Cameras may not have captured your final exit from your old office, but the media still has opportunities for you to get your 15 minutes out of being a recession casualty. While vying for a chance to work with Diddy may not be for you, national morning shows, newspapers and
magazines are constantly looking for laid off citizens to pluck from obscurity and shower with career and money saving tips from top professionals.

Building your dream start up with your newfound free time? This could be your chance for a global plug.

You can find want ads for the unemployed on Craigslist under talent gigs or TV/film jobs. Advice from someone who used to cast these Average Joes? Don’t write in with a huge sob story. Always attach a cute picture of yourself “to put a face with a name.” Keep your submission grammatically correct and succinct. Bonus if you have a stand out reason for needing the help. For example:

Their Q: Unemployed and want help with with saving your money?
Your A: I’m an average New Yorker living on unemployment. While I started cooking and stopped eating at restaurants, I’m still finding it hard to pay for anything other than rent and insurance. Scraping by is tough, especially with 5 friends weddings looming in the next 2 months. Any help you can give me on how to make each dollar count would be greatly appreciated. I hope to share my story to help others in the same situation.

Sometimes the mountain comes to Mohamed. In my case, I was interviewed by the media when they found me unexpectedly. A good way to make that happen for yourself is to be as visibly needy as possible. Join money saving sites or blog about your woes on recession boards. Putting “laid off and looking” in your facebook profile or twitter status can also help.

The producer looking for these stories is probably short on both time and viable submissions. So if they call, sound hopeful and excited rather than downtrodden and dull. Nothing will make them hang up faster than a boring person with nothing to say.

Here’s one casting call to get you started on the path to short lived fame - http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/tfr/1144584796.html. Good luck on your search!

-By Cara Weissman, Contributing Writer, Reality Show Casting Professional and Founder of My Unemployment