Job application

So you’re applying for a job.

Well, it’s certainly not the last job you’ll be applying for.

Here’s some advice for standing out for any position going forward. As Walt Disney would say, it’s the cross-section of one man’s opinion, so treat it accordingly ...

1. Being qualified and experienced is expected
2. Write your cover email in the company voice (as if the CEO wrote it)
3. Position yourself as the expert, the prize (without being a dick or a blowhard about it)
4. Don’t humble brag (it’s kind of annoying)
5. Stack the cover email like drama (Aristotle, Campbell, Sorkin, Mamet, whoever works for you)
6. Focus on getting an online meeting with them (end the cover email with a suitable call to action)
7. At the online meeting ask questions and interview them (make the questions impressive)
8. If you get the interview/meeting/job thank them in writing (physical letter, signed and mailed)
9. If you don’t get the interview or meeting or job ask them why in writing (physical letter, signed and mailed)

Quick story ...

There’s a young, ambitious man wants who to get a job in advertising. One of the best agencies in New York advertises for a new position. Hundreds apply. He discovers he’s been shortlisted to the final 10. Goes for an interview where he thinks everything goes great. But then finds he didn’t get the position. So he writes a letter and asks why because he wants to get better. Because he wants to apply for the position next year and keep applying until he gets it.

The day his letter lands at the agency he gets a phone call and gets the job. And learns the agency had told everyone who’d been shortlisted that they didn’t get the job. He was the only one to keep pushing. It was a test. And he passed.

Resilience is the mother of success.