Job title: Celebrity jewelry coordinator
 
Companies that hire them: All established fashion companies have public relations staff to handle press inquiries and those all-important celebrity placements. At high-end jewelry and couture houses, these roles are especially important because of the visibility of the awards shows at which stars sport their wares.

Number of jobs in the U.S.: There are about 100 major fashion companies in the U.S., with P.R. and celebrity teams at each ranging in size from one person to 10.

How to find out about openings: Big fashion companies advertise their P.R. openings on industry sites, including 24seveninc.com and stylecareers.com, while general job sites like Monster and Craigslist also have ads. The easiest way to get a foot in the door is a connection, so tag along with friends to industry parties and reach out to anyone you know who works in fashion.

How much you can earn: Assistants in the public relations and celebrity arena might start out with salaries in the $35,000 to $45,000 range, according to Elaine Hughes, president of fashion industry executive search firm E.A. Hughes & Co. Directors can earn anywhere from $90,000 to $125,000 and up.

Useful skills: Good communication skills, a sense of comfort around stars and their entourages, and organization—when you’re lending jewelry, millions of dollars are on the line, not to mention priceless celebrity ­relationships.

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Last July, Courtney Stursberg, a public relations and celebrity coordinator at H. Stern, traveled to Paris with $8 million worth of diamond jewelry, including a pair of $500,000 diamond earrings. Stursberg and the gems were headed for the celebrity event of the summer, the wedding of Eva Longoria, star of Desperate Housewives, and Tony Parker, the star point guard of the San Antonio Spurs. The earrings and a few other pieces were designed specifically to match Longoria’s wedding dress.

Stursberg, a 24-year-old who joined the Brazilian-based jeweler in 2006, handles celebrity jewelry loans for the 63-year-old company. And although she didn’t get to meet the bride-to-be on her trip, that was hardly the point. When a celebrity like Longoria sports gems from ­H. Stern, “the publicity is priceless,” says Stursberg.

Fans see H. Stern jewels on stars like Longoria—or Angelina ­Jolie, Sharon Stone, and Catherine ­Zeta-Jones, all of whom H. Stern has provided jewelry for in the past—and remember the name, then start to covet, and save for, its less expensive baubles. (As an added benefit, many times the celebrities themselves wind up buying jewelry that they borrowed or have seen in the collection, according to Stursberg.)

This time of year is Stursberg’s busiest, with the annual run in awards shows for the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Grammies, culminating in next Sunday’s Oscar ceremony, the high-school prom of the ­entertainment industry.

While normally based in New York City, Stursberg spends much of her time during awards season in L.A., working around the schedules of the stars, some of whom are flying around the world for dress fittings and hair consultations until moments before each event. Stursberg typically ­chooses between 25 and 30 pieces of ­jewelry—usually worth about $15 million in total—to dangle one by one before any number of celebrities in a temporary showroom she sets up in the hotel room where she’s staying. Among the items she’s toting this year are a $4 million necklace set with fancy-cut diamonds, and a $470,000 cuff bracelet with 62 carats of diamonds. (She won’t know who, if anyone, will be wearing these prizes until just before the big events.)

Once a loan is made, a detailed insurance policy must be filled out, complete with the piece’s reference number, price, and the star’s name. Sometimes additional measures are necessary. At the 2004 Oscars, Angelina Jolie, for example, wore a $10 million H. Stern necklace. Because of its value, she was accompanied down the red carpet by a specially hired security guard.

Stursberg got her start in the industry with a series of four internships at fashion companies like Celine and Tods while she was in high school and college. After graduating from George Washington University in 2006 with degrees in American studies and art history, she interviewed for jobs in fashion P.R., wholesale, retail, and merchandising, finally getting a tip about an opening at H. Stern in New York City. She landed a spot as an assistant on the four-person P.R. team, working on getting editorial placements in magazines and newspapers for H. Stern. Soon, though, her focus shifted to helping the company prepare for the 2007 Oscars.

“There was a lot going on, and I had been meeting with stylists, helping with the New York end of the celebrity stuff. We needed as much help as we could get,” says Stursberg, who compares the experience to jumping into cold water while wearing a blindfold. But she quickly found that she was good at it. “I have had very positive experiences with talent,” she says.

In the fickle world of Oscar fashion, Stursberg says the most stressful thing is anticipating whether the jewelry that’s been loaned will actually see the light of day, since celebrities are not legally bound to wear the pieces they borrow from H. Stern at any given event. At the 2006 Oscars, for example, Jessica Alba was adorned in H. Stern earrings, bracelet, ring, and hairpiece when she got into her limo for the awards. By the time she hit the red carpet, however, Alba had switched everything but the hairpiece.

Despite those moments, and the pressure of being responsible for millions of dollars of gems, Stursberg loves her job. “It is definitely scary,” she says, but “the most fun is really having a say, and being able to participate in these decisions that you end up seeing on the pages of every magazine.”