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Hiring an editor
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Myself, I don’t care what platform someone edits on, since they are all so similar these days. If someone is say, wildly creative and totally kicks butt but has experience limited to FCP… no problem. I know they could switch gears to CS4 in no time flat.
One thing that I will start looking more vigilantly for is the ability to follow simple directions. We have posted our job availability for just a few days now, but have already received quite a number of applicants. Our application requirements were spelled out painfully simple, I thought… basically just resume and reel sent to such-and-such address. Out of all the applicants so far I’ve had exactly ONE do it the way we asked. ONE.
One applicant said “I think you can find my resume on my website.”
Another said “Google me and you can find several video samples on line.”
Please. If you want a job, do what it takes to try to get it. When I told my GM that I wanted physcial reels submitted he said “Why? You can see things easily on line?” True, but I want real reels for two reasons… firstly, I want to be able to sit down and watch them on a real television monitor, maybe even in the comfort of my own living room. I don’t want to watch someone’s postage-stamp-sized work, I want to see it the way our clients do.
Secondly, it’s a test, pure and simple. If someone cares enough about our position and is interested enough in it and wants it badly enough, they will take the time to burn me a DVD and send it to me. Total investment on their part is about five minutes and two bucks. I get scads of DVDs across my desk every week… from people just hoping we might be looking to hire. If someone who knows we might be looking for someone like them can’t bother to make an effort to follow some simple directions… I don’t want ’em.
Sorry if that was a bit of a rant… but just had a couple of new submissions come in. Incorrectly, of course.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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[Todd Terry] “I don’t want to watch someone’s postage-stamp-sized work,”
Er, um, excuse this interruption to your regularly scheduled program…
[Man runs over to his superhero costume closet and shuffles through until he finds a Billy Mays PITCHMAN costume and he pulls it on, he pulls on the Billy Mays head — it doesn’t fit, the Billy Mays head is to scale and those that knew him know he had a big head.]
Reels got you down? Too small to see? Do reels leave that nasty stain in your brain because they just aren’t big enough to get the job done? Hi, I’m Billy Mays and I want to introduce you to Creative COW Reels. What?$#@!? You say you’ve never used them? Run to your computer and watch this one… Go ahead, I’ll wait until you get back…
Impressed? Don’t be. This isn’t even one of the biggest reels we have here. In fact they can get a lot bigger. How? We use Billy Mays Wonderstream™ to bring these beautiful reels to you. What is Wonderstream™ you ask? Hah! I’m glad you asked!
But in order to give you the answer, you have to call now and if you upload your reel, we will give you not one, but TWO explanations as to why Wonderstream™ is the greatest thing since, well…me, Billy Mays!
And if you call now, you won’t pay $19.95. No, no, no. You won’t even pay $14.95. Nope. In fact, you won’t even pay $9.95. So what’s it cost you ask? I am glad you did!
It’s FREE!
But you have to call now! Operators are standing by.
And if you call, we will host up to 900 pixel wide files that can weigh up to 100MB, all in glorious AAC-LC audio encoding to digitally blast your sub-woofer and the neighbors next door.
So, call now. Operators are standing by…
but sorry, I can no longer be.
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[Mike Cohen] “No suit, no 2nd interview. “
I’ve worked at places where the opposite was true. “Hey, check out the candidate – he showed up in a suit!” My rule of thumb has been to wear the nicest set of threads that you’d wear on the job. Do your editors wear suits to work?
Also – how’d you end up interviewing nine people with no professional editing experience for your edit gig? I always thought the competition was a lot thicker than that….
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As I said, the rules are not hard and fast. And no you don’t wear a suit at a lot of jobs but traditionally you wear a suit or a sharp outfit to an interview. Call it “tradition”
This was my hiring process for an entry level job. i did not say these folks had no professional experience, our advertisement called for 1-2 years experience – including solid work in college.
I was hired right out of college into the same job, so perhaps you could say I was looking for me.
Mike
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[Mike Cohen] “And no you don’t wear a suit at a lot of jobs but traditionally you wear a suit or a sharp outfit to an interview. Call it “tradition” “
Mike,
In Los Angeles, no editor dressing-up for an interview, especially in a suit, would ever be considered a likely candidate for a job. And, thankfully so…
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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This is the great thing about these forums. You get different perspectives on a subject which can be, as in this case, very different.
Mike -
[Bill Dewald] “I’ve worked at places where the opposite was true. “Hey, check out the candidate – he showed up in a suit!” My rule of thumb has been to wear the nicest set of threads that you’d wear on the job. Do your editors wear suits to work? “
I specifically tell my candidates NOT to wear a suit, I tell them to dress as I would expect to see them come to work. Casual but clean. This tells me right away if they know the appropriate way to dress for a client. You can be casual, but clean.
I won’t turn away a candidate if he / she wears a suit, but I would never turn away someone for not wearing one.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Biscardi Creative MediaCreative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
Interesting argument about dress code. I haven’t had to interview for a job in twenty years, but if I had to tomorrow, I would still wear a coat and tie. You know, to me it is about respect and formality in the hiring process. A lot of us editors don’t know how good we have it day to day; some of you can come in in flip-flops and a thong and get away with it, it seems. But this is not really a get-your-hands-dirty kind of job, and it is not impossible to work this job in a coat and tie. Some places DO make their video crews wear them, I’m thinking mostly of high end banks and certain religious organizations.
So, even though the day to day standard is business casual or slightly less than that, I don’t as a rule dress down too far because I don’t want to convey too sloppy of an image. Dress shirt or nice polo is the usual. At any moment I may have to jump up and go mix with people that are way over my pay grade, and so no, I don’t dress in skater shorts or t-shirts. And if I am interviewing or being interviewed, by golly, how one dresses signals what they think of the job they want.
An old tip for those wanting to advance is to dress a little teeny bit above your current position. What it does is send subtle signals of distinction that you are an ambitious and forward-thinking person, ready to be advanced, and it naturally commands a little more recognition/respect when you dress more like the “grown-ups” than the “kids”. Semiotics. A long time ago when I was dating my future wife and about to meet her parents, she made me toss out my favorite chuka boots and go buy new nice semi-dress shoes. Turns out her dad, a depression-era guy, tells a lot about people and judges them by their shoes and how well they care for them. For him it is a gauge of their overall character, expressed in one small personal grooming detail. The modern version of that I guess is the Tv commercial where the stain on a guy’s shirt yells so loud you can’t hear the guy.
So I wear jeans most days, or dockers/chinos, but a nice dress shirt and adding a tie to that is not a huge deal once in a while. If I need to interview, the very least I will bring is a jacket and tie and good slacks and dress shoes. If I interview you, I’m looking for “tells” to your real character, who you are under it all.
That’s my obsolete personal take on it anyway.
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Oops…. I hope that Mark never catches a glimpse of my daily attire… the ever-present Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts, and baseball cap (a baseball cap, usually Yankees or Dodgers, is required for directors by federal law). At least they’re clean.
I was a buttoned-down guy for 12 corporate years, and when I got out of that I gave away a dozen Brooks Brothers suits. Now, I pretty much look the same whether in house editing all by myself, on location directing, or meeting with some executive bigwig. Usually though my partner (who is the shined-shoes half) comes along, I think he passes me off as “one of those creative types, you know.”
I don’t think I’ve ever had it make a bit of difference to a client. It might but I don’t think so. If it has, at least I was comfortable… ha.
Then again, if a job applicant showed up dressed like me, I’d probably think he was a bum.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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I should add that in our company, editors are not only sitting in their offices 8 hours/day. Our editors also go out and shoot – sometimes in the OR, sometimes in a corporate board room, sometimes in a college lecture hall, and sometimes not shooting at all but working a trade show booth, doing AV support at a conference, etc. I sometimes keep a sportcoat in my car just in case. I would say I dress up 20-30 days a year.
So as Mark has suggested, you can tell if a job candidate is someone you want representing your company out in the world. If someone wore jeans and a sweater vest or polo shirt to an interview, I’m not saying I would not consider everything they have to offer, it just becomes part of the puzzle.
Today you may be cutting a video, tomorrow you may be in scrubs shooting surgery, the day after that interviewing the CEO of a Fortune 50 company or the director of a government agency.
Put your best foot forward to let me know that I would trust you to put my company’s best foot forward on my behalf.
Maybe here in New England we are a bit more traditional, must be our Puritan ancestry. Although it would be nice if supermarkets sold wine. But that’s another thread altogether!
Mike Cohen
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