Throughout my 20s (in my 30s now) I worked as a film composer in Hollywood, land of personal assistants.
One thing I took to heart was that the best personal assistants weren't looking to use the opportunity get elsewhere. What you want is someone who wants to stay in that role, because as a lot of other comments here point out, it takes a lot of time for the person to learn enough about you to become truly useful rather than a time suck or a liability. I.e. you want someone who just wants "a job" and doesn't necessarily want to move on from it. If they want to use this job as a rung on the ladder on the way to where they really want to be, they'll be gone before they're super useful.
Meaning: you must pay them quite well, and not work them too terribly hard. Remember that this is someone who works to live. Give them firm boundaries and time off. Make them feel valued; you get out what you put in in this regard.
This should of course go without saying, and for any employee, not just a personal assistant. But it seems to apply extra here.
> I.e. you want someone who just wants "a job" and doesn't necessarily want to move on from it.
> Meaning: you must pay them quite well, and not work them too terribly hard. Remember that this is someone who works to live. Give them firm boundaries and time off.
Most people’s gut reaction is probably to hire someone under intern like conditions.
Ie a young candidate whose main motivation is getting something on their resume and therefore will suck up to you and go the extra mile. OP recommends the opposite: someone who doesn’t go the extra mile, but will be stable and reliable for a very long time.
Think about it. People going the extra mile do it because they want to go beyond what they do. They risk burn-out - in which case they can't do their job anymore - or they move on - in which case you lose an employee and have to find another one.
"Intern-like conditions" has an undertone of exploitation to it; nobody should be exploited.
The paying to encourage them to stick around is intuitive, but lots of people take the approach of "I want to hire someone ambitious who wants to progress, and who is willing to work extra hours where required to get the job done because they have a personal drive/desire to succeed"
The advice here is effectively "find someone who doesn't have strong career aspirations and ensure they aren't working outside of working hours".
Ah, based on my experiences with assistants, that is exactly the problem. You either get someone who is under-qualified and does not fulfill expectations, or someone who is great, but wants to pursue a career.
It is extremely difficult to find a "stable" assistant.
If you want to keep your assistant or employee around, you need to above market salary and flexibility. Then you need to make sure the employee feels properly valued. If you don't get it right the first time, you'll get it right the second. The important thing is to be above market in everything: salary, perks, work environment, etc. Then you can have these kind of aspirations, realistically.
I would love to hear a story of your film composing career. Yes, HN is about hackers and tech and stuff like that, but I think that being generally curious about other things, such as film composing, is only adding to the experience here.
Anyway... Just wanted to let you know that you made me really curious :)
Sure. It's actually a little sad, heh, but more on that in a second.
I followed the route that many composers take: working for other composers. First as kind of a general assistant, then doing the boring tasks required to make the process happen, then managing the rigs, then doing production work but not writing, then orchestrating and/or "filling in the gaps" in some cues, then finally writing. I've kind of done it all in terms of tasks/jobs, which I'd imagine most people not involved in that world would even know exist. It really takes a village to get a score done, it's a very interesting world and process.
My profile here is pseudo-anonymous, and given that those whom I worked for are public figures, if you want details it's probably better to chat in private. But long story short I worked on many big Hollywood films, TV shows, and video games. Met and even worked for (and became friends with) some of my heroes. Rubbed shoulders with household name directors and actors. Sounds cool but as most people who have experienced similar things will tell you, it gets normal and mundane fast and you realize that, surprise, people are just people. Most people are nice, some are egotistical shitheads, and often you're surprised which is which. But for the most part, it's just like any industry -- "networking" is bullshit, it's just friends making stuff with friends.
I was very deep in the film scoring community itself and less so in the larger Hollywood system. I was also trending towards games before having to bail out. Long list of reasons why but the biggest one is that I find the creative/technical challenge of writing and implementing an interactive score infinitely interesting.
The best part is that I've recorded an orchestra at every major scoring stage in the world except for Air Studios (really wanted that one). Abbey Road was a particular dream, even though it had to be done remotely, sigh. But man, every time, even after months of not going outside and working yourself to the bone, that moment when the orchestra plays it back is pure magic. I think every composer I know feels the same way. It really makes it worth it.
The hours and deadlines can be absolutely stupid insane, but overall I loved my time in the industry and am very grateful for the experiences.
Anyways. Things were going incredibly, incredibly well. I was set to compose for some games I'm sure HN will be all over once they're out, and so my decades of very hard work were about to pay off. Was in the process of finally getting an agent and putting together a team for myself, rather than working on someone else's team. But then last year I developed an ear condition called Hyperacusis that stopped my career in its tracks. Tried to fight it, tried to work around it, but I slowly came to the realization that the only thing I can do is wait it out, live in silence, hope it gets better, and maybe return to composing if I can. There's nothing else to be done, no treatments.
It's hard to describe just how difficult it is to lose the only career you've wanted since you were 6 years old, that you gave up years of your life to pursue, only to have it taken away at literally the last second before achieving a life-long dream. This condition also prevents me from attending pretty much any loud gathering -- weddings, concerts, etc. I used to love dogs and now I have to avoid them out of fear of their barks. So the impact on my life doesn't just stop at my career. My ears are insanely sensitive to the point that I need hearing protection in order to wash my dishes. It's been this way for a year and is unlikely to improve in any meaningful way (it's improved a bit but not by much, and the "gains" have been in the form of "trading sensitivity for hearing loss"), though I do have hope.
Thankfully, all my years working for other composers resulted in me figuring out that I had a knack for the technical. Etc etc etc I figured I'd like programming. So for now, that's the plan. As a very experienced and opinionated user of music software, I think I could make a very solid technical product designer. I'm actually continuing to work for a few composers, doing things like automating certain workflows where possible, building some custom tools, etc. The goal is to slowly transition to working as a programmer at Steinberg or Ableton or something like that, and then start my own company.
So, going where the road takes me. I certainly didn't expect this but I'm doing my best to make the best of it.
> doing things like automating certain workflows where possible, building some custom tools, etc. The goal is to slowly transition to working as a programmer at Steinberg or Ableton or something like that, and then start my own company.
I presume you’ve contacted tantacrul[1] who is now working[2] redesigning Audacity, with a hilarious video on the hellscape of a UI that is Sibelius[3]. I am guessing becoming a UI designer for a major piece of software is less difficult than becoming a composer?
That's a helluva break. Godspeed on your path forward.
When you said composer, my first thought was of Haim Saban. Although you sound like you were at two very different technical levels of the industry, I still love the interview he did with the How I Built This podcast though.
> But then last year I developed an ear condition called Hyperacusis that stopped my career in its tracks. Tried to fight it, tried to work around it, but I slowly came to the realization that the only thing I can do is wait it out, live in silence, hope it gets better, and maybe return to composing if I can. There's nothing else to be done, no treatments.
Oh my, sorry to hear this. I can only imagine how hard it has been for you.
Best of luck. If you visit Italy, ping me - I'd love to buy you lunch and chat :)
Rough story. Your optimism shows through, and I’m willing to bet you’ll be successful in this transition. I transitioned into this career from the production design side of things (way earlier in my career than you, only worked on a couple films and a handful of plays). Feel free to ping me if you’re looking for advice. I’ve temporarily added my email to my profile.
To be completely honest, optimism is only showing through because I'm hitting the latter end of the grieving process. It's been a very, very tough road coming to terms with this.
Yup, very similar except in his case he got well enough to work again. I too had a couple of times where my ears just freaked out and went deaf. Pumped me full of steroids to bring the hearing back. It's been pretty hellish but thankfully I have very little hearing loss -- in fact I'd happily trade some sensitivity for hearing loss, as I essentially hear "too well."
One thing I took to heart was that the best personal assistants weren't looking to use the opportunity get elsewhere. What you want is someone who wants to stay in that role, because as a lot of other comments here point out, it takes a lot of time for the person to learn enough about you to become truly useful rather than a time suck or a liability. I.e. you want someone who just wants "a job" and doesn't necessarily want to move on from it. If they want to use this job as a rung on the ladder on the way to where they really want to be, they'll be gone before they're super useful.
Meaning: you must pay them quite well, and not work them too terribly hard. Remember that this is someone who works to live. Give them firm boundaries and time off. Make them feel valued; you get out what you put in in this regard.
This should of course go without saying, and for any employee, not just a personal assistant. But it seems to apply extra here.