Blagging rights
On looking for work and the art of the blag...
As I haphazardly sail into the season where I wish we could afford a long, exotic holiday, a house with a garden and the ability to sit outside with a glass of wine every evening, I start to consider if a career change is needed. It’s a cycle I go through regularly when frequently faced with the unpredictable nature of acting work and the pitiful pay it offers up when it does come along.
Off I go to LinkedIn or whatever site jumbles up baffling career buzzwords like ‘reliable’, ‘office’ and ‘full-time’. The problem with having been an actor is that whilst I have accumulated a fair amount of skills over the last 18 years, very few of them are transferable to a well-paid job because unfortunately not many hiring managers are looking for someone with experience of managing an empty diary, interpreting just how heavy a pencil you’re on for a potential upcoming job and sweating your balls off in a velvet costume in the middle of a seemingly never-ending summer Shakespeare season.
The joy of acting is, of course, the greatest skill you pick up is blagging your way through pretty much anything. Whilst I would never dream of applying for a real job if they ask for me to have CRM experience, knowledge of SEO or an understanding of Xero, I’ve had no hesitations in the past of applying for an acting role that has required accents, dance skills and musical abilities that I could never even dream to possess if I were to live for 1,000 years. I would simply die if I got to an interview and I asked to demonstrate how I would navigate an Excel spreadsheet, but I had no qualms about attending an audition once where I had been asked to pre-prepare a skill to show off and I inexplicably decided to go with bellydancing despite having never attempted it in my life. 15 years on, I wish I had an excruciating tale to tell you about how I was made to squirm and gyrate through my appalling lie, but thankfully the auditions were running late and I instead just babbled an apology about how I’m actually a decent piano player but I was obviously unable to bring my upright with me.
Just today when looking through casting notices, there are requirements for advanced ballet, puppetry skills and considerable experience with four-legged stilts. I possess none of these things and am never likely to, but I’d be far more comfortable blagging my way through these auditions compared to the job boards looking for experience working with stakeholders, using Advantaged Thinking and having a track record of working in a professional environment.
Looking at that second set of skills, I’m already thinking of how my acting work could absolutely be applied as examples. So, why aren’t I blagging my way through online applications and job interviews? Probably because I’ve snuck into enough auditions in the past and that level of stress and commitment is only worth it for something you really want. I have yet to find another job that I want to do with the competencies that I possess and so, until there is a job out there that desires my expertise in maintaining my dignity as my skirt comes off whilst being dragged off stage, performing in a thunderstorm or, indeed, claiming to have knowledge of playing the flute, I guess I’ll just stick with what I know.