This week has been exhausting. Not because we are super busy at the moment but because we are hiring a new writer. The task has fallen into my lap. I posted the job on Bizcommunity on Monday morning and by Tuesday, had received over 100 applications. While you might think it difficult to peruse through 100 applications and pick – say 10 of them, it was relatively easy, although time consuming.
I’m no copywriter, I have however written numerous press releases in my career that have been published. I can however distinguish between good writing and really crappy writing. People’s perceptions of themselves especially on paper astound me; here are a few things I have come across with the 100 or applications I have waded through.
Take into account, we are looking for a fairly experienced writer/editor/copyeditor or journalist, for those of you who are reading this with the thoughts of applying for this position, here are some tips.
- Sending a CV with spelling or grammatical errors for a WRITING position gets your CV chopped the quickest. You are writers for goodness sake; get your CV and cover letters edited, even if it’s your mate that does it for you.
- This position is for a creative person. This means you have a chance to show case your creativity – Not sending a cover letter or some kind of introduction in the email with your CV is immediate grounds for “THE CHOP!”
- The post said “MID-SENIOR” – So no, we are not taking on interns at this stage.
*Thandi, our office manager just came upstairs saying there were some really strange phone calls she was getting. This leads me to:
- READ THE REQUIREMENTS. If you don’t have a car or a license, then NO, don’t send your CV.
- Not giving enough detail in your CV means you are hiding something, merely listing the places you have worked at with dates is not enough: What happened to explaining; who? What? Why? When and Where?
- Conformity, conformity, conformity. Every cover letter starts with: “I am a young, hardworking, innovative, and creative…with great interpersonal skills…” I don’t care how many adjectives you have in your arsenal. It’s great to be confident, but a good CV should always begin with a description of your experience.
I think I have moaned enough about this. My suggestion for the people looking to apply for this position:
We, as the recruiters are your audience. Do you write a story with complete disregard for your audience? You have an entire brief (a good one at that) that tells you what we are looking for. You have access to the website. Use the website, look at the writing style, understand what we do, learn to use Google. RESEARCH your cover letter and CV and adapt it to your audience – us!
So far only one applicant has done that, and that person is the front runner for now.
