I’ve stated before I am relatively new to the freelance business, though I worked in public relations and marketing for nearly 10 years. I always understood the importance of well-written, personalized cover letters and top-notch resumes when applying to traditional jobs. Similar to Tee’s post, I am a little confused about references to cover letters, resumes and applications as they relate to securing freelance writing jobs.

Traditional job advertisements of course tend to ask for cover letters and resumes to be emailed for faxed. However, the advertisements for freelance jobs tend to provide details about the job and suggest interested parties contact the person offering the job.

Are you all expecting resumes? Am I OK in assuming the response I provide in my email would be considered my “cover letter?”

Another question I have is what is meant by applications? I recently sent a reply to Brian Pipa regarding the job posted here for the CandyAddict.com writing gig. (Brian, the umpa lumpa wanna be says “hi”) I tried to address each of Brian’s requirements in my email. I may have ventured a little over the top creatively speaking – I hope not though.
Brian, like several others in this post, mentions applications in a response in this post – “When we’re hiring and have 50 applications in front of us…” I’m just curious. What is meant by application? Am I missing something, or is the term merely meant to refer to those people who “applied” meaning they replied?

Also, I do blog, but to date what I’ve written has just been silliness and stuff for friends and family. I am currently creating a writing-related blog in WordPress. However, until I get that up and running, I’ve been giving people a link to my ifreelance.com portfolio http://www.ifreelance.com/pro/43390. Does anyone have any opinions as to whether this is a good idea or not?

I’ll stop with the questions now! What wonderful people you all are to share your insight and experience.

Heather
i_write@ymail.com

If you take your time to craft a well-written cover letter, resume, and portfolio then you will have that much more of an edge over those applicants that didn’t take their time. Also, if you’re new at writing resumes and writing samples, then find a friend or family member who is business savvy to look it over and give you pointers. It never hurts.

I’ve been blogging personally for 4 years and blogged in a semi professional blog for 2. When asked for blogging experience when I apply for a blogging job, I’ve always given the blog url of my posts done for the professional one. I’ve never stated 4 because I won’t be able to back up that claim as I think its unprofessional to send links to my personal blog even if that showcases me as a writer/blogger more through my posts.

Any differing thoughts?

It’s sad she can’t use the computer, because spell check would have been her best friend. She was a C level exec at a Chicago company until she retired, so she wasn’t saying that out of ignorance or fear. She just couldn’t spell. Neither can my husband.

One thing I do have to say, though, is that my husband will re-read anything important before sending and many times will have someone else read it as well. I mean, we all have online friends, how much time would it take to have someone else scan your cover letter?

Oh, I also tweak my resume to add the company’s name I’m applying for in a few places. That way I took the effort with a good cover letter, and follow that through into the resume. If I don’t have an “on topic” writing sample, I’ll throw one together for the application, too.

I figure it’s about the company’s brand, not mine. That means the goal of my application, resume, etc. is to show the company what I might potentially look like to the readers. Putting those details in helps the hiring person see me as a potential part of the team instead of an applicant at arm’s length.

Sometimes I am not sure if I should act like I care about a job or not. There can be a fine line between seeming excited and seeming desperate when you are conversing by email. This time, I did give it a try, and after reading this, I feel good about what I sent.

Thank you for the high quality piece! It was a great read.

As a teacher I do like to have my students write down their thoughts and it does mean that many do write phonetically. I do not leave it at that,because I encourage them to make the correct spellings when I go through and edit their work with them because I do want them to learn to spell correctly. They’ll never learn if we keep allowing them to spell phonetically. I don’t want to stifle their creativity, which is why I want them to get their thoughts down even if there are mistakes. As mentioned, they correct it later for me.

What I do find is that I learn a lot about my students by their writing. Their words reveal if they are a reader and the level of their reading. Vocabulary level is also indicative in their writing. Their writing also indicates if they are learning disabled or dyslexic.

I need to see their writing “as is” before I have them correct it for the above reasons given. Yes, we certainly should be concerned when the phonetic spelling is marked as being correct when it is not.

Spelling phonetically doesn’t work in my opinion. The fits my daughter has when I try to correct her prove it. But then, I look at her current teacher, she’s brand new, out of college this year. This is verbatim – she sent home this letter:

“The 6th graders will have sience five days a week with Mr. Toof.”

Now I can see that being a typo, until it appeared spelled that same way S-I-E-N-C-E six other times. I sent her an email telling her that she’d mispelled the word and that I hoped it was a mistake on her part. Her response is that she must have typoed it all six times. Either way, spellcheck could have caught it, so I have a hard time believing her. It’s only the third week of school, and I’ve already lost faith in this teacher, which isn’t a good thing.

I mean .. and the last posted entry is NOT April 2007.. // (typed from laptop woops)

When I’m reviewing applications, and I ask for examples of the applicant’s past work … While it is great to know that the applicant was published in a famous magazine or newspaper and either attaches a copy of this article or copy/pastes it into the email .. seeing 1 or 2 or a small handful of articles written over the past 10 years doesn’t cut it with me. If I’m looking for a blogger to post every weekday (or more) .. it’s nice to see if the blogger actually has a blog, and the last posted entry is April 2007. Also, I can generally see you how interact with the readers, and other insights from just reviewing your blog – whatever it is about, including your writing habits.

It may be different for other people hiring writers, but I’m not looking for a person who has written a pulitzer prize article in the past .. I’m looking for someone with enthusiasm willing and capable of carrying one of my blogs and acting under my banner which reflects on me.

As for the content, you can have samples on it to show variety of work (research, opinion, current events, etc) but you can also be blogging about your cat or your garden and it’s all good for me. That’s pretty much what I meant. // HART

Should I set up a seperate blog that has writing samples on it? Or blog about something other than writing?

I’m not perfect, however, I’ve sent out canned cover letters. It usually happens at around 2 am when thoughts of utility bills have me up late and I start firing off the apps. I now make myself put all of the gig emails in my folder to revisit them in the am. It is shocking how lax your brain gets when it’s late and you’re desperate.

Although the vast majority of your publishing commenters were common sense–follow directions, give us what we want, post for jobs you’re qualified for–I’m slightly flummoxed by some that indicate they want enthusiasm, vivacity and personality, when I would think they want competence, professionalism and a resume that indicates they know what they’re doing. Maybe that’s just me.

btw @Leigh .. “hellz yeah” ,,, / I think I received one of those applications too