Last week when James from the TippyLeaf Tea blog offered his feedback, he made mention of receiving 500 applicants the first day after his ad was placed. This led to some speculation. Does the early bird get the worm? Is there too much competition out there? Personally, I wouldn’t concern myself with either worry. Here’s why.
Should you be the first to apply?
Does it matter whether you’re the 5th or 500th applicant? No. Not really. Not if the employer is still receiving applications. Some of the regulars wondered whether or not the 300th application stood in the employers mind as much as the first or second application. If it’s a good application it did. Now, I can’t speak for everyone who hires freelancers but I can say most are willing to take as much time as necessary to ensure the best person gets the gig. This means he or she will go over each application with a fine toothed comb. He’s not counting, he’s looking for the best.
But what about the competition?
Whether I apply for a job online or in the real world, there’s going to be some sort of competition. If I spend all my time worrying about everyone else who applied, I won’t get the gig. Instead of wondering how many people apply and if my application will get lost in the crowd, it’s in my best interests to make sure my application stands out above the rest. I can do that by:
- Reading the ad through to make sure I’m truly qualified.
- Sending good and relevant writing samples.
- Making sure my resume, samples and cover letters are error-free.
- Having top-notch references.
- Researching the employer and his business and adding a personal touch to your application
A little healthy competition is a good thing
Personally, I find the threat of competition to be quite the motivator. Knowing there will be others applying to the same gig encourages me to put my best foot forward. It doesn’t matter if there are five people vying for the job or fifty, the person who is best for gig will win. Is that you?
What makes your application stand out among the rest?
For me, I’ve had great success trying to be the first. Case in point is a job I just finished up for a popular hypnotherapist’s assistant. He needed someone to add all of his programs to Amazon and wanted someone who could start immediately. I was the first response he’d received so I was offered the job. Not only has this guy been delightful to work for, but he pays on time and the pay’s been great.
I’ve landed many writing jobs where I was told that because I was the first to respond I was getting first shot. It brings me back to my year working for the owner of a mailing/printing firm. If someone came in the door with a resume in hand, I was to browse it while they waited and the first applicant who looked good was offered a job on the spot. Different field of course, but I always offered positions to the first to walk in the door with a clue as to how to present themselves professionally. Training we could handle after they were hired.
The thing is — in my experience MOST of the applications coming in aren’t going to be a good fit so it’s pretty easy to scan them and say “no” or “maybe.” It’s the “maybe” pile that takes time. Some people are an obvious “no” because their pitch has spelling errors or the person clearly doesn’t understand the job. Others are an obvious “no” because they simply don’t have the experience the job calls for and other people do. So more applicants doesn’t always mean more competition — sometimes it means more people who maybe aren’t a good fit, which makes the good fit people stand out more. (So if I’m combing through a bunch of pitches and most of ‘em don’t work and then I see one that does, I’m REALLY happy about that.)
(And I remind myself of this when I’m feeling like I don’t have a shot at the jobs I try for, too!)
I think that in blogging gigs the early bird does get the worm. In my experience, I’ve had 2 blog editors and a couple of business clients tell me they quit looking when they saw that my app/pitch was a good fit. That said, you have to be the bird with experience too, not just the earliest.
Mostly I think people hire me because I’m so sweet
Just kidding, likely it’s cause I’m into competing too. I spent years acting in the theater and arguing on speech & debate teams – so I always think I’m going to win. I think I act like that in my apps. This attitude is useful, because when I get rejections, I don’t get down about it. I mainly consider it an error of their judgment.
Well, except once from my favorite mag – I was bummed to be rejected by them.
I wish I could be as confident as Jennifer. I try to come across and the ‘winner’ in the application, but after sending it in, my insides are so knarled.
I wonder if that is normal, then continue to wonder about the whole process until I hear back. If I never hear back, I always wonder what it was I did that wasn’t good enough. But, I know, sometimes it isn’t being good enough, just the ‘fit factor’. But when you’re needing cashflow, the fit factor can be a real bummer.
Just for fun James should tell us what number he picked and if it was one he stopped at or if he continued to look before picking it.
That way we can all lose sleep the next time we apply for a gig LOL.
Time for a cup of tea to calm my nerves.
I’m with Jennifer. I’m highly-qualified in my niche, but so are thousands of other bloggers. I can’t count the number of times I got the gig because I was one of the first who sent an application in. One client told me that it wasn’t that he stopped looking at applications after he read mine, it’s because I was the first that I was able to make an impression.
I think one of the things writers of all sorts are advised about early in the process is the need to develop thick skin.
See rejection as an opportunity to learn and view it in a professional light rather than a personal one. I know that’s a pretty tall order–not seeing it as personal because our product often comes from a very personal place inside.
In the case where we are sending in resumes and project proposals with any number of other applicants, it is not so much that each one of us, except the project winner, is being rejected, it is much more about, in the opinion of the project owner, the most correct fit for the project is chosen.
I may not be the first to get an app in, many because I’m at a point I can be choosy and don’t find a lot of items via online sites — not to say Deb doesn’t provide a great service, it’s just I have gotten only one item from online search (from a different site geared to journalists), with most others coming from referrals.
That being said, when I do apply I focus on my dedication to deadlines and daily newspaper experience. Not the same as several blog posts a day, but you can’t survive in newspapers unless you can make daily deadlines on a regular basis.
I’m up far too early, but another thing I was thinking about when reading these comments. I applied for a magazine gig a few months ago. The editor told me she liked my ideas, but she’d hired the first qualified.
Two weeks ago, she contacted me again and asked if I could do the article within a week because her other writer failed to meet the deadline.
Then a couple days ago I heard back from a job I applied for in October, sometimes patience pays out too.
Ann G,
I’ve picked up magazine work for the exact same reason, though there’s one editor who keeps complaining about his writers, loved the first thing I did for him, but still doesn’t come through with more work.
Sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason.
Ann G. makes an excellent point. We’ve all seen people in the real world get a job who are completely incompetent, although they come across as brilliant on a resume or with a few clips. It’s not always the best person who gets the gig in the first go-round. Not always that easy to pick a best fit across the Internet. Those things sometimes have to shake out later.
@ Julie F: I used to tie myself up in knots over jobs I had applied to and didn’t get. I’ve gotten busier over time and now I apply for something and then let it go, otherwise I would drive myself nuts.
If you don’t apply for the job, you have zero chance of getting it, so at least put your application in if you are qualified. Someone is going to be hired and you may be the person this client is looking for.
Jodee- It’s just my personality. High energy/high stress. Worry over the smallest things. I’ve heard so many other writers say the same thing about themselves. Most of my gnawing myself to bits comes from articles out on query and the wait time on acceptance/rejection. We know better, but we do it anyway
I think that you have to forget everyone else when you apply for gigs. You do the best you can to make sure you’ve read the requirements, informed yourself, and written a proposal that puts you in your best light and puts your best foot forward.
If you start to worry about everyone else in the world, you’ll go nuts. Read, polish, apply, and get on with life – your life, not everyone else’s.
And if you don’t get the job? It’s always a good idea to figure out why. Then you improve yourself for next time.
Cheers, James. You’re definitely right on the money.
I have ended up with 2,000 applications so far and they are coming in now at 50-100 per day. Soon I will have enough to start my own country. I have to say this is the first time that happened. Does it help whether you applied first? No, as long as you apply in the first 1-2 weeks before I settle on someone (which I have not yet done – I am down to a shortlist of about 150). In fact to avoid that bias, I sort the emails in their folder by name before I process them. I wouldn’t hire someone in the first day anyway – I am looking for the right person, not meeting some imaginary speed-dating deadline. May I take advantage of this space now to apologise to anyone I don’t get back to – I just can’t, but it seems rude, so I am sorry about it.
A week or so ago, I got an email in regards to a job I applied for. It said (paraphrasing) that while my skills were exactly what they were looking for, they had been overwhelmed with applicants, so they decided to just pick the first ones they received, sorry, I was too late. As I thought about it, I decided I wouldn’t want to work for someone who would rather pick the first applicants over the better qualified.
I prefer not to think about my competition, because it would drive me crazy.I already agonise too much about my work; I don’t want to add the worry that.I may not be good enough for a job or someone else is better.
So I do the best I can and move on.
James said it so much better.
@ Damaria – Thank you
@ James – If you start a country, Canada seems to have plenty of available space in the northern regions of frozen tundra. Unfortunately, Internet access might not be so great, there, but then again, that would cut down on the competition
I have, at least once, applied for something, heard nothing and then followed up a month later only to have the editor say, “we had a thousand applications and never even got to yours, but I sure wish we had!” Being in the first 50 or so applications IS a good thing. Be in the second 500 and you might as well not apply at all. Once they find a couple good candidates, they stop looking, even though the perfect candidate might be the next one in line (or 500 people from now). Just my experience.
I agree that people often stop looking once they find a few good candidates. It’s that “time thing”.
I, too, have applied within hours of seeing a new position posted, only to find that I was too late. I think James is a discriminating rarity. I wish more employers were like him, willing to wait for the best applicants to find each opportunity. (And, also, willing to share their hiring process with us, at least in part.)
If Jame’s picks Canada for the country, will he provide lots of tea to keep us warm?
This has been an exciting topic to follow. I applied, probably too late as I didn’t see it posted here first, I caught it somewhere else and applied the next day. Then I came here and found the article reference over 500 applicants on the first day. I try not to be dismayed.
I can only hope I’m in the 150. This is like going out for a play….waiting for the parts to be listed. Should he list his top 10 applicants.
LOL
Intriguiging topic Deborah.
Just to add my 2 cents, I recently placed an ad on Craiglist for freelance SEO writers. I was inundated with replies.
I chose rather quickly because I had deadlines to meet. BUT, I kept all others on file for future consideration.
After I chose two writers, I sent a blind group email out to everyone who applied within the first week — thanking them for applying and letting them know that it was a group email and that I apologized for that fact.
So many wrote back to say “Thank you” for getting back to them and letting them know what happened with the job. I was surprised by this b/c I apply to tons of stuff and just move on, never expecting a response UNLESS I get the job.
Anyway, in response to that ad, I wrote an article about how to increase your chance of getting hired from a mass site like Craigslist, b/c I saw so many things that turned me off as an “employer.”
The article can be accessed here: http://inkwelleditorial.com/freelance-writing-jobs-on-craigslist.htm
Best,
Yuwanda