Hollywood Drive

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Networking and Schmooching

“The best time to make friends is before you need them.” —Ethel Barrymore

When I started in the business, one didn’t hear buzzwords like networking and schmoozing (or as one of my former international students, who had never before heard this word, mistakenly put it, networking and schmooching). At that time, no one was writing books and giving seminars on the topic. It was obvious from the beginning, though, that people preferred hiring their friends. I would see two individuals up for the same job, and the one more qualified didn’t automatically get it, sometimes because the producer partied with the other guy or the one getting hired was a relative or a former classmate. It reminded me of high school ...