medialifemagazine.com
Reaching out to out-of-work media folks
By Diego Vasquez
Jun 8, 2009 - 1:10:57 AM
Tomorrow afternoon at the Helmsley Hotel in New York City, more than 200 out-of-work media people will gather together to network, get advice on how to find a job, and polish their resumes. It’s been a rough patch for the industry, with advertisers cutting back their budgets and the resulting layoffs costing thousands of people their jobs. Meanwhile, competition between agencies to land accounts is as fierce as ever. All those factors prompted Horizon Media to engineer tomorrow’s workshop, which is being co-sponsored by Partners in Human Resources International, a career and executive coaching firm. Horizon hopes to encourage smart, dedicated media folks who have lost their jobs to stay in the business, despite the dim job prospects. The agency also hopes to foster more unity in the media community generally, where things have become understandably strained as people worry about their jobs and their futures. Bill Koenigsberg, chief executive officer at Horizon Media, talks to Media Life about the genesis of the workshop, how he hopes to retain top talent, and why searching for a job should be a full-time endeavor.
How did you come up with the idea for the workshop?
I’ve been sitting here over the past couple of months reading about all the layoffs at some of my competitors in the media industry. And at the same time, Horizon has added 45 people to the staff since the beginning of the year.
There’s probably never been a more exciting time in the media landscape than what’s going on today, and really we wanted to give something back to a lot of the media people finding it difficult to find a job.
It’s really to keep them motivated in staying in the industry so they won’t go elsewhere. It’s a matter of talent preservation and hopefully giving them reason and hope and excitement of staying in the media world.
As things turnaround, and I think they will, we want to keep smart people in the industry.
Why is this something that Horizon wanted to do?
Well, we felt that being in a fortunate position of growth right now, we’d really take a leadership position in the industry and help give something back.
What sort of assistance can attendees gain from this workshop as they continue their job searches?
It’s a couple of things.
One, it’s going to be interesting because at the beginning, those who want to share their own experience can. Some things at some companies were handled better than others.
Then I think later on in the session there will be presentations on interviews, how do I get in to see people at certain levels? What should a resume in today’s world look like? What’s the true definition of networking and how does it work? Things about how to brand yourself, and it will be geared at different levels.
I think we have over 200 people attending. And they’ll leave with a 25-page book, almost like a how-to, and it will be incredibly valuable to them.
What sort of reaction have you heard from job seekers? Has the workshop filled up?
We actually put out a press release less than a week ago, and I believe in about 72 hours we were at capacity, which really surprised me. We had to go back to the facility and see if they could accommodate more people.
My hope is that when one door closes another opens, and that everybody in this room leaves with a sense that they could end up in a better position and place than their old situation.
It’s an opportunity to reinvent themselves and to get a lot of guidance along the way.
This has obviously been a tough time for media people. Do you see them coming together during these hard times?
The answer to that question is no, and that’s one reason why we’re doing this. I think there’s more of a “hunker down” mentality going on, everybody’s worried about their own situation. I don’t think that’s a good breeding ground or thought process.
So no, we’d like to see people come more together, and that’s a part of this.
Do you sense more solidarity among the media community during this recession than the last, or is it pretty much the same? Why?
I don’t think so, no. And it’s sad. I think part of the reason for that is, unfortunately, there’s a lot of short-term thinking going on to answer to Wall Street.
That doesn’t breed solidarity, it breeds bitterness.
Are you seeing any jobs out there?
We’re not hearing about a lot of opportunities. If we’re having 225 people at this work session, that’s like a whole company.
What advice do you have for job hunters? How do you make yourself stand out?
You know, it’s interesting. The book “Outliers” talks about the relationship between time spent in an activity and success. So the advice I have is, looking for a job is a full-time job. You have to be proactive, you have to be networking, you have to be getting in to see anybody you possibly can.
So the advice I have is make it a full-time job.
Don’t wait for the phone to ring, don’t spend half your time on things you can now catch up on because you don’t have a job--you have to find the opportunities and make your own opportunities, you may even have to offer to work for a company for practically nothing so they get a sense of who you are.
You have to get creative, and you have to get proactive.
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