And: where to look for such jobs? What would be the process to find them with any chance of success?
I hope the question in the title is general enough that more people might find it useful, I’m sure I can’t be the only one. I’m going to include some extra details specific to myself below, but you can just ignore them if you want to.
- I have no education beyond high school and no useful skills, although I do have a couple of years worth of work experience at this point. I don’t really have the will to learn anything new for the purpose of getting a job any more.
- I have been unbelievably lucky in that the circumstances allow me to live on minimum wage in humane conditions, and beyond the basic expenses I have nothing to spend money on anyway. So it doesn’t matter to me how much I get paid.
- I spend all of my free time on things like reading, drawing, writing, thinking, occasionally learning something new. If I could spend even just a couple of work hours every day with a pen and paper and an Internet connection, it would make me a bit happier.
In my experience it’s a difficult industry to get a foot in, even tho I’ve had experience running cables, doing sound and flashing lights. Any tips on how to get a foot in the door? It is my dream industry, not gonna lie
iatse.net is a good place to start. I was an IA stagehand. Not sure of where you are…but you can check on this page.
The unions are often hiring, and if you’ve a skillset they can work with, you stand a good chance of being picked up… Depending on the local, if it is a mixed one, you can be seting up conventions doing rod and drapes or working to unload and load theatrical productions… TV commercials, political rallies… rock concerts, WWE wrestling!
The thing is, you will meet peopple in other production firms, like lighting and sound companies and if you network and get a good reputation as a solid, responsible worker, then either move up in the local, or take a withdrawal and go to one of the non-union shops. Try IA first.
I did some stage-hand work on the side for extra money, it was great. I got in by asking stage hands how they got in, which happened to be a couple bigger firms that contract out labour to shows. I signed up online, did half a day of paid safety training and was hired. The best part was being able to pick up or refuse whatever shifts came my way.