Industry Insights
Entertainment and Sports
Counselor's Perspective
The entertainment business in all its many forms is an exciting but highly competitive industry. It is creative, passionate and high energy. This industry includes film, television, music and sports. The businesses in this industry are dominated by large integrated corporations like Sony, National Football League, AOL Time Warner, and Walt Disney, which have interests in all segments of the industry. There are also opportunities at smaller, less corporate companies in film and TV production, smaller independent record labels, talent agencies, and management companies. Explore this dynamic industry further by visiting the Career Center.
Contacts are critical in this industry. You can develop contacts through internships, shadowing, and Duke alumni. This industry is extremely competitive and getting in requires persistence, networking and luck. The recruiting process is less formal because companies tend to promote from within. Internships are your best route to getting into the business.
A Day In the Life
Brand and Consumer Marketing Intern, Nickelodeon/Nick Jr. (NYC)
Class of '08, English Major & Markets & Management Certificate
There is no "typical" schedule and therefore not a "regular" day at Nickelodeon, which is perhaps one of the leading reasons why I loved my internship as much as I did. Every morning I get into the office before 10am and check my email, my voicemail, and my daily schedule on Entourage to see if there's any meetings (whether departmental or one-on-one with supervisors) and when they are. I look to see if any emails are flagged as urgent (usually with things to print and copy for early meetings) and get to those as soon as possible. When I finish all that, I drop in to say hi to some of my supervisors and chat about the previous night / find out what's on tap for the day.
I've had several on-going projects throughout the internship which I developed myself with various supervisors based on my interests and the part of the network (and the brand marketing team) they primarily focus on. This has been
the best way for me to learn about not only the various Nickelodeon properties in closer detail, but about the entertainment marketing industry and its trends, and some of Nickelodeon's biggest competitors. I have regular
check-ins with my supervisors about my progress and learn how to put my findings in formal presentations like they use to pitch actual marketing plans for the network.
As the internship has progressed through the summer, I spend the majority of my day working on my projects, going to meetings to get a first hand glimpse of how everything comes together and how integral my department is to the network as a whole, and just getting to know my co-workers. Of course, if there's a pressing task -- like errands, dubbing tapes, labeling promotional gifts and making swag bags, or working on the Slime Truck (coolest brand marketing event!), that obviously takes precedent to my projects. Earlier in the summer before the projects got this in depth, I'd use down time to watch DVDs from the Nick library of all the shows to acquaint myself with what exactly I'm working on (and memorizing characters' names!) and learn the lingo that my team uses on a day-to-day basis. Now that I've learned that, if there's ever downtime (and sometimes there's plenty) and no project to work on, I read trade publications ranging from Daily Variety to marketing magazines just to stay informed on the industry.
Sometimes I'll have a slow morning and a busy afternoon, sometimes its the other way around. I usually eat lunch around 1 with the other interns in the Viacom cafeteria downstairs. My day technically ends around 5:30 but I often find myself sticking around until closer to 6 to finish things up.
Development Intern in the Film Industry
9:00 am Arrive at work. Check executive's schedule. Confirm appointments and lunches. Read Variety/Hollywood Reporter. Answer phones.
1:00 pm Meet coworkers for lunch.
2:00 pm Back to the desk. Schedule meetings with writers, director, agents, producers. Monitor tracking boards for information on new projects in development, specs going out, etc. Schedule conference calls. Greet directors, writers, etc. when they come in for meetings. Assemble prospective cast lists for projects; check actor's representation, recent credits, etc. Read scripts in down time.
7:00 pm Relax, executives have gone home. Finish up scheduling stuff, file and log submissions for the day, read a little bit.
8:00 pm Go home. At home, read a script or just hang out and go to sleep.
Director of Development in the Film Industry
9:00 am Get to work and immediately dive into the mail—both online and the stuff that still comes in envelopes. In my work, a lot still comes in very heavy packages.10:15 am The worst of the mountain has been at least opened if not responded to, and I can now focus for a while on the trades—Variety and HR—and then some of the financial press as well.
10:30 am Start making some calls to other development directors. This is maybe the most important part of the job. Sometimes it can take up almost the entire day. What's everyone else looking at and thinking about? Should I take a look at it too? What's hot, what's not? Gossip matters in any industry, but in this one, sometimes it seems like it's all that matters.
1:00 pm Lunch with an agent and a writer.
3:00 pm Start reading a promising script. Constant interruptions from phone calls.
4:00 pm Meet with a writer. Hand her over to a staff member to finish the business we've started. I try not to spend too much time in meetings if I can help it.
4:45 pm Go back to the script. Make a few notes and then a few calls. Why isn't everyone else all over this? Who else has seen it? Who else likes it?
6:00 pm Focus my undivided attention on script. Definitely has potential. Take it home with me for a second look, outside the office, away from the phones.
7:00 pm Catch the train home.
Opportunities
Director of Stage, Motion Picture, Television, & Radio
Resources (counselor's picks)
People are your best resource to discovering opportunities in entertainment and sports careers. The Career Center can help connect you to experienced professionals currently involved in your area of interest. There are a variety of excellent resources on the web to guide in your search as well. While there are endless resources of varying quality available on the web, these are a few of my recommendations:News
The Hollywood Reporter
Media Week
Blogs/Mags
(let me know if you have some recommendations!)
Organizations & Memberships
Association for Women in Sports Media
Jobs & Internships
Entertainment Jobs
Entertainment Careers
TeamWork
NCAA Market
Communication Strategies
It is hard to ignore that the people who are most successful within the realms of sports and entertainment are those who work tirelessly to connect, to learn, and to perform. Employers consistently look for those who can demonstrate that they take initiative and risks, are appropriately driven and persistent, can work independently and show results, and have passion and confidence. Frequently, employers want to see and know about what you can DO for them more than what you KNOW.
Step One
CONNECT
- Seek out and take every opportunity to learn about your area of interest. Attend speakers and events and stick around afterward to ask a question or two. Ask for someone's card and follow up with a few insightful questions.
- Tell everyone you know about your interests and goals related to your career. You never know who will know someone who knows someone that might be willing to have a conversation about your career. Talk to your family, your supervisor, your professors, your dentist, your seat-mate on an airplane, the career center, a blind date, anyone! If you are genuinely interested in and excited about your next steps it will be contagious.
- Use Career Center resources like DukeConnect to broaden your connection to Duke alumni in your interest areas.
- Recognize that this might not be easy. That's OK. Remember, though, that your future employer is looking for someone who demonstrates that they take initiative, have confidence, and seeks out manageable risks. Establishing connections lays a foundation of the qualities that employers seek.
LEARN
- Developing a variety of connections provides you an incredibly valuable opportunity to hear from experts. What do you want to know about the person you're speaking to? What do you want to know about the industry that he or she works in? What insight into job searching does this person have that might help you along?
Questions you might ask someone include:- What is your favorite part of your job?
- Tell me about the path you took to get to this role - is there advice you can provide based on this?
- In your experience what does someone look for in a successful candidate for an entry level / internship position?
- What could I be doing right now to help prepare for a job within this industry?
- Is there anything that you think I should have asked about that I didn't?
- Based upon what you've learned about me so far, is there anyone else that you recommend that I speak to?
- Consider yourself a professional now! What news do you need to keep up with? What blogs and websites should you read? What industry background knowledge to you need to start to build? What does it take to be successful in these industries? Use an appointment at the career center (call 919-660-1050) to put together a plan to get and stay informed.
- Do a gut check. Does contemplating this sound like a huge burden or exciting? Do you have areas of interest that you do this for already? Should you fit your "plan" to your interests, or vice versa?
PERFORM
- Reality Check - jobs in this industry are in high demand. You need to provide evidence that you are passionate and competent in a way that is specific to your goals. Local internships and campus organizations may not be as glamorous as the roles that you ultimately want to fill, but they provide foundation and allow you to DO what you are interested in.
- Use every experience to be a superstar. Are you an intern who stands out above the crowd? Are you initiating new ideas and following through? Are you seeking feedback from others and incorporating it? Do you generate others' confidence in your success?
- Do you enjoy what you're doing? Ultimately, if you do, success comes easily because it isn't "work".
Who is interested in Duke students?
It's important to understand that many companies represented at Duke Career Fair and through ERecruiting are not seeking applicants in sports and entertainment because these jobs are usually filled in a "just-in-time" fashion. This means that companies rarely recruit college students on campus in the fall and hold the position until after graduation but rather, they fill the positions one-at-a-time whenever a position opens.
However, a handful of companies do look to Duke each year for job applicants. While they are not as plentiful as other industry sectors, they are great opportunities and should not be overlooked. Companies who recruited new employees through the Duke Career Center in 2006 and 2007 include:
- AOL
- CSTV
- ESPN
- NBC Universal
- New Line Cinema
- Plum TV
- Sony Pictures Stock
- Telemundo WNJU
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