Most labels recruit people to become A&R's through internship programs. Def Jam has one, my cousin and one of my friends did the program. Here's the link to their application http://www.islanddefjam.com/www2/collegerepsignup/application.las

Other labels have similar programs. However, many companies are doing away with their A&R departments due to downloading loosing money. Also the Internet now tells who is hot, so they don't have to spend money looking for talent.

Nielsen SoundScan tracks whose downloaded most and online music communities like MySpace and Facebook report page views and how many times people listen to their songs. They no longer care that much about live performances because the studio can fix their voice—-that is why so many artists are terrible performing live.

Visit record labels websites and see if they have internships available.

Good Luck.