I recently moved to Los Angeles, CA. In fact, it was 7 days ago.
If you’re involved in any creative media field, LA is typically touted as the place to go for real work. Thousands of actors, directors and special-FX guys move to the city each year with the hope of finding a successful project. I joined them since it was time to leave UF anyway.
LA has one of the best climates for a city I've been at yet.
—How to Move—
The first step is to save up money before you leave. Typically, $1,000 is a low amount to have, while $5,000 is generally the upper ceiling. This pile of bills will pay for travel and your immediate expenses while you job search.
The key to moving out here is knowing friends, relatives and contacts. Very few jobs are handed out to strangers. Knowing people will bypass the resume queue to get you an interview, and that’s when your resume and personality matter.
When you start your job search, make a list of everyone you know who lives here. And then make a list of resources in your hometown that you could use to discover more people. For example, using your college’s Career Resource Center/professors/faculty advisers is a great way to find people who you can contact. You should use both your primary circle (I know you), but also your secondary circle (I know him/her and they know you).
The other key to moving is subleases. The population of LA is constantly shifting and the market for subleases reflects that. Search Craigslist for a temporary place to stay before arriving and immediately afterward. If possible, stay on a friend’s couch while you search. A sublease provides access to a bed, a bath and a place cook (without buying pots or pans or a bed).
In addition, a sublease reduces financial risk. A 3-month sublease allows you 3 months to find an actual job, and an chance to escape LA if nothing shows up during that time. Most subleases are between $600 and $900, depending on location and quality. The amount you saved up determines the amount of time you can exist in LA without a job. For example, if you saved up $3,000, you could live for 4 months in a $600 sublease without a job. That fact will help you sleep at night when a few weeks go by without any leads. You could waste an entire month and still have 3 months to rebound. Less hair-pulling stress.
All these people want your job.
—The Car Situation—
LA is one of the most car-centric places in the world, and it’s true. It typically takes at least a half-hour to go 10 miles here. It takes an hour and a half during rush hour. Also, parking is the worst thing in the world. Unless you have a dedicated spot, it’s almost as bad as UF on a game day.
That being said, I think it’s possible to live here without a car. I just moved here, so I’ll update this after I’ve been here for a while.
BUT, what you lack in car, you have to replace with extra time and more physical burden. A monthly pass for the LA Metro is $75, which includes subway and bus passes. The subway is only good if 1) You live near a stop and 2) You need to go somewhere that’s near a stop. It will probably be a quick way to get to a bus stop that’ll take you closer.
I haven’t tried the buses yet, so I’ll update when I do.
The final alternative is biking. The LA weather is almost perfect for biking (at least in the summer), and you’ll get to your location in about the same amount of time as a car during rush hour (or faster for short distances). The downside is you have to use your legs and avoid getting hit. It’s professional biking, and works for some people and not others. A 1-mile commute means 1 mile on the bike. A 20-mile commute means 20 miles on the bike. At least you don’t need to worry about parking.
Those mountains would be parking lots if they weren't so mountainy.
—The Job Situation—
You will find almost all of the jobs through a friend. Too many people live here to have your resume selected from the pile. Once your friend recommends you, that’s when your skills and resume will come into play.
You also have to be much better here than you were wherever you lived before. If you are one-in-a-million talented, that means 3 of you exist here in the main city alone. 15 of you exist if you include the surrounding area. There’s a lot of fucking people.
So, a job search consists of both looking for positions, but also constantly meeting people. Let’s face it: young people don’t know anything and need to be paid by older people until they can actually do something on their own. Anyone you meet may know a guy who knows about a position that you want.
In the end, your independent projects will be your best resume. Start building your online persona because people will Google you to see what you’ve done and how good you are. It’s much easier to do independent projects where you currently are before moving. Moving to LA should be because you’ve done everything you can locally to prepare your portfolio, skills and personality.
You’re going to need that experience to 1) Even be considered by an interviewer and 2) Hold a candle to someone who did stay for as long as they could becoming an awesome actor/actress/director/cinematographer/editor/writer.
—Overall—
Los Angeles is a beautiful place to live weather-wise, and lots of funny, engaging, friendly people live here.
LA is one big game of Facebook.
You have to know people who are better than you and you have to be better than everyone else they know. Any other scenario causes that “struggle” you hear about. People who aren’t good enough will get lower-paying jobs and have less momentum until they become better and until they meet someone who likes them.
But, the perfect time to move is around 22 and 23. That gives you some room to run and lets you plant some roots to know the town. Don’t underestimate having a friend! A comforting, familiar face will remove the anonymity from the city.
A friendly face takes away the scary.
—
I’ll update more as I learn more. If you want to follow my Twitter (@rrklop), I’ll post some facts I learn with the hashtag #LessonsInLA
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I listened to a story the other day told by Zig Ziglar. I liked it:
As a youngster, I worked in a grocery store in Yazoo City, Mississippi. I was a teller in that store. I’m not trying to impress you with a title; that just means I told people to move as I swept.
In the summer months, our business was awfully slow. I remember so vividly the day that the boss was trying to get us all busy, and there was nothing to do.
“Why don’t you get busy?!” he said.
“Well, Mr. Anderson, what’d you want me to do?”
“You can clean these shelves, you can move this out and dust those.” He pointed to a shelf that had two cans of tomatoes on it.
I said, “Well, Mr. Anderson, it’s just two cans of tomatoes.” I guess it was the way I said just two cans of tomatoes that got to him.
He grabbed me by the shoulder and said,
“Let me tell you about those two cans of tomatoes, boy. First of all, it started out with a case, and that’s 24 cans. Now, we’ve sold 22, and that means we’ve got all of our money back.
He continued, “But two cans there represent profit, and profit is what enables us to stay open, and that’s the way you get your salary. So, what do you think of those two cans of tomatoes?”
“Mr. Anderson, those are two of the most beautiful cans of tomatoes I have ever seen in my life.”
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I didn’t make the sharks. But I did add the words.
