The Firm (Weeks 1 & 2)

Celebrity Sightings: Cameron Diaz, Brian Grazer, Perry Ferrell, Dave Meyers, HITS (from BET), Archbishop Don "Magic" Juan, and faux-celeb Audrina (from that horrible MTV show)

Initially I was an intern at Crash Mansion, a very cool venue in downtown Los Angeles, but switched to The Firm in Beverly Hills. After interviewing successfully in person I was accepted in late May, but my official start date was Monday, June 2nd, 2008.

At the interview, I was told that internships at The Firm were highly competitive. That we had to start from the bottom and work our way up. This has been my experience in other situations and it seemed fair and reasonable. The typical intern experience seems to be a few initial weeks of “grunt work” or “menial tasks” as they call it, and then increasingly interesting learning opportunities as the internship progresses. My roommates, Jon & Joel, have been there 2 weeks longer than I have and already moved on to covering desks for the Assistants to Managers for Snoop Dogg and Enrique Iglesias.

I’m just getting started so my blog entry this week includes a lot of manual labor but I look forward to the next few weeks when I get to cover desks and interact with the Managers. I think that it is fair to expect interns to earn that responsibility because the work Assistants do is VITAL to the success of The Firm’s clients.

I will say that I had obtained my first desk assignment in only my 2nd week! From what I hear this was unusually fast. I was going to cover the desk of an Assistant to a key Firm Films Manager for an entire afternoon. He planned to be out of the office on June 20th but had a change in his itinerary and no longer needed me to cover him. He did confirm I would get another shot when he needed to be absent and I can’t wait to do it.

Monday, June 16th will be the start of my 3rd week in The Firm's office. Below is a recap of my first two weeks. Remember, this is the time I was told would include the most remedial of tasks.

I have observed the following organizational hierarchy so far: Managers (Top), Manager's Assistants (Middle), Trainee's (Middle), Mailroom Staff (Middle) and Interns (Bottom). I place the interns at the bottom because it is a general rule of thumb in the music industry that a person is expected to pay their dues first to prove they are capable of handling such critical responsibility, and is no way a negative reflection on the position or people. Besides, I am an intern and take pride in working very hard. I give 110% for more than 12 hours a day and I know it will pay off.

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Monday’s we take the bus to and from The Firm. We leave the Meadows at 7:00 AM and walk about 1.5 miles to a bus stop where we then ride about 90 minutes to Beverly Hills. From that stop we walk another mile to The Firm and generally arrive with time to spare before our 9:00AM start time.

Tuesday’s we get a ride. Miraculously, one of the other interns at The Firm, our new homeboy Ian K., happens to live in Culver City. He is kind enough to let us hitch a ride with him to and from The Firm.

Wednesday we also get a ride to the office from Ian but since he leaves the office early for class, we take the bus home.

Thursday Ian hook’s us up. Again. Very graciously I might add.

Friday’s we basically follow Monday’s routine. We “clock out” at varying times, and depending on what tasks still have to be completed, we typically get back to the Meadows between 6:30 and 8:00PM

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My Typical Intern Tasks (Week 1 - 2)

Sweeps... We walk around and monitor both 5th & 6th floor "Outboxes" for outgoing mail. We do this very often (I try to do it every 30 mins) because of the varying degrees of urgency. Some outbound mail is sent via Fed-Ex, some is sent via US Postal Service, and some of them are urgent enough that we use messengers. We run Fed-Ex through a dedicated computer in the mailroom and USPS mail through its own machine. The Messenger service requires carefully entered data so they can pick it up and deliver it immediately.

Walking Runs... A Walking Run is when a Manager or Assistant calls the mailroom or stops us during a sweep to request we leave the building for various tasks. Some Assistants are so busy they literally do not leave their desk all day. So we pick up lunches, go to Starbucks, and deliver various packages to places like William Morris Agency and miscellaneous entertainment companies. It is safe to assume with the walking we do to and from the office, added to the Walking Runs, we average 3 - 7 miles per day on foot.

RIAA Certified Plaques... I have hung approximately 50 plaques and posters on the 5th floor alone. I take pride in making sure they look good and the intern team has spent entire days making sure they are properly hung from the walls. I've never seen this many plaques for one person before. Though other Managers have them too, 90% of the multi-platinum plaques have Jeff Kwatinetz’s name on them. This man has sold 10’s of millions of albums for The Firm’s clients. Maybe even 100’s of millions. I kid you not. Very cool...

I also...

Refill refrigerators with bottled water (I generally carry two 24 packs of water to each of the 2 kitchens. I check on them 3 times a day to make sure they stay stocked)
Take Stationary to Managers and Assistants (Letterheads, CD/DVD Labels, etc.)
Moved a 7 foot tall clock for Snoop Dogg's assistant, using the freight elevator
Take document boxes from office to office when they need to be moved
Maintain food supplies and clean the 2 kitchens about once an hour.
Sort through files and determine what needs to be trashed or saved
Make copies (fix paper jams, refill paper trays, deliver copies, etc.)
Refill the water cooler (1 big plastic jug per kitchen per day)
Distribute Messenger deliveries to Managers & Assistants
Answer phones at the Reception Desk and in the Mailroom
Clean Cabinets out to make room for new occupants
Take Moving Dolly’s to Managers and Assistants
Accept Grocery deliveries and stow the food
Pickup used dishes around the office
Take Fed Ex boxes to assistants
Load and empty the dishwasher
Take deliveries to mailroom
Wash dishes by hand
Deliver mail
Make Coffee

I tore down an extra computer set up at an Assistant's Desk and set it up in a Manager’s office when their primary computer went down.

I sorted through hundreds of Variety and Hollywood Reporter Magazines to determine what was trash and what was relevant to current clients

I moved a 10 ft x 5 ft white board for the new tenants (Jason L. and I had to carry it downstairs from the lobby to Parking Level 1 first so we could gain access to the main stairwell. Because it was too big to fit in the freight elevator, we had to take it up five stories of narrow stairs)