Yes, I probably write about this sort of stuff far too often (see here, here and maybe here) but it’s something that repeatedly bugs me. Emails arrive every day, and every day I get a little more frustrated. If I don’t let off steam here, then it could develop into some sort of medical problem. And you wouldn’t want that, imagine how much I’d moan.
On the way home I discovered that being cherry-picked is very simply;
- Research
- Read
- Really try bloody hard
Research
Actually look into the company you’re applying too. We’re inundated with cover letters and emails addressed to marketing firms and advertising firms. We do PR and specialise in social media. If you’re in doubt, google the company or the top folks. Any agency worth it’s salt will have some web presence, even if it’s just a basic holding page. (Also, if you’re going to apply to an agency, try and find what they specialise in and also try and highlight how you can fit with that specialism.)
Read
Nobody jumps in a car and drives like Lewis Hamilton, the same can be said about jumping into an industry and expecting to be able to run. You will fall over, and it will hurt. So take you’re time to understand the issues in the industry, the voices, the influences, the challenges and the zeitgeist.
Really try bloody hard
OK, this is a little harder to explain (even though you’d think it was straight forward). Michael Litman threw himself into the online world and integrated himself into PR and social media so much that someone had to offer him a job, Adam Lewis is in the process of doing the same thing right now. My colleague Sam Oakley got noticed because of his blog – how many recruitment agencies suggest that? Non, that’s how many. And me? Well I forced my way into the Twitter clique (not meant in a negative way – Tim Hoang commented here), set up a blog and got noticed. Then when I got back from travelling I started creating relationships with the influential people in the industry and then got them to sign up to a Facebook group I’d started describing the reasons why I thought Wolfstar should hire me. The people I asked to join then posted lovely things about me (purely coincidental, I swear) and Wolfstar invited me in for a chat.
It’s not quite as simple as writing a generic cover letter and CV and emailing it over to as many firms as possible. Make. Some. Effort.