WayUp is all about making students’ career goals a reality: that’s why we created Office Hours, a free summer event series that allows NYC interns to learn from influential leaders across various industries. On Tuesday night, our team (and a room full of interns) sat down with some of the Music & Entertainment industry’s finest. Among the panelists were Jason Schulweis, VP of Marketing Solutions at Live Nation, Jen Mozenter and Claire Schlissel of The Jane Doze, a producer and DJ duo, Anna Oseran, Music & Culture Editor at Genius, and Matt Adler, Music Agent at Paradigm Talent Agency. They shared everything from hilarious stories — like when Matt found Drake’s personal Gmail address still open to the public—to powerful career insights about surviving and thriving in the music industry. Here’s what we learned from WayUp Office Hours: Music & Entertainment.
Career paths are not always direct or obvious, but they will lead you in the right direction.
Many of our panelists’ first internships and jobs taught them what they liked and didn’t like in a career. Both Jason and Matt had no plans of getting into the music industry–in fact, Jason’s first internship involved working excel spreadsheets at a bank before he interned at Epic Records: “I realized these are my people. This is my environment, where there’s music blasting and all these people coming in and out,” he said. Matt interned at Entertainment Weekly and Warner Bros before becoming a booking agent at NUE Agency as the third employee at the company. “That week, they had signed Mike Posner, Big Sean, and J. Cole,” he said. His advice is to figure out your strengths: “Whatever you’re the best at, you’re going to love.”
Claire, or as she called herself, “the taller half of The Jane Doze,” discovered her passion when her friends were having a rap battle at NYU. “One of them challenged me to make a beat with Eleanor Rigby as a sample, and that was it,” she said.
Jen of The Jane Doze and Anna from Genius were the only two who knew early on. Jen was a Sony rep studying Music Business at the University of Miami. Anna, who initially went into book publishing, admitted: “I knew I wanted to do something in music since I was 12 years old listening to Nirvana.”
Yes, you are too good for certain tasks. No, you shouldn’t refuse to do them.
“Put your head down and do your work,” Anna said. “A lot of people think they’re too good to grab coffee–and you probably are–but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. If you work hard and do what you’re told, people will take notice.” Jason agreed and urged students to be proactive: “Start to ask around – ‘Is there anything I can do to help?’”
Throw yourself into the challenges that come your way.
When Jen and Claire were thinking about doing The Jane Doze full-time, they discovered a “girl-next-door” vibe that didn’t exist in the music industry at a time. “That’s not an obstacle, that’s an opportunity,” Jen said. “Find a thing that hasn’t been done and take a leap.”
Anna confessed that she initially went into book publishing because of how male-dominated the music industry is, but her outlook has since changed. When facing the hurdles involved in challenging the status quo, she said, “You should do it anyway.”
That’s a wrap! If you want more incredible insights like these, we have 6 more free events lined up in sports, tech, food & hospitality, non-profit & social good, and health & wellness.
