How to use
Career OS

Take the Career Compass™

Do this first. The Compass asks where you actually are, then sets the priorities on your Dashboard to match. Skip it and the system can't tell an assisting artist from a represented one.

• Current situationSalon-based · Mobile / freelance · Assisting on set · Working session / editorial
  Select all
• RepresentationNo agent yet · Actively looking · Represented · Multiple agencies
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• What you're working towardBreak into Fashion Week · Get represented · Earn more · Get campaign work · Build a kit · Increase visibility
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Fill the Relationship Pipeline™

This is the heart of the system, and the module everything else leans on. Careers are not built from single opportunities — they're built from relationships that compound.

Add every producer, photographer, stylist, makeup artist, agency, brand, editor, educator and client you've worked with or want to. Not just the ones who booked you. The assistant on a job last year is a first-call artist two years from now.

• Start with the people you already know — go through your last twelve months of jobs and add everyone who was on set.
• Then add the people you want to know — the photographers and agencies you're aiming at belong here too, tracked from first introduction.
• Follow up consistently. A contact you never return to isn't a relationship, it's a business card.

Log jobs as they happen

Session Job Manager™ is the source of truth for your working life — every shoot, campaign and call sheet in one log.

Add each job when it's confirmed, not when you get round to it. A job logged three months later is missing the details that made it useful: who was on set, what you charged, what you'd do differently.

Set your rates, track earnings

Pricing is positioning. Tracking makes the pattern visible. Most nail artists undercharge because they don't track — not because they don't know their worth.

Write your rate structure down in the notes field before your next booking, so you're quoting from a decision you already made rather than deciding under pressure on the phone.

• Day rate & half-day rateThe two numbers you'll be asked for most
  Required
• Kit feeYour products, consumed on their job
  Required
• Cancellation policy & kill feeWhat you're owed when it falls through
  Recommended
• Usage feesThe line most session artists never invoice for
  Recommended
• Fashion Week rateA different context deserves a different number
  Recommended

Build assets, command your kit

Your credits, certifications and portfolio are not admin. They are the product you're selling to every agency, photographer and brand — so log them as they happen, while you still have the details.

• Credits & Editorial Archive — publication, client, photographer, date. This is what an agency asks for, and it's painful to reconstruct later.
• Certifications — list them with dates in the notes field. Accreditations expire, and a lapsed one on a profile is worse than none.
• Kit Command™ — run the checklists in Module 04 and identify what needs restocking before your next job, not the night before.

Work the Growth Engine™

The next job doesn't come from waiting. It comes from a system that keeps you visible, relevant and moving forward.

Add your dream brands as outreach targets in Module 07, then use Outreach Vault™ in Module 08 for the message itself — a reusable set of templates you personalise and send rather than writing from a blank page each time.

• Set goals in the notes field — skills to develop, education planned, milestones for this year.
• Work targets in batches, not one at a time. Outreach is a numbers exercise before it's a craft one.
• Log every reply, including the no's — a no this season is a warm contact next season, and it belongs back in your pipeline.

Prepare Fashion Week Mode™

Fashion Week is a separate operating context. Different pace, different rates, different relationships. Plan it separately or it swallows the rest of your season.

• Add shows as they're confirmed, and build your Fashion Week Contact Map™ alongside them.
• Use the notes field for kit variations, show-specific requirements, backstage contacts, and lessons from last season — the things you swear you'll remember and don't.
• Check the dates against each other. Cities overlap. Knowing that before you accept is the difference between a full season and a dropped booking.