Ryan Seacrest will hire her. I know he will. You know he will. If there’s one thing Auburn students have learned this year, it’s that you if you simply dot com your dreams, there’s a good chance they’ll come true.
It worked for those Taylor Swift dudes, and they weren’t even that attractive.
Besides, Carrie Leigh Williams isn’t trying to actualize a celebrity crush, just fast track her career.
This past spring, Williams, 22, applied to “literally over 200” media and broadcast-related positions that her soon-to-be-conferred RTF degree qualified her for. Despite her good looks and obvious talent – in addition to a slew of other accomplishments, Williams shared a 2008 Emmy with a group of NBC interns for starring in and producing the reality-based and appropriately-titled mini-series “NBC Interns” – none were panning out, at least in the way she was hoping, or at the pace. There was also the question of exactly what aspect of that career she should tackle.
“If anything, I wanted to have options, it was kind of like a game for me,” says Williams, the former face (yes, that girl) of Auburn’s student-run Eagle Eye News. “I wanted to see the best job I could get. People kept asking me what I wanted to do and it’s always been hard to answer. ‘Well, do you want to be on the air? Do you want to produce? Do you want to be an editor?’ It was hard because I couldn’t decide which I liked more. People at the TV station said ‘Carrie, you can’t do it all. That’s just not how things work.’ And I was just kind of like, ‘well, Ryan Seacrest does it. He’s the one guy in the industry who does it all and does it well. So my whole life’s goal is to be the female version of Ryan Seacrest.’ So then this kind of crazy idea popped into my head.”
Call it crazy, call it desperate, call it shameless self-promotion, call it a world-wide Hail Mary in a “Miracle in Miami” economy, call it brilliant.
But yes, Williams is straight up asking – no, telling – Ryan Seacrest to hire her.
“I’m not the type of person to be a crazy fan,” says Williams, who, since starting hiremeryanseacrest.com in May, graduated from Auburn, bought a bus ticket to New York, looked up an old Auburn friend for a place to stay, and landed an accounts management position at MTV / Viacom (all within a week). “But the thing with Ryan Seacrest is, it’s not about me wanting to date him or be his friend or get his autograph. It’s not like the Hug From Taylor Swift guys, but that is what kind of kick started the idea for me.”
In March, Auburn students Ryan Leander and Michael Wekall began a Facebook driven campaign to convince Taylor Swift to hug them.
Swift took notice, and eventually flew to Auburn for a free concert. And two hugs. Blogs ate it up.
“See, if those guys can do it, then maybe my idea isn’t so crazy,” Williams laughs. “Taylor Swift did come to Auburn to sing for them. And I’ve tried the traditional approach, but unless you know someone or have a connection, no one looks at your resume. I’m not trying to be creepy or to stalk him, but just maybe have his people come across it and think, ‘hmmm, it’s a weird way to get your name out there, but maybe she’s goal oriented. And she did start a website.”
And Seacrest has seen it. Or his people have seen it. Or someone who knows his people.
“I sent my resume to Ryan Seacrest Productions and I bet you a million dollars they never even looked over it because they get so many applications,” Williams says. “But I can track and see who looks at my website and I do know that someone at Ryan Seacrest Productions has looked at it, and Clear Channel has looked at it several times, and a couple of studios in New York and Los Angeles. So you never know!”
Yes we do:
Seacrest out.
Williams in.
War Eagle.
This is one talent who will go far. She will show the world what we in the south already know. AU women are “talent” and possess talent. Mr. Seacrest better recognize…or watch his back! War Eagle!!