The following is a guest post from Sarah Stockton, an Outreach Coordinator for Voices.com, a site connects businesses with professional voice talents. In the post, she provides background on the state of the industry, and then step-by-step information on breaking into a career in radio.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job market in broadcasting is expected to grow more slowly in the future than the overall job market. While this is certainly not the best news for those hoping to break into the industry, the silver lining is that some growth is expected. Those interested in a career in broadcasting can do several things to increase their opportunities in the field such as preparing for work with a solid education, building a portfolio, and working as an intern.

Get an Education

A degree in broadcasting can be very useful for those interested in a radio career. Broadcasting degrees can be tailored for any desired position including announcer, reporter, host, technician, manager, program director, or sales director. While it is certainly not necessary to have a degree to find a job in radio, it is quite helpful and can improve one’s ability to move up within the field. Individuals interested in positions within larger markets may find a degree more of a necessity.

Assemble a Portfolio

There are several ways to build a portfolio before beginning a career in radio. In fact, this can greatly help improve the odds of landing that first job. Small radio stations often have a limited budget for hiring radio talent for their advertisements. Approach various stations and offer to be the vocal talent for upcoming radio commercials in exchange for a copy of the finished product to put in your portfolio.

A few well done commercials with a variety of vocal styles can quickly increase the samples you are able to provide potential clients. Another option for building a portfolio is narrating books. This can be done with public domain books such as those found in Project Gutenberg. If the idea of narrating an entire book simply for a portfolio is unappealing, consider donating copies to nursing homes or rehabilitation centers. Not only will this make your sample more useful in general, but knowing it will be listened to repeatedly may motivate you to do your absolute best.

Become an Intern

Internships are probably the best known way to get noticed in the world of radio. There are a few drawbacks. Interns often work for free, may be assigned boring jobs, and long hours that may also be very early or very late at night. Is it worth it? Yes. As an intern you will receive invaluable training that would be impossible to get in a classroom. You will meet people in the industry and have work experience within the industry to include on your resume. While some colleges help facilitate internships, that may not always be an option.

Fortunately, many radio stations that offer internships do not require their interns to be college students. If you aren’t sure which nearby radio stations are offering internships, simply ask. Contact the General Manager or Program Director about existing or future possibilities. It only takes one ‘yes’ to make every ‘no’ worthwhile.

Network, Network, Network

One of the best ways to increase your career opportunities is to network. Attend lectures and conferences which will feature industry leaders you respect. Follow blogs, social networking pages, and the Tweets of your personal favorites. You will learn more about your chosen career field and may even have the opportunity to interact directly with experts in your field.

The enormity of deciding on a career can be overwhelming for many people. Once a career path has been chosen the battle is practically won. How do you plan on breaking into the world of radio?

Sarah Stockton is an Outreach Coordinator for Voices.com, a site connects businesses with professional voice talents. She enjoys helping potential voice talent find their start in the voice industry.

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In spite of being a writer, Executive Producer, and actor on one of the top half-hour comedies on network television, “The Office,” Mindy Kaling is near the beginning of her entertainment career. Unlike “Stories I Only Tell My Friends,” in which actor Rob Lowe chronicles his 30-plus years in showbiz or “Bossypants,” whose author, Tina Fey, has 15 years of professional experience, Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) gives equal coverage to the pre-making-a-living-at-showbiz years as it does to “The Office” and everything that has come from that.

This is a good thing for readers with big dreams who are just starting out or who feel stuck where they are. She recounts the lean years in sometimes hilarious detail, which can make those going through their lean years now feel a lot better. She shares stories of auditions gone wrong, about being a great nanny, about not getting a much-desired job as an NBC page, and about time spent working as a production assistant on a cable show featuring a physic communicating with studio audience members’ dead relatives.

But beyond the foibles and lost opportunities are some behaviors which contributed to Kaling’s success. Yes, being smart and talented helped, but what can you take away from Mindy Kaling’s entertainment career and embrace for your own career?

1. Obsess and Analyze and Obsess Some More - In this case, I’m talking about comedy. Hours spent watching early Comedy Central programming and mid-afternoon repeats of “Saturday Night Live” and “Kids in the Hall” as a kid gave Kaling her early start absorbing, thinking about, and reenacting her favorite comedy bits. Essays included in her book, titled “Types of Women in Romantic Comedies Who Are Not Real” and “My Favorite Eleven Moments in Comedy,” make it clear that the obsession and analysis continue.

2. Find your people - During the time that Kaling became a student of comedy, she shifted away from her previous click of shopaholic friends to spend time with Mavis, a classmate who wanted to watch the same TV shows and movies that she did. In college, she found Brenda, another best friend who similarly shared her interests. This relationship would be instrumental in Kaling’s career breakthrough. She writes in her book, “I love comedy and now surround myself with people who love to talk about it as much as I do.” In an elite sitcom writer’s room, she continues to find her people.

3. Develop Your Voice - Kaling and Mavis not only watched comedy but also wrote and recorded their own sketches using favorite characters from “Saturday Night Live.” She and Brenda both did theater in college(with Kaling writing one-acts and Brenda starring in a number of productions) and lived together in New York when they were just starting out. “Brenda and I have always done ‘bits,’ even before we knew they were called ‘bits,’” she wrote. “We would take on characters, acting like them for a while on the way to the subway or getting ready to go out.” This is a valuable pastime for people who want to be performers or writers, as they soon learned.

4. Make it real – While they were struggling in New York trying to find a way into show business, Kaling and Brenda decided to write something together to perform in. After some initial struggle, they settled on developing one of their ‘bits’ into a play called “Matt & Ben,” which was a fictionalized version of the relationship between best friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Brenda played Matt Damon and Kaling played Ben Affleck. They produced it initially for the “New York International Fringe Festival” and won “Best Play.” That changed everything. Producers contacted them to put the play up Off-Broadway, which they did. It turned into a sold-out sensation, and got them a pilot deal which ultimately didn’t go forward. By then, though, she had gotten hired as a staff writer on an NBC show that was a remake of a British show called “The Office” so it didn’t matter. She had broken in.

This book is not for everyone. As I said earlier, Kaling doesn’t have a lot of career ground to cover and much of this book is more observational humor than strict bio material. Kaling has many obsessions besides comedy and she has no qualms about waxing on and on about them. For instance, the book includes an essay called “I Love Diets,” one which details “Best Friend Rights and Responsibilities” and another one that asks (but does not answer) the burning question, “Who Do Men Put on Their Shoes So Slowly?” Some, like me, will appreciate and enjoy Kaling’s humor even when the subject matter isn’t something of particular interest. Others might get impatient with the diversions. But it’s a quick read and there’s a lot to be gleaned from it for those just starting out in showbiz and those who want to be.

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The inspiration for the Mogul Mindset eblasts (the name of our weekly newsletter) came from the Richard Branson autobiography, “Losing my Virginity.” This compelling story contained many lessons which anyone who aspired to achieve big things in any field, including entertainment, could apply to their own career paths. Richard Branson has a way of thinking – strategic, methodical, and expansive - which seems to define his work style and decision-making. Four key characteristics were explained in this post.

Last year, Jay Z was added to the Your Industry Insider honorary board of directors. He, too, had made bold, calculated moves from an early age which led him to his current position as hip-hop superstar performer and producer, and multimillionaire entrepreneur. Here’s the post on Jay Z’s career path.

Your Industry Insider is proud to add a third member to the honorary board: host, producer, and brand ambassador Ryan Seacrest. His path to mogul-dom was as different from Richard Branson’s and Jay Z’s as those two were to each other’s. However, there are some similarities and Seacrest’s path has definitely led him to a position in the industry which warrants him a seat at this table.

Unlike the previous members of the honorary Your Industry Insider board of directors, Ryan Seacrest has yet to write a book about his career. This means we’re forced to rely on quotes, information conveyed in interviews, and bios on the “American Idol” site and others. Luckily, there is no shortage of information to be found on Ryan Seacrest’s professional past, current endeavors, and plans for the future.

Here are some of the specific lessons from Seacrest’s career that you can apply to your own path to mogul-dom:

Develop your core passions and exploit them.  Often when you find out about someone ultrasuccessful, they seem to have appeared on the scene overnight. But though there are very occasionally overnight successes in entertainment (often thanks to the flukishness of reality TV stardom), the real success stories frequently start with an early enthusiasm worked on in obscurity before being recognized and brought to a larger audience.

In Ryan Seacrest’s case, his hosting duties started with practice radio shows done as a pre-teen at home into a cassette recorder. An internship at a top Atlanta radio show turned into slot as a fill-in night DJ and then a college job hosting an ESPN game show. By the time he landed his first radio DJ job in Los Angeles at age 20, he’d been working in entertainment for four years.

Identify relevant role models and follow in their footsteps.  Seacrest has taken this to a literal degree, with “American Top 40” founder and first host, Casey Kasem, and host and longtime mogul Dick Clark being early influences. He became the host of “AT40” in 2004 and is now a co-host of Dick Clark’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.” He also married the top 40 DJ side of his career with the TV host side when he landed the hosting duties at “American Idol,” which has a lot of the same attributes as the show Dick Clark broke through on, “American Bandstand.” (Music-themed, youth-oriented.)

Branch out.  When hosting “American Idol” made him into a household name and a recognized commodity in the industry, he did not relax into that role as his sole pursuit. That is when he took over “AT40” and also replaced DJ Rick Dees on a popular morning drive radio show which was subsequently named “On Air With Ryan Seacrest.” He has been quoted as having a fear of turning into a has-been the way some of the stars from his childhood did, but whatever the reason, he is going on all cylinders.

Diversify.  This is a big one and I don’t think you can be a mogul without multiple pursuits. When he became a core draw as host “American Idol,” he recognized the opportunity it afforded him not just as a performer. “It allows me the exposure and the access to the public and to the executives in our business,” he told Esquire magazine. This is when he branched out into producing, eventually landing a $21 million with the E! Network to develop, produce and host a variety of programs. Not bad for a 32 year-old.

Look ahead.  In Fortune magazine, Seacrest recently commented on the future of entertainment: “We’re seeing platform, technology, and content all converging, and it’s happening quickly,” he said. “It’s exciting to me. There’s an appetite for more original content than ever, and I have a company that creates content, whether it’s distributed in short form, reality form, live form, or game form.” Like the other moguls on the board, Seacrest has used his vision, his talent, his savvy, and his blood, sweat, and tears to develop a career on the cutting edge of his field.

Welcome to the board, Ryan Seacrest! We look forward to seeing where you go in the years to come!

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Your Industry Insider had a lot to say about entertainment job-getting and career-building this year. (Twenty plus years in the biz, most of them as a hiring/personnel executive, will give a person a lot to say on those topics.)  To pick the “top” posts, we’re going with the ones that were most popular – most viewed, most shared, most commented upon. Let’s dive in…

I think most of us will agree by now that Linked In is a valuable professional tool that should be used, but a lot of people are flummoxed when it comes to setting up a profile and navigating around the site. Here’s a primer on why everyone should be on Linked In and how to use it: “Your Essential LinkedIn Guide: Harness the Awesomeness” It was the most popular post of the year.

The good old-fashioned resume has been around for ages and is still the core tool for professional development (aka landing better and better jobs). However, people are still making the same basic mistakes (not just in entertainment but in all fields). So here’s a gem that was much-shared early in the year: “Four Things Your Entertainment Resume Should Not Say About You.”

But what about the cover letter? Everyone knows a resume without a cover letter is a big mistake. But how long should the ideal cover letter be and how much of your career should it cover? How much should it be customized for each job? Here’s the inside skinny on cover letters that get the job done: “Four Secrets to Winning Entertainment Cover Letters.”

Finding a job opening in the entertainment industry is tougher than ever. Many people turn to temping to help make ends meet and get an all-important foot in the door, but they have no idea how to turn a three day gig into an opportunity for a permanent job. Don’t get me wrong- it’s not easy. But there are ways to give yourself better odds of becoming a full time employee. “How to Get Hired From an Entertainment Temp Job.”

You’ve landed job interviews and you think you’ve said the right things but for some reason, you never get called back for a second interview, much less landed the job. Read this one to make sure you are saying the right things – and all the right things – to give yourself the best shot at getting hired: “Three Things You Must Say in Your Entertainment Job Interview.” And while we’re on the subject of interviews, read this one to make sure you don’t end up with the wrong job: “Five Warning Signs You Might Not Want the Entertainment Job You Are Interviewing For.”

You’ve done everything right, but still the job went to someone else. Read this one to get tips on turning a job rejection into a new opportunity (maybe even a better one) at the same place: “Three Must-Dos When You Don’t Get the Job.”

We’re finishing up this round up with three that cover broader topics, “Four People You Should Not Take Career Advice From,” “Entertainment Career Stability: Sometimes Your Mother Is Right,” and “The Unreturned Phone Call: It’s Not You, It’s Them - Always.”

And for extra credit – and to get more entertainment career lessons - check out this review of Bossypants by Tina Fey. It’s a great book and I’ve pulled some of the many lessons from the book and included them in the review.

Please feel free to comment on any of these posts if you agree or even disagree with the advice. And if you’ve enjoyed them, subscribe to the Mogul Mindset weekly eblasts on the Your Industry Insider homepage to keep up on new content and receive advance notice & info on the release of the upcoming YII book, “Breaking Into the Biz: the Essential Insider’s Guide to Launching an Entertainment Industry Career.”

The production company receptionist who can’t be bothered to answer a few questions about project submissions?

The film production supervisor who won’t return your call about available positions?

The agency that sends your screenplay back unread?

The below-the-line agent who never gets around to watching your DP reel?

Here are the things you’ll never know…

The production company receptionist is a frustrated screenwriter herself– and she’s got nineteen phone lines to answer. Plus, Ryan Gosling just walked through the lobby and she didn’t even get to see him.

The supervisor of that film you want to work on is being innundated by calls from the nephew of one of the studio executives and he’ll get the open PA job for sure, even though she can already tell he’s going to be trouble.

The agency that sent your screenplay back unread, like most agencies and production companies and all of the major studios, fears nothing more than being sued because your screenplay bore some resemblance to a project they already have in development. They didn’t even look at the cover page, much less flip it open.

The below-the-line agent who never got around to watching your DP reel? — Oh wait, he just called. He liked your reel and wants to meet in person!

Sometimes people are helpful. Sometimes they are not. When they are not, move on. Don’t take it personally and don’t look back.

You polished your resume and sent it, along with a stellar cover letter, to the right person. You got a call. You aced the interview. You were brought back in – twice! You sent thank you notes after each interview, to each interviewer. Your follow-up was polite and appropriate. You were told you were a finalist. The HR person thought it was looking good for you…

And yet, they gave the job to someone else.

After all that effort and waiting and wondering. After joking with the receptionist about being a “regular” in the lobby. After establishing what seemed like a genuine rapport with the executive in charge of the department. After what the HR person said about it looking good…

Yes, it’s a disappointment, but in spite of what you might think, all is not lost. What do you do to maximize your chances of having some good come out of this seeming loss?

1)      Be gracious. Yes, you were obviously the best candidate, at least as far as you could tell. And maybe some of the people on the other side of the interview desk thought so, too. But a decision was made, no matter how difficult. And it’s time to touch base one more time with a thank you to all involved for their time and consideration.

2)      Be a resource, if you can. If there’s some topic that was discussed and piece of information that the interviewer wished they had, track it down. If the interviewer wanted to connect with someone who you know, offer to make the introduction. There’s not always an opportunity like this, but if there is, take advantage of it.

3)      Keep the door open. Part of keeping the door open is the thank you and the effort made as a resource. But saying it is important. “If another position comes up – or if the candidate you hired doesn’t work out – I would still love the opportunity to join the team over there.” A sentence like this can cement you in their minds as the backup or as the first person to be called when something else becomes available.

I have personally hired many people who were passed over for the original job they came in for, sometimes for a better position I knew was coming up but couldn’t say anything about. I have also forward resumes of promising candidate to colleagues at other companies for their open positions. Getting the original job is just one good outcome of the job interviewing process. Consider a “near miss” at getting hired one more step in building your reputation for overall career success.

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Some people temp for the flexibility it allows them in pursuing other career goals, but the vast majority temp in order to get a foot-in-the-door to a permanent job. As a longtime hiring executive who frequently arranged temporary help for absent employees and special projects, I have witnessed the gaffes of countless temps who might otherwise have been potential employees. I have also hired many people who were stellar temps, since it’s really easy to hire someone who’s already proved himself.

Here are five tips you should take with you as you enter the temp pool:

1) Follow the Rules – This is a big one and without it, there is no hope of parlaying a one-day or one-week gig into a regular paycheck. Show up on time, park where you’re supposed to, fill out all paperwork requested, and do everything you can to make life easy for those whose job it is to supervise you.

2) Solve their Problem – If you are filling in for an assistant who is absent, you are there to competently support an executive until the permanent employee returns. First, figure out what the executive does (what HIS job is) and what his current priorities are. If he gives you a list of things to do and it’s not obvious, ASK what you should do first. Learn the phones, pay attention to who’s who. Make notes you can refer to later.

3) Fit In (Up to a Point) – Part of this is inherent. You are a similar personality type to the rest of the people in the organization or you are not. But if you are in the entertainment industry – or aspire to be – you already have something in common with them. Dress similarly to your coworkers and, if they engage you in conversation, try to talk about common topics. But be wary of instigating conversation when you are new. If they are interested in you, they’ll ask. Chatty temps are distracting at best, annoying at worst, and often replaced.

4) Be Positive – You may be sitting with the office complainers or they may have a genuine beef. Regardless, steer clear of any conversation related to the company that could be considered negative. The people who do the hiring know who the complainers are, are usually annoyed by them (even if they must be tolerated), and don’t want to add to their ranks.

5) Express Interest (to the Right Channels) – At some point in the gig, you realize that you would really like to work at the company. What do you do? Nothing at first. While you are there, the people who do the hiring are already assessing you if there is a suitable opening. Trust me. When they ask – or when your assignment is over – you can tell them then, and hand over your resume. [NOTE: If you came through a personnel agency, the company where you are temping cannot hire you without going through the agency (and paying a placement fee). So you should tell your agency you are interested in working at the company. The agent will let the employer know.]

So entertainment temps, take these five to heart and apply them to your future gigs and don’t be surprised if you end up with an actual job!

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Recently, this post went up on YII: Four People You Should Not Take Entertainment Career Advice From.

It’s about not taking entertainment career advice from people who are personally invested, such as friends who don’t want to lose you or those around you with their own unfulfilled entertainment career dreams. But a couple of readers contacted me about my inclusion of concerned parents in the list. Here’s one response I got via LinkedIn:

“You mention in the post that there are instances when people, mainly your parents, question you about your choice to pursue an entertainment career because they know how unstable it can be. This is a fear that I have developed over the past year, mainly because I don’t want to rely on my parents for financial needs for too long. Could you give me a few examples of jobs in the entertainment industry that tend to be more stable than others? Also, because this fear has lingered with me for a while, do you think it might be worth me considering a different, more stable career?”

These days, the phrase ‘stable career’ referring to any possible vocational path is more likely to be met with a derisive snort than anything else. Banking used to be considered a stable career path. That tells you everything you need to know right there.

Stability is hard to come by in any field. But in entertainment, as in many fields, there are more and less riskier paths to pursue. And with hundreds of jobs in the industry to choose from, you have more flexibility than you might think.

Of course, when you talk about uncertainty of success in entertainment, leading the pack job-wise is performer. Whether that means being an actor, a musician, or a stand-up comedian, pursuing any of these careers means your chance of making a living, much less being a star, is extremely low.

Right behind those pursuits are these long shots: film/television director, film/television/music producer, film/television writer, and songwriter. These are called “dream careers” for a reason and success usually involve lots of years of hard work and a heaping helping of luck, and even then, the long haul is very uncertain.

Working on film and television crews is also hit and miss. Competition in every position, especially department heads such as Director of Photography and Production Designer, is fierce. Everyone on a crew is freelance and the work can dry up without warning. If you get on a hit television show, that can provide you with several years of stable employment, but after that, you are out looking again.

That’s the bad news.

The more stable careers are to be found within large corporate entities – major studios, television networks and cable channels, large production companies and event promotion companies, and the like. Think Paramount Studios, NBC, Discovery Communications, AEG, etc. This can mean work in any department: Marketing, Programming, Post Production, Human Resources, etc.

The competition for jobs is stiffer in the creative departments, such as Development and Production, and it is less stiff in the jobs that require advanced degrees and other special training, such as Finance and Business Affairs. So if you want to have the best chance for stability in entertainment, stay away from the “sexier” departments or come to the biz armed with a degree in finance or a JD.

But what do you do if you want a dream career, if all you want to do with your life is be onstage or behind the camera? Do you have to listen to your parents (or your own more cautious voice within) and go into something else, abandoning all those years of training and envisioning what you feel you are meant to do?

If you really want it – and I mean enough to deal with years of hard work and sacrifice and rejection and more hard work and sacrifice and rejection – there is a way to mitigate the risk that I would recommend to anyone, no matter how confident they are in their talents. I call it pursuing parallel careers.

This strategy involves finding something relatively stable – not just a day job, but something you treat as a career track – that you can do alongside going for your dream career. I know an actress who is an awesome bookkeeper. She is freelance to allow herself the freedom to audition and do parts, but she could go within a company at any point she felt she needed to. I also know a singer who is a paralegal, an aspiring costume designer who works in ultra high-end retail, an indie producer who is a film sales agent, and several lawyers who write screenplays on the side.

These are not day jobs. They are parallel career paths. It’s trickier to pull off having two careers side-by-side than single-mindedly pursuing the dream while doing low-level administrative work or waiting tables on the side, but it’s a way to hedge your bet when you are betting on something with long odds. And that is something even your dear old mom and dad can get behind.

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When you are in school or just starting out, a lot of people will offer up their opinions about what you should do with your life. When you share your showbiz aspirations, everyone becomes an entertainment career expert. But there are four categories of people who you should not take advice from:

PEOPLE WHO HAVE A VESTED INTEREST IN DASHING YOUR ENTERTAINMENT CAREER DREAMS

This could include your parents, your girlfriend/boyfriend, your best friend, or anyone else with a strong attachment to you. They don’t want to risk losing you by having you go off in a new direction, whether it involves imminently (or ever) relocating to another city or not. This also includes people who fear the presumed instability and potential heartbreak of an entertainment career. This is mostly an area your parents specialize in, as they don’t want to have to support you financially or pick up the pieces of your broken heart if things to not work out. (More on entertainment career stability & your parent’s concerns here.)

PEOPLE WHO HAVE A VESTED INTEREST IN FEEDING YOUR ENTERTAINMENT CAREER DREAMS

This includes friends who are relocating far from home and want someone to join them on their adventure, but primarily refers to people who want you to pay them for helping you in some way with your entertainment career. Your friend’s motives are easily seen (his car is practically already packed!) and taken with a grain of salt. But if someone is trying to sell you something, whether it sounds (or is) legitimate or not, no matter what they say, assume their encouragement is financially motivated. Get a second (and third) opinion from someone who is not in one of these categories.

PEOPLE WHO HAVE TRIED AND FAILED TO REALIZE THEIR OWN ENTERTAINMENT CAREER DREAMS

Your older brother who moved out to L.A. to act and came back a year later (or five years later) without one credit to show for it. Your mother’s friend who was a singer with a struggling rock band for a number of years until she “settled down to raise a family.” The neighbor who wrote four screenplays and couldn’t get an agent. Yes, you hear these stories as soon as you mention that you want to try working in entertainment. These people will try to convince you that it’s just too hard. “Don’t bother,” they’ll say.

PEOPLE WHO HAD ENTERTAINMENT DREAMS BUT NEVER PURSUED THEM

Anyone who ever performed in a school play or had a garage band probably had entertainment dreams at some point. Don’t worry about them. This category refers to people who took it further, such as writing screenplays they never showed anyone or drove to the local “American Idol” auditions and never went in. They most likely won’t tell you about these secret pursuits, so be wary of anyone who seems exceedingly attached to whether you go for your entertainment dream career or not. They might say, “Are you crazy? Those things never work out for people like us! Right??” Or, conversely, “You gotta go for it before it’s too late! Right??”

The problem with advice from members of these four categories is that it’s more about them than it is about you. Your protective father is thinking about how he devastated he is when you face disappointment. Your brother might be afraid you will show him up if you pursue an entertainment career and actually succeed. Your friend who did a drive by at the “American Idol” auditions is thinking about why she can’t muster up the courage to get out of the car when you are talking about making a movie or applying for a job at a production company or moving all the way to L.A. to work at a talent agency.

Make sure when someone tells you what they think you should do that it’s truly about you. There are lots of options for working in entertainment. There are countless ways to start and succeed at an entertainment career, each with their own degrees of difficulty, some with built-in safety nets. The people who are considering your best interest will ask about your plans in detail and offer as much guidance as they feel comfortable offering. They will help you explore possibilities and strategize and they will be supportive no matter what you end up deciding to do.

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Autumn is approaching and a lot of college students are just settling in at their first entertainment internship. But how does someone get an internship? And what about “not just any internship,” but one that is going to set them on a course to entertainment career success?

Well, for those of you who haven’t yet landed an internship - or whose first internship isn’t turning out to be all that great, here’s a quick guide to finding an awesome internship:

1) Be strategic- If you start early and use these internship-getting tips, you have the opportunity to be somewhat selective. Target an internship in the area of the industry in which you want to work post-graduation. This is your opportunity to get resume fodder, connections, and good solid work experience. The more laser-focused you are on your area of interest, the better.

2) Aim high- Make a list of the top companies where you want to work. Call them first. Even the name places have interns working there. Why not be one of them? Though interning at a little-known company can be a great jumping off place for your career (a scrappy start-up could provide an excellent job opportunity for you when you graduate), you want to do your homework and know (as much as you can) what you’re getting into with every opportunity.

3) Have a short pitch ready- “My name is Jenny Martin. I am a junior at Boston University majoring in communications. I am interested in interning at Katalyst in the spring. How do I submit myself for consideration?” Easy, right?

4) Don’t be shy- Companies love interns because they work for free and the smart ones work as hard or harder than anyone on payroll. If you get someone who is curt on the phone, don’t be put off. They are busy and they get lot of calls from potential interns, so keep smiling and be persistent.

5) Follow-up- Call back if you don’t get a return call. Start your pitch again. “This is Jenny Martin. I called a week ago and I wanted to check back. I am calling about an internship…” And keep following up until they tell you a definitive no or until you land that internship!

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