Don't compare yourself to anyone else

I think I was getting a little complacent. I was looking at the boys, and even some of the second year students for those that I know at all, and thinking I'm ahead of the curve. Specifically where it comes to summer work and how it affects career planning. I'm going up to Maine next week for the job fair at the Maine Media Workshops, and I had sent off an email and resume to Tim at Central Booking earlier in the month. I've been asking all the second years "what did you do last summer?" and I asked John (cinematography), Sam (prod 2) and Mary Jane (Thesis Prep) what they recommend.


To be fair to Mary Jane we were just on a break in her class, but her answer was a bit flip and unhelpful. I'm going to try again at her office hours on Thursday. John is the one who pointed me to Central Booking. And Sam said, talk to Chris Cavalieri, he's the current internship coordinator for the department. I talked to Chris today. That was a fantastic conversation, but it also made me realize I've been letting things happen too much and I need to be making them happen.

Chris made me realize there are all sorts of things I could know about the state of the industry in Boston but only if I'm willing to do the work to find it out. What are the production companies in town? What are the rental houses in town? Who are the independent shooters in town? Like DC, this isn't that big of a community so if you can break in it's possible to get to know everybody. If my goal for the summer is working with a good DP who I've got the skills to offer something to, but also can learn a lot from then first is knowing who's out there. And I don't really know any of that. Chris gave me a couple of names to try to get informational interviews with that could hopefully open some doors.

I think at the end of that hour and a half (it was meant to be 20 minutes) Chris knows more about me than any of my professors. And that in some ways is part of my problem and part of his point. I was feeling a little unsatisfied that none of my professors really know me. In 6 weeks they're going to make a pretty influential decision about the rest of my time here and it will be based only on my class projects and somewhat participation and maybe aptitude. But not at all on what I want to do and what would be the best choice to get me there. None of them know what I want to do. None of them have ever asked. When I went to ask Sam about internships the first thing he said was "I don't know really anything about you so lets start with a bit of your background." And then we had our 20 minute conversation. I left thinking how am I 1/3 of the way through this program and none of you know anything about me? There's 4 of us and 5 of you, why didn't you each pick one to mentor? But here's the key - and Chris didn't say this directly, but the point got made - since they didn't then it is incumbent upon me to make it happen if I want it rather than just complain that it didn't happen. I have a little bit lately, going to each of them and asking for internship advice, but I shouldn't have waited this long.

If I am allowed to give advice to next year's class it will be don't wait for someone here to take you under their wing because they aren't going to. Just find who you click with and wiggle your way under their wing anyway. It's not like I've been squandering my time for the last 7 months, but there are things that I could have been doing so that I'd be even further along now.

So I've sent a follow up email to Tim at Central Booking, and I'm working on getting appointments with Mary Jane, Jan (directing), and Charles (prod 1) to see if I can get any concrete leads for finding work or a good mentor in town. And I'm researching the couple names that Chris gave me before I send them emails. Late is not good, but still better late than never.