Hot Careers: Celebrity Personal Assistants

Ever wonder how actors, entertainers and professional athletes tend to those mundane but essential tasks we do every day - grocery shopping, making doctors appointments, and paying bills? Celebrity personal assistants make it all happen.

(PRWEB) December 17 2003--Many celebrities have a personal assistant working behind the scenes coordinating, organizing and managing everything they need to make life flow more smoothly. From managing appointments and travel arrangements, planning parties, renewing a drivers license at the DMV, or picking up prescriptions at the local drug store, celebrity personal assistants are an essential part of any celebritys management team.

The celebrity personal assistant field is one of the hottest and fastest growing careers today. Fabjob.com, a Canada based company that publishes information on non-traditional careers, reports that the celebrity personal assistant field is growing at a rate of about 15% per year. This is certainly one of the hottest new careers on the rise. I receive resumes from candidates all over the world inquiring about how to break into the industry. I once received an email from a guy in France and the entire email was written in French. I had to get a translator to interpret the message for me. Professionals from all areas of business are ditching their corporate suits and plush offices for the glitz and glam of assisting celebrities.

A major misconception is that personal assistants are mere gofers or errand runners. In actuality, personal assistants are educated professionals who perform high level tasks for the celebrities for whom they work. Many celebrity assistants manage the domestic staff in the various homes of celebrities and negotiate with contractors to do work at the celebritys home. Others read and edit scripts, artfully deal with the media, are personal shoppers, and act as a liaison between the celebrity and his or her manager, agent and business colleagues.

In many respects, being a celebrity personal assistant is similar to being an assistant to any high-level executive. You must be polished, diplomatic, professional, extremely organized, and have excellent multi-tasking and time management skills. Working as a celebrity personal assistant, however, takes a special kind of person. To succeed, you must be flexible, resourceful, and able to anticipate your boss needs. You must have an innate and genuine desire to help people succeed. At the same time, you must be resilient and know how to skillfully and tactfully deal with difficult and demanding people. But most importantly, you must be able to handle sensitive personal information with strict confidentiality. Working so closely with a celebrity on a daily basis, you are privy to their inner most secrets. Sharing this information with friends, family, or the press is the fastest way to lose your job and permanently ruin your professional reputation as a celebrity assistant.

A career as a celebrity personal assistant can be extremely rewarding and comes with perks unparalleled in other fields. Pay generally ranges anywhere from $20-$30 per hour, but the most experienced celebrity assistants working for well established celebrities can earn in excess of $100,000. In addition to excellent pay, celebrity assistants generally receive perks and benefits in the form of traveling to exotic places, attending celebrity social events, jewelry and clothing handed down that the celebrity no longer wants, and living a lavish lifestyle simply for being a part of a celebrity's management team. With all the glitz and glamour, there is, however, a downside. The fast-paced nature of the job can be stressful and can consume a significant amount of your personal time. Since your primary responsibility is taking care of the person you work for, there can be times when you are unable to discern between your personal life and the life of your boss. You may have to travel at a moments notice which makes having a relationship or raising a family tough. Its not uncommon to get a call at 3:00 a.m. from your boss saying they cant find something or somethings gone wrong that you need to fix.

If you still believe you have the grit and savvy to succeed in this hot and fast-paced industry, the following tips can help you get hired as a celebrity personal assistant:

§    Networking: Since referrals from people celebrities know and trust is the most common way to land a job as a celebrity personal assistant, networking is the most important tool for breaking into the industry. Put yourself in environments where youre likely to meet movers and shakers in the sports and entertainment industries. Have business cards printed as a celebrity personal assistant and begin marketing yourself. Tell everyone you know that you are looking to transition into the field.

§    Resume: Create a resume specifically targeted towards the personal assistant industry. Be sure to include any previous experience you have as a celebrity personal assistant or an assistant to high-level executives. Leverage any skills and previous work experience you have that enable you to successfully manage peoples lives. Since discretion is key, do not reveal the identity of former celebrity clientele unless you have express permission to do so.

§    Recruiting Agencies: Register with recruiting agencies, like Impresario Lifestyle, LLC, that specialize in placing celebrity assistants. They have the inside connection to hot celebrity assistant job openings and are a primary source for job placement.

§    Volunteer: To gain exposure to celebrities, volunteer at celebrity charity events and companies that service the sports and entertainment industries. Read magazines that target celebrities to find out where celebrities will be and which events they normally attend.

MaShelle L. Epps, MBA is the Chief Executive Officer of Impresario Lifestyle, LLC, a celebrity personal assistant placement agency. She is also the founder of NCPAA, a professional celebrity personal assistant alliance located in Atlanta, GA. Impresario Lifestyle offers workshops on becoming a celebrity personal assistant. For details on an upcoming workshop, visit www.impresariolifestyle.com.

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