Suzanne’s entertainment industry career took her places. From cable news to magazine-style shows. Unscripted television landed her a gig in the true crime genre, which embodies law enforcement, court cases, and detective stories.
A few years back, the industry was running dry, and job opportunities became scarce. Then strikes from screenwriters and actors halted production, a downtime that Suzanne took advantage of. She wanted to improve and better use her skills, and being a West Hollywood resident, she visited JVS SoCal’s WeHoWorks Career Resource Center.
Two of WeHoWorks staffers had worked in the industry and were very knowledgeable about her needs.
“They know what my expectations are and what my skill sets are and how I can translate them into other opportunities. First, they are generally encouraging. So that helped a lot because I didn’t have to explain to them what was going on with me and my industry, and that was very helpful,” explains Suzanne.
WeHoWorks, in partnership with the City of West Hollywood, offers job seekers a variety of programs, intensive career and job search services, workshops and self-service options that include access to computers, phones and job listings-all at no cost to eligible applicants.
“The best thing that they had were workshops,those changed my life, particularly the LinkedIn workshop”, said Suzanne. “My LinkedIn was a complete graveyard.”
Through the workshops and with the help of the career coaches, Suzanne rebuilt her LinkedIn page. In the past, she just had her job experience as well as links to shows she had worked with.
“I added episode titles as well, because then that shows the fullness of my experience on a particular show,it shows how engaged I was in an episode,” explains Suzanne.
This strategy produced immediate results. Suddenly, people involved in law enforcement started befriending Suzanne. As her network grew, so did the possibility of adding new contacts, which she did.
“So immediately I’d set up a Zoom, an extensive Zoom call with somebody at Trevor Noah’s company who wanted to know more about true crime and how they can get into it as well,” remembers Suzanne. I met a lot of showrunners who suddenly were asking for my credits.”
Working closely with her career coach in updating her LinkedIn profile paid off for Suzanne. She landed a job on Fox Networks’ America’s Most Wanted. Today she continues adding her credits to her LinkedIn page. This helps her get noticed and other producers would know what she’s working on and when she would be available for more work.
“That workshop was a game changer,” adds Suzanne. “All of a sudden people are now aware that I’m working on this. It’s important that people see what you’re doing.”
WeHoWorks offers a variety of workshops to West Hollywood residents, including “Networking and LinkedIn”, “Search and Apply Lab”, “Resume Writing” and “Cover Letter”. Caseworkers help jobseekers like Suzanne make their path easier.
If you’re inspired by Suzanne’s story and would like to help someone else achieve their dream, please donate today.