Copywriting is storytelling, and few stories are more satisfying than one that ends with someone landing a job they love.
I’m a pretty decent storyteller. While I’m not an HR veteran, I’ve got decades of private and public sector management and communications training experience.
Although I don’t do heaps of job apps, like other copywriters I know, I have a high success rate. If you’re wrestling with your resume, stuck on the selection criteria, or crap at cover letters, here are three reasons to get a copywriter on the job.
We like words
As copywriter turned screenwriter Robert Pirosh’s killer cover letter tells it, we like words. In resumes and cover letters, we like punchy, active words like ‘boost’ and ‘invent’ and ‘simplify.’ We like short, stout-hearted words like ‘loyal’ and ‘fast’ and ‘calm.’ We like quirky, zingy words like ‘unflappable’ and ‘swift’ and ‘orchestrated.’
We like straight-shooting words with zero bull. We like words with cred that work for the wary and weary. We like oomphy words that stand their ground survive the six second scan, and get you a proper look in.
In short, we like words that most employers like but rarely get to read. Better still, we’re ace at putting them in the right order in the right places.
We play to your audience
Copywriters research the hell out of buyers and sellers. If we’re selling the enterprise that’s you, we’ll take a forensic look at who’s buying.
A skilful copywriter can dissect a job application package, a web site, and a raft of social media platforms in the time it takes you to draft a customised resume.
We trawl your potential employer’s website and social media for cultural clues. We suss out the benefits they’re hoping you’ll bring to the advertised role and beyond. Then we figure out how how you’ll prove you’ll deliver those benefits in spades.
Armed with your profile and theirs, we’ll make your application more about ‘them’ than you. Your application will show your prospective employer that you understand what makes them tick. You’ll sidestep the fatal ‘features trap’ of selling the same or similar expertise as everyone else.
We ‘get’ you
This is spooky art at the heart of good copywriting. It’s the trick that prompts my favourite bits of feedback, like, ‘How did you get inside my head?’ or ‘How come you sound like me? we’ve never even met?’
While it looks like a magic trick, a copywriter’s knack for knowing how you tick is eight parts hard graft and two parts intuition. How we crack mysterious you matters not a jot. What matters is how we use this intel to connect you to your next brilliant career.
Humans are notorious undersellers of their best professional selves. A skilful copywriter will spot your smarts quick smart. They’ll show an employer exactly why talented you are the perfect fit for their job and business.
Most of my clients react to a well-researched and skilfully written job app like this.
Them: ‘Wow! I never knew I was that good.’
Me: ‘Yep. This is a 100% fib free record of your actual fabulosity. You are that good!’
Beyond helping you get the gig, a lively, elegant, accurate job application is confidence-building evidence that you are ‘that good.’
Matching print performance at interview
Even when you know you’re ‘that good,’ it can be tough to ace the interview.
Why not rehearse with someone who has researched the role and made you look great in print?
I’ll be the HR harridan from hell, you can be your awesome self.
You’re unlikely to be interviewed by Gina Hard Faced Bitch’s clone, but I’ll do a passable imitation, just in case.
What does it cost?
Initial 40 chat about the job and to see if we click Free
Drafting and editing the docs $100 per hour
30 minutes interview rehearsal and feedback Free
Editing subsequent applications based on docs we’ve already used $150
Most job applications take between 3 and 4 hours depending on the complexity of the role and the quality of your background information.
Grab a free slot
I write two free job applications per month for people who are short of dosh, If this is you and you need help with a dead brill resume and cover letter to sell your best self. Get in touch
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