What We Look For When Hiring

In today’s “Behind the Agents Desk” series I thought I would take a different approach. We are currently hiring for multiple positions so I thought I’d give some insight to specific things we might be looking for. You might be thinking, I will only get hired if I went to college or had experience in the music industry already. While that is not the case, there are some specific things I like to look for when browsing through hundreds of prospects.

For specific jobs we will train from the ground up so don’t get discouraged if you do not have existing music industry experience. If you do have existing experience even more of a plus, but don’t let that fool you into thinking you won’t be better than the next.

The Resume – Sure, the resume is the resume, but don’t send us a resume that you’ve sent with 100 job applications. Give us some insight into your goals and objectives in your initial statement. Some ideas:

• Why do you want to work in the music industry?
• What skills do you have that can benefit our agency?
• Do you have existing experience in the music business?

The resume is a snapshot of your prior work history and education. I like to look at a few key points:

• Are you currently employed?
• What is the length of time at your previous positions?
• What is the length of time in between your previous jobs?
• Where you went to school and what year you graduated and with what GPA?

Although the resume is key it is not the main focus point for me.

The Cover Letter – Here is what I like to take a look at personally. You would be surprised how many people do not leave a cover letter even though we ask for one during the application process. Here’s a couple tips for a killer cover letter:

• Make sure it is not one sentence.
• I can tell if the cover letter is generic and you sent it to a bunch of places (if you do this make sure you update the company name to ours please).
• Briefly talk about yourself, but the ones that’s basically a written version of your resume, well – its too generic.

If I spot these things I will immediately bypass the applicant, not because they may not be a great candidate, but because they did not follow instructions, pay close attention to detail and most importantly did now show any desire to research who we are and what we do. We have tons of applicants to go through and we need ways to quickly sift through and cut the fat.

The best cover letters actually talk about our company, who we are, and cite references to articles or interviews. This catches our attention because it shows a passion and desire to learn about us. Feel free to include why you think you’d be a great fit, but win us over. Make us WANT to read your resume!

Freddie Harb
President