the Music Industry or a Job in a Competitve Environment or Win a Pitch)

So, I'd just finished publishing this post and checked my email to discover I've been quoted on Forbes.com in this article about creative techniques for how to win a pitch or land a job in a competitive industry:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2014/07/27/would-you-go-this-far-to-win-a-job-or-a-project/2/

Yeah, to land a music industry job, I really bought a ticket, stood in line, and waited for my potential boss to walk by. And it got me the job!

It was one of my first big jobs in the music business, and I was so unsavvy that when I went to the job interview and the interview lasted less than five minutes, I thought I'd blown it.

Later, my boss told me I got the job when I'd handed him my resume, and that the interview was just a formality to make sure I'd show up. He said he'd wanted to hire me on the spot because he knew I'd get the job done.

If you're going to try something creative to land a job, you must have something on your resume to bring to the table. Your resume has to be ready for whatever that job is, because for the employer, it has to be worth taking the risk to hire someone who does things a little differently.

In my case, I'd been in bands and working around them since I was sixteen, and had managed my own band and a local who grew a regional-ish following and got local airplay. The job I was applying for was a good fit, because it was the logical next rung on the ladder.

Now...having said all that, we live in a different world now. That was long before 9/11 and public shootings and all that. These days, being too bold can easily get you booted out, blacklisted, or at the very least, looked at strangely. And there's email and social media, so if you do something stupid, people will know about it.

Also, some people tend to take things over the line into stalking. If a complete stranger did to me what I did to land that interview, I'd be freaked out. And it would be stalking. (Intention does not matter when it comes to stalking; it's the actions and how those actions make the other person feel.)

Remember: Although we'd never met, my boss and I were already talking, so I wasn't a complete stranger to him. We just were having trouble scheduling a job interview because he was overwhelmed with work. So my goal was to show him that as his assistant, I could make his life easier by saving him steps.

But it could have just as easily backfired. With some employers, it would have. Some employers think they want creative thinking, but they really don't. I may have just been quoted on Forbes and on Chris Brogan's business blog, but I'm savvy enough to know that I don't fit into the company culture of most corporations.

So, you must be creative and be bold, but not stupid. There has to be congruency between what you're pitching and where you're pitching it. And you must weigh what you're doing very carefully.

Always, always, always put yourself in the other person's shoes and really think about what the worst possible scenario might be, and what the other person might possibly think. You may be a wonderful person, but a stranger doesn't know that. And if you frighten or creep them out, they don't really care.

MIght it frighten or creep them out? Especially if your potential boss is the opposite sex? What if they're a nervous or paranoid person? What if they've been stalked in the past?  And if the worst possible case scenario happens and that person thinks the worst, what are the consequences?

Getting an FBI file because you got desperate with your job hunt is never a good idea.

Good luck!
RR