by Gabrielle Dudnyk

From the Vault Media & Entertainment Message Board: I'm looking around for good resources to help me out with my job search. Hoping to find a couple of summer internships in Hollywood and need to conduct research on the big trends, big players, big names etc. As a former consultant, finding a suitable creative/business position in H-wood is going to be hard enough.

Gabrielle: Actually, finding a position in Hollywood isn't as hard as you think... depending on what side of the business you want to get into. Whether it is the business side or the creative side, it is always relatively easy to get an internship. What is more difficult is to get an internship that pays. Conducting research is the best place to start... and the library is a great place to do research! You don't mention which area of Hollywood you are interested in getting into (film? television? music? publishing?) - but each area publishes its own trade magazines that are a treasure trove of information. Start with Variety and the Hollywood Reporter - not only is every issue full of industry trends, but they also list personnel promotions and want ads in the back. So while not many companies actually advertise for internships, you can find out the important contact information from the ads and then contact those people to see if they have any formal or informal internship opportunities. Magazines like Broadcast & Cable, CableWorld and The Industry Standard are some other good places to start.

For a broad discussion of trends in the media, go through recent issues of BusinessWeek, Fortune, and Entertainment Weekly. BusinessWeek and Fortune cover a media topic in virutally every issue, and EntertainentWeekly covers the business of entertainment and is very informative about trends.

If you are interested in getting into the business side, your background as a consultant is a huge plus. If you visit any of the company websites and look for biographies of company executives, you will find that a lot of them share your background. Go to artisanent.com (Artisan Entertainment) and see that most of the main executives have backgrounds like yours. Then, just write them a letter and ask for a half-hour of their time to talk about the industry and possible internship opportunities. Many of these people will be kind enough to give you at least some of their time, provided you follow up. (You can't just send the letter and expect them to call you. It never works that way.) The internship is then yours for the asking.