- Emily Levin is vice president at Career Group Companies, a recruitment firm in Los Angeles.
- Levin specializes in staffing searches for A-list celebrities, wealthy clients and top-tier C-suite executives.
- The company uses NDAs to ensure confidentiality and avoid attention to its high-profile clients.
Emily Levin, 36, is a vice president at a recruitment agency. Career Group Company Located in Los Angeles, we are looking for talent working for A-list celebrities, high-profile executives, and wealthy clients in the music and entertainment industry. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
I grew up in Los Angeles and have been with the Career Group Company for almost 14 years. I started recruiting for Hollywood celebrities by providing placements to people who had worked as personal assistants to celebrities or in entertainment companies. Then, when they left, they would refer me to fill their old jobs.
Celebrities often find themselves in a difficult position where many people want to work for them but also want to keep their fans out, and our clients are really looking for someone who doesn't have an ulterior motive for wanting the limelight.
Celebrities can't just post online that they're looking for someone and then sort through all the replies, so they turn to more discreet services like ours to handle these kinds of searches for some of the world's most famous people.
“The majority of my work is with the ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices, and celebrities. I also work with C-suite executives from large corporations, but usually in the entertainment industry. I also have some finance and fashion clients, but most of my work is in this celebrity niche.”
How to find candidates
When it's time to staff a job, I usually get a text message (911 emergency text message) or a phone call or an email that says, “Help, I need to find a personal assistant for this sensitive person.” Then I accept the job and connect with the person, their spouse, family member, business manager, or agent to really understand the problem I'm trying to solve. What does this person or this family need?
I work out the details, from compensation to what the schedule will be. Will travel be included? Do you need experience as a family assistant or nanny? Is it a head of staff job or a property management job? I have a roster of candidates looking for work. Then I play matchmaker.
I have a lot of applicants who know that Career Group Company is the place to get this kind of job. They apply through our website. They get DMs on my Instagram. Some reach out to me on LinkedIn.
Our job ads are vague. This is intentional because we have strict NDAs with our clients. We can determine who is suitable for the job based on conversations with applicants and social media checks.
As for checking social media, it depends on the celebrity you're hiring, but most shy away from applicants who have too much of a social media presence. Clients prefer people who don't want to be in the spotlight. They're like, “Oh, I wonder if this person is going to use this job to become famous or go on a reality TV show or write a tell-all book.”
People are very concerned about secrecy and discretion, they want to have people in their surroundings who don't attract much attention.
I have a list of pre-screened talent that I can contact when a job comes up that I think they would be a good fit for. I connect with candidates over Zoom. After I meet with them, a few other people from my team also meet with the applicant. We ask similar but different questions and exchange ideas.
Then I send the resumes to the client. The client might ask me who are the top two or three candidates based on the resumes I sent them. Someone from the client's side might talk to the candidates on Zoom. Then another member of the client's team might have coffee with the candidates. Then I usually pick the top two and present them to the client.
Once a candidate is selected for an interview, even if it's just the first interview, I send them an NDA. I recently had a client who wanted me to send the candidate a generic NDA because sending them the client's NDA would reveal who the celebrity is in the document. Then, once the candidate moves forward in the process, the client uses a specific NDA.
What I'm looking for
A resume tells the story of a person's career, and if they're getting a new job every six months or a year, it becomes clear that this may be an issue with the applicant and not with their previous employer.
Clients are really attracted to candidates who embody loyalty and longevity, because even when the jobs get hard (and these jobs are very hard), clients want to know that their executive right-hand man — their personal assistant — will see it through.
I tend to look for people who have experience working in the industry or have worked for a famous executive. For those who want to become a celebrity executive assistant, there are a few paths they can choose from. Talent agencies are a great way to get into this world because they are competitive and fast-paced. Agents can be hard; you work hard and there are a lot of famous people around you.
Candidates with this kind of experience won't be starstruck because they're already in the industry. They need to be able to handle confidential information and have good communication skills. I think of the talent agency route as a kind of bootcamp for executive assistants.
Also, people who played sports in college or high school are often very supportive. They are usually good team players and very determined and disciplined people. Either way, you need to get to know the candidate well to understand their personality.
Being interviewed is nerve-wracking for most people, famous or not. Add to that the fact that you're sitting across from someone who looks familiar and feels like you know them, but you don't, and this can add an extra layer of stress.
What it takes to succeed
This type of role requires a lot of flexibility as it usually comes with a 24/7 schedule, long hours, potential travel, etc. Executive Assistants may be responsible for photo shoots, security, media, stylists and wardrobe, brand partnerships, agents and managers.
Even if you're in a talent agency, working in someone's home is a much more intimate relationship. It's important to respect their privacy. You're literally in their kitchen or their bedroom or traveling on a plane with them. So you really need to understand that there needs to be strong boundaries between friendship and employer-employee. And those lines can often get blurry.
The Carrier Group Company has hundreds of celebrity clients. We operate under strict NDA, so we keep a low profile. Some of the clients I've worked with include Kevin Costner, Scooter Braun, Maria Shriver, and the Kardashian-Jenner family.
I have also worked with corporate clients such as Imagine Entertainment, Tiffany & Co., Endeavor Group, and Paramount Pictures, some of which have staff stationed in the homes of celebrities as well as their corporate offices.
Depending on the size of their team, they may hire a celeb who also has a head of staff and/or property manager, who oversees housekeepers, chefs, gardening and landscaping staff, pool attendants, butlers, drivers, and security guards.
And then there's the Chief of Staff, who oversees four or so Executive Assistants, errand girls, nannies, plus some people who run production companies, skincare lines, denim brands, etc. I'm in charge of staffing the receptionist, HR director, design director, etc. The list goes on.
I treat these searches with the same caution as I would a search for financial services because at the end of the day, I'm dealing with humans, whether it's investors or NBA players, and while it's the same across the board, these searches get more attention because people are naturally interested in celebrities.
