Paying to find a job?
 

Sounds silly, right? I agree, but I'm just curious about the experiences of members here. This is one of the last things I would ever consider doing, unless I KNEW I would find gigs that way. By the way, talking freelance camera gigs, in most cases.

There are several sites I've come across in my cyber-travels, www.gigdirectory.net, www.showbizcrew.com, www.artjob.org, maslow media (don't remember the web address), I think there's one called "crewnet" or something. Anyway, I got all excited, panting and sweaty, thinking I've found another place to look for gig listings. Then I'm let down when I find out they want so and so dollars a month or year for their services, and promptly delete them from their new home among my family of bookmarks.

I was wondering if any of you guys have used any of these sites, or others like them, to find work.

I know a lot of people talk about networking, and stuff like that, as opposed to searching online, but I can tell you that a lot of the paid stuff I've gotten has come through job sites, one way or another, and very little has come of cold calling production companies.

I'm also pretty sure most of the people on here are either hobbyists, or have their own businesses, as opposed to working for other people.

What I'm really wanting to know is, are gigs found on these sites, that someone like myself, (two and a half years on and off experience freelancing on very low budget gigs-see the links to my reel below for more detail) would be eligible for, that AREN'T found on free sites like craigslist, mandy, etc. Is this where all the secret high paying gigs are advertised? What's the realio dealio?

I subscribe to a few sites here in Europe. Have had a few contacts that never came to anything. The best for me is Mandy, for the UK at least. Crew United for Germany. Considering to stop paying. A thumbnail ad on Mandy is good value for money for me.
ProductionHub is another, for the US: http://www.productionhub.com/jobs/

Thanks. I thought this thread would wither and die.

Thanks for that productionhub link. . .seems like a decent site. Depressing how few posts there are in Texas, though!