Oh, fashion interns. Not only does wanting to break into such a competitive industry usually mean you have to accept several unpaid or low-paid gigs in order to build up your resume, one fashion website is now pushing their free help even further. Fashionista.com, who (like many other fashion and beauty companies) relies on unpaid interns to help them cover the bases during Fashion Week, has asked their staff to go above and beyond the normal call of duty. Check out this section from a recent intern job ad they posted:
“We’ll need you at least two days a week until Fashion Week starts February 9th, during which we’ll need you more. How much more depends on your schedule, but you should be eager to skip class in favor of MILK. Our intern hours are officially 11 to 4, but again, once the week starts there’s no on/off.”
You heard that right, everybody: your unpaid job is WAY more important than your education! School is for losers! I’ll see you guys at fashion week.
Looking for a new job in 2010? Well, here’s some good news - one of the ten best professions for job prospects next year is Executive Assistant. In other words - you!
Here’s what Careerbuilder (via Robert Half International) has to say:
Companies with leaner teams are looking for employees to take on a wider range of duties. Executive assistants who can wear many hats, support multiple managers and adapt readily to change are in particular demand. These individuals are likely to see starting salaries of $35,000 to $47,000.
In case you didn’t catch that, it’s a fancy description for “Combo Job.” But hey, at least it’s a job. If you’re thinking of switching careers, this list seems to indicate that you should probably check out IT or financial services.
Man, college was hard. Between chugging beers, sleeping until noon, and occasionally doing homework I don’t know how I found time for anything else. It turns out that instead of trying to motivate myself I was taking the wrong approach - I just needed a personal assistant. One Georgetown University student recently posted an ad on the school’s employment board. In the ad, the sophomore (!) listed the qualifications required for his assistant:
As my PA you will receive an email once a day by 9:00 am with a task list for that day and a time estimate for each task. Important tasks will be bolded on the list and must be done that day (even though everything on the list should theoretically be finished on a daily basis) …
PA example tasks -Organize closet -make bed -Drop off / pick up dry cleaning -Drop me off / pick me up from work -Do laundry -Fill up gas tank -bring car for servicing -schedule appointment for haircut -Pay parking tickets -manage electronic accounts -shopping and running errands -other random tasks.
Preference will be given to applicants who are comfortable with city driving (car will be provided) and who are available when I need to be picked up and dropped off for work. Preference will also be given to Georgetown undergrads for convenience.
I was going to rag on this guy, but an excellent blogger for the Georgetown Voice has already beaten me to it. That said, no college student needs a personal assistant. The only exception is Van Wilder.
Justin Timberlake isn’t content just to do music - he and Trace Ayala have a clothing line called William Rast, he’s a popular guest host on Saturday Night Live, and now he’s launching his own line of tequila, 901 Silver. But when a guy has so man projects going on, how will he find time to run his own company? Timberlake has put out an ad seeking an “Executive Vice President of Big Ideas” for 901. Perks include a $25,000 signing bonus, a VIP trip to Las Vegas, and “the opportunity to possibly get coffee for other 901 employees” (read the fine print, people).
To enter, you need to make a video pitching a “Big Idea.” Check out the entry form for more info.
Bob Weinstein, the movie producer and one of the two bosses (the other’s his brother Harvey, of course) in Rachel Pine’s book The Twins of Tribeca, needs an assistant! The economy - or the string of Weinstein Company’s movie flops - has made Bob downsize from multiple assistants to just one poor, beleaguered, overworked soul. Gawker has the job description:
The ideal candidate should have excellent communication skills, excel under high pressure, and be motivated, dedicated and extremely loyal. This person will be representing the executive and the company, and must be professional at all times. This is a 24/7 job; you will be the only assistant to this executive. You must be available on nights and weekends, and expect to spend long hours in the office.
The list of duties includes:
Continue reading ‘bob weinstein looking for assistant’
Evil boss Kelly Cutrone is looking an assistant! If working for Diddy isn’t your style, but you still want to be humiliated by a celebrity on a nationally televised reality show, now’s your chance.
Cutrone, who runs fashion PR agency People’s Revolution, has no problem with looking like a horrible assistant-abusing bitch on TV. She first entered the public sphere when Whitney worked for her on The Hills. And now she’s getting her on Bravo reality show, Kell on Earth. Presumably, the assistant she hires will also appear on the series.
Interested parties can send applications to kc.assist@peoplesrevolution.com, but you didn’t hear that from me.
People have started coming up with creative ways to get hired - whether it’s a billboard, taking out ads in the newspaper, or whatever else. Although starting a website isn’t the most original thing in the world, one site is taking a new spin on it. A woman in San Francisco started a website trying to get her husband a job. From the homepage:
This site was born out of frustration with the job market. My husband graduated in 2008 with an MBA from Georgetown. After Mike finished his MBA, we moved back to California to be closer to family. We both had high expectations for his career and our life after business school. However, those expectations quickly changed as we were faced with this horrible economy. After almost ten months of watching my wonderful husband work tirelessly to find a job, I decided to take matters into my own hands and help him stand out in a sea of unemployed.
I can’t decide how I feel about this site. On one hand, I think people should be willing to do something unconventional in order to stand out, but there’s something about this site that kind of weirds me out. While I think it’s sweet that a wife believes so strongly in her husband that she wants him to find a job and is willing to do what she can in order to help him, it just feels strange that the whole thing talks about him in the third person. What does her husband think about the site? Does he find it romantic … or emasculating? Will he be happy at a job that is found for him by his wife or will he resent it because he couldn’t get the job himself? And… is she working? If so, what else is she doing besides creating a website? In a recent CNN article about the site, Robin (the wife) “declined to discuss her job because she wants to focus on her husband’s job search.” Uh huh.
Also, because I’m a grammar nerd and I had to say something, the last sentence of that paragraph makes me crazy. There needs to be another word at the end of that. “Stand out in a sea of unemployed what“?
Though we as assistants know a lot about how jobs work and how to play office politics games, but one thing we’re not always privy to is how hiring decisions are made. After all, we don’t know all the reasons that went into the company picking us, right?
The excellent blog Fired For Now examines the mind of one hirer, Barry, as he has to choose from a whopping 835 candidates applying for a single position. (Ah, the joys of applying for a job in a terrible economy.) How does Barry decide who to hire? Once people who are obviously not qualified for the job get weeded out, what happens next?
Things that are taken into consideration include:
- Does the person have a family to support?
- How long has the person been out of work?
- How old are they? (If the person is older, they will have fewer work years ahead of them before filing for retirement, which could be really good or really bad for the employer, depending on the economy).
- Is the person overqualified? (While this could seem like a reason to count someone out, during a bad economy it might be advantageous to hire someone with way more qualifications and get them at a bargain. Sad, but true.)
If you’re looking for a summer job that’s not just lifeguarding at the local pool or folding shirts at the Gap, Buckingham Palace’s new website now lists job openings. One of the jobs they advertise for is “retail assistant,” aka “person who works at the palace gift shop,” and they even profile a past retail assistant, Asia Rossi, who says that what started as a summmer gig turned into a full time job:
Following a successful first season, I accepted the offer to return as a Retail Assistant the following year. Having completed two summer contracts, I was keen to extend my summer role into the autumn. Due to my hard work and enthusiasm in the role, I was offered a permanent position as a Retail Assistant with Royal Collection Enterprises and I haven’t looked back since.
Maybe a job as an assistant is the way to win the heart of a royal? After all, it doesn’t seem to have hurt Autumn Kelly.
If you’re unemployed, it seems far more fun to sit around all day constantly updating Twitter than scouring the job ads yet again. Well, Mashable (the folks behind Twitter)