Eleventh Hour Entertainment

It took about a month to finally get in to meet with a recruiter, and I’d say that’s pretty indicative of how they operate in general — slow. The office itself is nice… very Marina Del Rey — an open loft, pet friendly and vibrant. The people are friendly and the recruiter seemed interested in getting to know me. I had high hopes of something positive stemming from my visit but after almost three months, I hadn’t heard from the recruiter once. I followed-​up and received a timely but generic, «we’ll keep you in mind for future opportunities» response, which just seemed silly considering I’m very employable. I’m currently employed with a major /​global company, hold two degrees (one post graduate), and have a plethora of experience in my field. I recently setup three interviews without a lot of effort, so I don’t understand how people who actually recruit for a living have a difficult time pairing a strong candidate with an opportunity. The only thing I can gather is 1) they recruit for a limited number of companies 2) are very niche and only recruit for specific industries (although, I am in a general industry — marketing) or 3) just aren’t proactive.
Overall: It was an okay experience — very neutral. If you’re just feeling around to see what’s out there, I don’t see the harm in meeting with them. On the other hand, if you’re actually adamant about finding a job opportunity in a timely manner, I definitely wouldn’t put all (or even most) of my eggs in the Eleventh Hour basket.

Jeff G,
Seriously, you’re going to use an e-​mail that I wrote four years ago to fan the flames of your precious ego? It’s flattering to know that you treasure some of my works, even if you don’t acknowledge my existence of which you and your staff seem to do excellent work in.
For your information I’ve had at least three or four good contract positions since that the e-​mail has been composed. Just not been placed by you, that’s all. I’ve moved on since then. That review printed last September? Just a little something I’ve kept in inventory.
Hey, so I rub some people the wrong way — but at least I get some results with a more direct or a sometime guerilla approach. THERE are people who actually can reach out and offer a person a contract position based on PERFORMANCE REVIEWS and POSITIVE WORD OF MOUTH in this town, just so you know. Or simply people who trust me enough to do a sensational job for clients without inflated egos of middlemen getting in the way. And I do have impeccable references and reviews to back up my claims– but of course that probably got lost in the shuffle too of ‘losing’ my resume.
Many times, I’ve contacted you politely by phone and on nearly all occasions I was rudely hung up on numerous times based on jobs that I was simply inquiring that I was qualified for that you would post on
way before I started sending out those e-​mails, but all you and your staff seem to care about is whether or not I have a piece of paper from some stupid accredited college — even if the job description you posted doesn’t even specify a degree.
Maybe if you weren’t huffing and puffing your holier than thou ‘do you have in your position a piece of paper stating that you have a bachelor’s degree?’ attitude and allowed me to come over and showed you samples of what I’ve accomplished in the field of television research and developed some kind of mutual rapport professionally– such as a ‘HELP ME to HELP YOU’ attitude to make money, then maybe we wouldn’t be lobbing depth charges at each other on a review site of all places.
By your tone, it appears you’re a little more thin-​skinned than the places where you send your candidates. Isn’t it a requirement in order to be employed in the entertainment industry, that to be thick-​skinned? To brush off and be acceptable about negative criticism? But here you are, showing off to the public your poor knee skinned scrapes and abrasions. Gee-​whiz, should we get you a Band-​Aid for that bruised up ego?
For your information — I don’t badmouth every agency in this town. I’ve happened have given two positive reviews to two agencies who don’t seem to get a good word of mouth in edgewise. I do have a glowingly positive review that I’ve yet to write on another agency which helped me out a great deal last year, but they’re not that greatly popular with other reviewers either. So, keep watching this space — or don’t keep watching this space, as it’ll probably take you another four months out of that tortoise shell to notice when people are posting mostly negative reviews of your company.
And I’ve barely skimmed the surface of ‘bad-​mouthing’ every agency. I’ve been working off and on in the entertainment biz for twenty somewhat odd years now — I should know when some recruiter is running a shell game or not.
UPDATE 1÷8÷2015
Well I can tell from your response Jeff, that you’re just throwing fodder to the wind in trying to prove you’re in the right. At least you don’t deny any of my talking points about when you and your staff are rude on the phone with me.
For your information: Unilocal is the last place I come to look for work, so I don’t know where you’re getting this idea that I’m on Unilocal to look for work. I come on Unilocal to weed out bad and rude contractors like you and chronicle my experiences with them.
For any employer who inquires about my social media life or whether or not I use a LinkedIn or a facebook account; I politely decline to divulge that kind of information and tell them that it’s none of their damn business what I post and don’t post on social media — as long I don’t badmouth any of their clients and since I DO sign waivers to abide by not talking about client business, all parties involved are just copacetic with each other and I’m free to roam about the cabin.
In fact, it isn’t until when after an assignment with a company ends that I even reveal that I’ve even worked there on social media.
It doesn’t take a genius to do a google-​search on my ‘true identity’ anyway. I’ve already got a extensive list of search engine results anyway — everyone kind of knows what I look like.
So please, Jeff, you and your «Kelly» scout can stop fretting about how you ‘bruised my ego’ is. I’ve already got a call today on the phone from one of these other agencies that you claim that I’ve ‘badmouthed’ about a position at MGM opening up soon.
So if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to take this call.
~
Coat

I have signed up with Eleventh Hour in October 2012. Two weeks after signing up with them I had an assignment with a great company. The communication between my Recruiter, Robert and I is great! He informed me what was available at the time. I let him know the locations and types of assignments that I was looking for. I am currently working a long term assignment and Robert checks in with me often. Robert has worked closely with me and has answered any questions I may have. I submitted my resume to several agencies and received the run around or no answer regarding positions and locations. Eleventh Hour Agency is the best agency that I have worked with. The team is very nice and helpful.

I have had a fantastic experience with Eleventh Hour. Rob is the greatest there is. The thing about this agency that impresses me the most is the level and frequency of communication. Every time I sent Rob an email or gave a call, he responded within 24 hours (usually the same day), and I was never out of the loop. They made me feel great, and I was out on a project for them within three weeks of submitting my CV.
I can’t say enough about this place. 5 stars for sure. Great company.

Don’t know what’s happened to this place, but it has demonstrated to be antagonistic to worthy candidates.
A few years ago I sent my resume to 11^th Hour based on great reviews here. Within a day a very nice lady called me in and she expressed she was impressed with my resume. We had a great in-​person meeting. At that time I was (and still am) registered with a competitor agency and was being called constantly out for jobs with them. More times than not, i was specifically asked for by the clients and my assignments became much longer than originally planned. Despite this active positive relationship with the competitor, 11^th Hour never sent me out on assignments during that period. I didn’t mind this since I was very busy already.
Fast forward to this year and I thought it could be a good idea to «re-​awaken» my relationship with 11^th Hour. The recruiter I met with no longer works there. When I called in to see I needed to have a new meeting I was asked to resubmit my resume. I did so. But unlike a few years ago, they never called me back or communicated with me in any way. I’ve since contacted 11^th Hour twice only to be able to speak with the receptionist who made a speculation that a recruiter decided I wasn’t qualified based on my resume. Excuse me? Not only do I have vast experience in all aspects of the entertainment industry and have a great temp record, but by all accounts I have a great working personality which is what I account for my constantly being requested for. I’ve got fantastic industry references to boot.
Despite my subsequent inquiries, nobody has bothered to speak with me specifically about what concerns (apparently newly found) there might be. I’m happy to discuss anything with them. But these mysterious recruiters have just stonewalled me.
This «We like good communication» line is not what 11^th Hour practices. The artist-​friendly atmosphere that this agency used to espouse to is simply not present today. Sad.

Well, 6 months after the fact, I happened to browse through my reviews and stumbled upon this one only to see that they had replied to my review, saying that they had personally contacted me to resolve this issue, but I had «chosen not to respond.»
Nope. Not once did I receive an e-​mail or a phone call. This is all news to me. I never even knew I *had* a reply to my review on Unilocal until I just happened to come across it today…
Needless to say, I am quite confused as to why this was all said when it’s simply just not true.

You have not contacted me to address the issue. I am also most certainly not a competitor. In fact, I have never spoken with you– and if you are truely concerned about your company and some of the bad practices that I have experienced — you would be apologetic.
Very rude, and perhaps you are really ignorant to what you have done to employee and client alike.

I got a job 2 weeks after sending in my resume to them. They called me on my cell, scheduled an appointment and took the time to figure out the best company to pair me with. I was temp to hire, Anita really supported me and periodically checked in with not only the HR Director but with me as well to give me status update, things to work on, etc.
Would use them again in a heartbeat.

I had one great assignment with them that lasted 18 months. The office, which I had been to only twice, has a very cool West side lay out.
Anita, who handles all the temp staffing & temp recruiting for the company, is one of the best staffing people I’ve ever worked with. She’s the rare breed, who is not only extremely personable, funny, kind and caring, but is also very professional following up with requests, providing detailed descriptions of assignments, etc., etc. If you ever have the pleasure of being assigned work through her, you’ll enjoy all your interactions with her. She not only helped me in my assignment, but she also prepped me when I was interviewing for a headhunters position with competitor.
On the bad side, the one thing that stands out is that they’re the only staffing agency I’ve ever worked for or heard of, that pays bi-​weekly. Yes, you only get paid every two weeks. Sometimes the checks do not consistently arrive if they’re sent in the mail, as with another agency they’d arrive every Friday (9 weeks straight)

Eleventh Hour is fantastic! They have a very different approach than other agencies. I have worked with other agencies before and always got the feeling that I was a number, and would be completely forgotten once the interview was over, but Eleventh Hour has a very personal, consultative approach. I had two interviews lined up the first day I met them [the first one was scheduled right as I was sitting there with Jeff!] and they placed me in a fantastic agency job. They were great about preparing me for my interviews too, giving me background info and what to expect, and really wanted to find out what my ultimate interests were so they could find the right fit. They were very communicative and open environment [they ask candidates to come dressed casually] which took some of the anxiety out of the already daunting experience of a job hunt. I highly recommend them!

I worked on an Assignment through this Agency in 2008, and within less than 3 weeks, I was hired on as a permanent full-​time employee
Jeff Ganter (Co. President/​Founder) is the best! His staff is highly knowledgeable, organized, and helpful. They possess a very prestidious clientele and offer freelance positions as well as traditional office positions. I would highly recommend this Agency to those currently seeking transitional work, you never know where it might leed!

Thank you to Jeff and Hal for being very great to work with. I appreciate the honest communication. I recommend 11^th Hr to anyone! They do a great job at really figuring out who you are, how you work and the best environment for you to succeed in.
I will miss Hal!

My experience with this company was terrible. They are not professional at all. After they made a mistake, they refused to take responsibility and I received emails that contained personal insults. This showed me, very clearly, that they have no idea how to properly handle conflict in a business environment. In my opinion, they do not have the best interests of their temps or clients in mind. I will never use them again.

I actually posted a bulletin about finding a good employment agency and the Unilocalers have been very kind to respond. Although I found Eleventh Hour through another source, this place needs to be shared PRONTO.
I’ve been out of full time work since May. I really wished I heard about this place 3 months ago because I emailed my resume, walked in, completed some simple paperwork and within 10 minutes, I was out on assignment at New Line Cinema– no exaggeration.
My background is in entertainment so either normal people get me, or they don’t. Eleventh Hour gets me. They understand that I used to manage a band, play in a band and had a life outside of work. They encourage placements for creative individuals with multiple skills– not just a resume they indicates you worked at Boring Joe’s Emporium for 5 years.
I was just about to give up on life until I found this place. I hope this place will help you too. There’s one simple caveat: please have entertainment experience.
See you at the commissary!