Melbourne Herald Sun, 16th January, 2010
It's the beginning of the year and those who run advertising agencies are receiving the letters they hate. Like, "Dear Sir/Madam, I have just completed my BA in literature and commerce, and am seeking a position as a copywriter within an advertising organisation such as yours....bla bla bla...." You send back a polite letter explaining that we have very few opportunities for trainee staff but wish them the best of luck in their quest.
Personally, what I wanted to do was grab the writer by his or her collar and give them a good shake: "Listen you twit! You are writing the single most important letter of your life. This letter will set the course for your future: what your job will be, the money you'll earn, the enjoyment of your career, the fulfilment of your creativity. Why are you writing like this was a minor clerical position in Australia Post?"
I don't know who teaches our young people to write job applications but quite honestly they have not got a clue. Finding a first job is always a desperately tough assignment. The job market is intensely competitive, and nowhere more so than in a so-called 'glamourous' industry like marketing.
There are a hundred qualified applicants for every job and you have to really stand out if you even want to make it to first base. You=re never going to do that with a boring form letter.
A job letter is a piece of advertising. If you don't win the reader in the first couple of sentences the chances are you'll lose them forever. That intro paragraph has to grab, it has to have emotion, some compulsion. It has to make the reader want more.
If the letter had said: "Just imagine one paragraph of copy which is so exciting, so stimulating, that it can overturn all objections to buying your product. Or picture a commercial which works so compellingly that stores are stampeded by customers demanding the product. I can write like that, and I can do it for your clients."
Sure, nine times out of ten that letter will still end up in the waste bin, but the 10th time somebody will say, "I'd like to see what a kid this audacious could look like." And if you sent out 50 of those letters, well you'd stand a good chance of talking yourself into a job. With the pro-forma letter you could send out a hundred and be lucky to get a single interview.
A job application is an advertisement. See yourself as the product, the gee-whizz solvent with added enzymes that's going to dissolve all of the reader's problems. Like any advertisement, it will compete in a cluttered marketplace: laid side-by-side against others with higher marks, more experience, a lot of advantage points. You have to score a few aces if you hope to win.
Luckily most of us are now well past that first job letter. But the same principles apply. Many of the letters you write are important, they have to be advertisements for themselves. Don't ever make the mistake of thinking that an ad is just the midnight commercial for carrot cutters or the mumsy type with her margarine sandwich.
Advertising is also the proposal you are writing to persuade your board to increase your budget. It's the letter you're sending to plead with the council over the unfair parking fine. Underneath, so much of what we write is pure advertising. And its success will depend on the first few words.
ray@ebeatty.com
