Alec

McNayr

I got an email from a stranger the other day. Someone who wants to be a creative-type, found HistoricalTweets.com, and thought they’d reach out to me. A nice person, but one problem.

In their first sentence, they asked for a job. Didn’t beat around the bush. Didn’t ask about opportunities. Didn’t hint at the desire to work with/for me. Full-on asked for a job at McBeard.

I wrote a simple and kind reply, but the more I thought about it, I thought I might write a more thorough post on how to cold-pitch people for jobs or gigs or freelance work. I wish someone had written this to me when I was 22.

So, my advice:

1. Don’t directly ask for a job.

Don’t do it. Ever. Especially not in your first email to a stranger. It’s just presumptive and rude. I don’t know you, I don’t know your work. You don’t know me. You don’t even know if you want to work for me. I could be a terrible, manipulative boss who will literally steal money from you.

As it turns out, I’m a nice guy who works hard, but gets annoyed when strangers a) ask for a job, b) pitch him ideas for books or movies or TV shows, or c) ask for a job.

Friends are different. Family is different. Contacts from networking events are different (but only slightly). But strangers… don’t do it.

2. Seriously, don’t ask for a job.

There are a thousand better ways of getting to the employment question. You can ask to learn more about my company, or my work, or how I got here. You can ask me a few pointed questions, because you’re interested in the nature of creative and compelling copywriting. You could offer to take me to lunch. You could ask if I’m the appropriate person to talk to about freelance opportunities, because you don’t want to waste my time.  Asking for something that costs me less is a much better (and more successful) tactic.

Asking for a job in your first contact is like asking me out on a date. You drive up. Adjust your tie. Walk up to my door. Ring the doorbell. But before I can even open the door, you shout, “I’M READY FOR THE SEX NOW!!!!”

Seriously, it’d be better to just ask for something that requires less as a first step. You get more wins that way.

3. Paint yourself as a capable person with a positive attitude.

In the email, this person started out saying that they wanted to be a writer, but couldn’t bring themselves to write a novel or be a journalist. So they settled on “copywriter.” Bad move. You let me know that you’re a settler. That there are things you can and won’t do.

Unfortunately, I want to hire people who are successful in whatever they touch.

My company gets work from well-known international companies who love our book, but they don’t hire us to write funny tweets or publish a best-selling book for them. We do more than that. They hire us because a) we are easy-going and professional (the lowest bar possible), and b) our work — no matter what they ask us to do — is killer. We deliver every time, no matter what crazy stuff they ask for.

Don’t sell yourself short. It makes you look unfit to do the work.

4. Don’t send a resume (or offer to send a resume).

The pitch email is your resume. Don’t tell me you can write solid copy. The words you write in the email is the test of that. That’s how the world works now. No one judges you off your resume. You get judged on your work and your relationship and whatever I can Google about you.

Instead, include a link — maybe two, if you have them — to something AMAZING that you’ve done. It’s low commitment for me (again, I’m a stranger) to click on it and look at your work — and it makes it easier on me — without having to commit to answering you back to get it. That’s socially awkward for a guy in my position. And guys in my position will never do it. They’ll never answer you back asking for a resume. But they would (and I would) click on a link to something amazing.

But (big “but”), it HAS to be amazing to get my attention. Or a response.

5. Do some research about me.

I have a lot of lures out there, in the internet. Sites with my name on them. It’d be easy to Google my name and learn something important. When it comes to seeking a job, you’d probably stumble onto the McBeard “About us” page where we say “we’re a small shop” and list only three employees. If we only have three people — and two of us are co-founders — then our chances of hiring (and growing our company by 33% with one hire) is relatively low.

But it also means we’re hard-working guys who are hustling for their work. And that we probably appreciate people doing the same. Given the right offer (see #2 above), we’d probably reply to anyone.

Even personal stuff. You’ll find a lot of information about me. I wrote screenplays, I have a kid. I live in Los Angeles. I went to Pepperdine. That all helps inform the kind of email you write to me.

In conclusion…

I hope you don’t read the above and think, “Geez, what a douche. Take a Xanax and get back to me.”

Hopefully it’s a gut check if you need one. Or if you’re a person in a position to hire, you agree with some of it.

In any case, I want to stress mastery in the lost art of “thinking about how someone will read this” when writing emails, especially when asking for something.

Copywriting and creative work is about expressing your ideas to others. Your emails should be no different.

Posted in Blog, Helpful Hints, Rants