The Career Center

The Actors Fund Work Program has been around for a while. Years ago when I was working in the theater, I heard they helped lots of former dancers find non-​theatrical jobs in the real world or at least learn how to work with computers. When I was laid off from my office job and couldn’t get through to even the agencies I had made healthy commissions for in the past, I decided to check out AWP and see if they could fast track me to recruiters or better still, actual employers. They give the impression that they have this power. IF they do, I know they never bothered on my behalf, and I made it easy for them as I am highly skilled, college educated with honors, experienced, etc. The truth is the counselors keep THEIR jobs by keeping the AWP grant afloat and they keep the grant going by having hoards of unfortunate jobless people «subscribe» to their efforts by signing up for this seminar and that seminar, all which have pretty useless information and/​or information that is easily available elsewhere. The coveted job bulletins sent in their weekly email blasts have mostly the same job postings week after week (hmm…) and the seminars are disappointing. I remember one in particular that I attended when the guest speaker, a temp services recruiter that everyone was anxious to meet, cancelled at the last minute because it was raining outside! They had another speaker, a young woman who was introduced as a gleaming example of a successful AWP member. She was holding down three part time jobs and had multiple roommates just to make ends meet. I would classify her as «scraping by to survive,» not «successful.» Big difference. I rate them two stars because if you are workplace novice and don’t need a job anytime soon, you can spend a lot of your day with these people. At least it won’t cost you any money.