If You Were to Hire a Copywriting Pup, What Would You Look For?

What could they say right then and there? In my opinion, nothing. It's poor hiring practice to give someone a shot simply based on something they said.

I believe you're asking the wrong question. How about telling us what you're trying to accomplish so we can give a good answer?

Here's how you get this deal.

Researching the company is good. Demonstrating you posses a working knowledge of their markets and that you have a passion for them is better.

1. So find out who their Clients are and the markets they are in.

2. Do research that's CURRENT on each market and/or Client.

Do that and now at the interview, you really have something juicy to discuss. Done right, it'll turn into a brainstorming session that'll get everybody fired up about working with you. Why? Because you bring so much energy, creativity and knowledge to the table.

The trick? You have to become a quick study. A really quick study.

- Rick Duris

PS: If anybody's doing any scale tipping, the goal is to tip the scales in YOUR favor, not theirs.

In these cases, instead of hiding your lack of experience, you should
highlight your PASSION to learn more. If you are hired on a false
premise you are likely to get found out sooner or later. At least that's
how I see it.

-Ray Edwards

If I was hiring (unless the applicant was world class) I would prefer them NOT to have any experience.

The proviso being they must have studied all the "classic" books maybe paid a mint to a few A list Guru's (not essential but does show commitment).

Be good if they spent lots of time deconstructing and rebuilding stacks of Ads.

As others have said they need real undiluted passion, flexibility and sheer determinism.

I think this way you've got a good chance in getting red hot fresh copy (using the essential persuasion and selling techniques) rather than the same old stuff you see over and over again and again and again…


Steve

Rick is spot on. When you don't have the experience (trust me you have more than many who've applied at my company alone. I'm sure that's the same in other industries), you show them the drive and passion.

Figure out where you think you fall short of the job description. Figure out how your skills and your drive will help you get through those. Don't explain except if asked, but be ready to answer just in case.

You're an aspiring copywriter. You specialize in research and digging for hidden benefits and hooks.

You're the product now. Get out of your own head, and sell yourself and everything you have to offer the right company.

Thanks guys.

Interestingly, I had a meeting this morning with someone from a hotel about social media marketing. I went in there and explained exactly what I would do, showed interest in her and now I should get a gig out of it.

I'd already been researching the man I will be meeting, but apart from that, I put together a list of all the things I can do. I've been narrowing that down to things that others may not say, even if they could do it.

Thanks again for the feedback. I've got plenty to work on, but I have the face to face meeting and that's what matters.

I want to spew here, so I will...


I applied for a copywriter position at a company here. Throughout the process, they told me that they were really interested in growing and that they wanted a specialist. So I blew them away with a page that - according to the marketing manager - was by far better than anything else they got.

However, they kept telling me they would let me know, for a month, before saying that, in fact, they had decided on a generalist.

Great.

I recently moved, so what I've been doing is going around, in person, to local companies. I've not been the luckiest, as I missed the big guy a lot of the time, yet I've got some work, I'm likely to get more, am in discussions with another and have a minimum of 2 meetings with ad/marketing agencies.

I think this just shows the value of meeting people face to face. I may not have actually got the work every time, but I got good feedback and I have some work out of it. Talking to real people, face to face, is worth so much more than an email.

Hi all.

I have been absent from here since this thread, so I thought I'd give an update.

The meeting I had with that creative director went well, but they didn't have a full time position available. He wanted me to do a trial and if it was good, I'd become their go-to English language copywriter.

However, since then, I met another creative director from an even bigger agency and I will be starting work for them next week, full time

It pays to just keep plugging away at things you really want. Eventually, when all seems lost, it'll come good.