I'll get you to the interview. After that, it's down to you.

 The Challenge of Using Words to Sell Yourself

If you're a job seeker today, you're on a path fraught with many difficulties. One of those difficulties lies in the way you write about yourself to potential employers in your resume and cover letters. Some job seekers turn to professional copywriters or resume writers to boost their chances of landing a new job and, with a few caveats, that's often a good move. 

However, copywriting -- or any business-building writing, for that matter -- often bears the weight of an excess of expectation. It is often expected to be flawless, and often expected to produce the corporate equivalent of miracles: instant sales increases, overnight improvement in organic search rankings.

Copywriting simply does not have the power of law to compel readers to buy any given product or service. Instead, it must rely on what all humans rely on in their interactions: the ability to hold attention for long enough to create an opportunity to persuade. After that, the product or service needs to sell itself by the way it performs.

It's the same for people.

As a copywriter -- as a writer for business -- I write for my business life every day. And what I offer to you, dear potential customer, is neither an instant sales increase nor an overnight ranking rush. Instead, I offer the more modest miracle of getting you, your product, or your service, an interview. After that, it's down to you.

Let me show you how I got my most recent interview and, by extension, how I can help you get yours.

From Application to Interview

I won my interview with a not-for-profit that I'll refer to as That Charity* with a carefully constructed story. Here's how it unfolded, told against the questions I was asked to answer ... in writing.

 1. Please list any relevant formal qualifications you have for the role.

Did Steve Jobs require formal leadership qualifications to launch and run Apple? No. Instead, he brought his passion and ingenuity. And then did a bang-up job of being a CEO.
 
Much like me.
 
Do I have formal qualifications for this role? No. Instead, I bring my passion for meaningful communications that move people to action and my ingenuity for structuring the words that achieve that result. And then I do a bang-up job of the comms.
 
But I don't just bring passion and ingenuity. I bring a 20-year history of written communications success that spans marketing of consumer goods and services, analysis and promotion of government policy, biography of a sitting head of state, bid and proposal management, and technical writing.
 
Absent the formalities, I believe that my experience well qualifies me to tell compelling stories that will bring plentiful rain to Your Charity and the community it supports.

2. Please tell us more about your volunteer experience.

​I worked for one day at AnotherCharity as a volunteer charity worker. Agreed: not an earth-shattering effort. I know I could do more.
 
I have also been volunteering as a transcriber and editor of the dhamma talks of Ajahn Sinharaja, Abbot of Wat Sammavimukthi, a Buddhist monastery in Thattown, Upstate. This arrangement began in December 2015 and is ongoing. Still, I could do more.
 
I have since last year been sponsoring Pedro, a Colombian boy, through World Vision. Pedro almost shares a birthday with my son, which was the reason I opted to support him instead of the many other equally deserving children that World Vision is trying to help.
 
Still, I could do more ...

3. What is it that inspired you to engage with our work and become our story-writing person?

"There but for the grace of God go I." That's one source of inspiration. Here's another.
 
I live in Brisbane, with my amazing, generous partner Tania and our wonderpuppy Kayfa, a miniature schnauzer with a lover's soul. We wake each morning after a restful sleep in the beautiful Queenslander that we rent, and we enjoy our freshly brewed coffee on our deck while overlooking the palm, banana and macadamia trees that shelter our home and afford us a welcome privacy.
 
By any measure, we live a privileged life. And we are grateful for it every single day.
 
And yet there is always a sense of there being something missing. For me, that's a sense of deeper meaning to my work. To put it in technical terms:
 
(My last two communications roles were made redundant) x (I just turned 53) = I have great communication skills that I want to direct towards meaningful social outcomes.
 
I'm good at what I do. But I'm much better at it when it's connected to the heart: my own heart as a writer, and another person's heart as a reader. (As well as being a writer for commerce, I'm a poet: markhislopoetry.wordpress.com).
 
When I first heard of Your Charity last year, I was really struck by the glorious simplicity of the idea. I found it almost embarrassing that I hadn't thought to create something like that. What a wonderful way to make a difference in the lives of people who sorely need it. And what a wonderful act of humanity to be a part of. Which brings me to one final source of inspiration:
 
“The scent of the rose lingers on the hand that gives it.”
 
It's nice to work, but it's nicer to do work that directly benefits people who otherwise might not be helped. If my skills and efforts can support the kind of good works that Your Charity does, then so much the better for everyone.

4. Describe some high impact stories you've written that inspired people and resulted in greater awareness or understanding of an issue.

In 1995, while working as a creative director in Sri Lanka, I designed and wrote a series of full-page newspaper advertisements that promoted what was then an innovative instrument of investment: the debenture. A debenture is a long-term security that yields a fixed rate of return and is issued by a company - in this case, my agency's client - and secured against its assets. Since the debenture's novelty meant that it required explanation, I recommended that the client approve "long copy" advertisements in the form of questions and detailed answers.
 
My marketing communications experience has been that clients are often wary of long copy: they worry that no-one, especially not members of an intelligent and often impatient target market, will read it. My response to clients who express this concern is to remind them that "most intelligent people ignore advertising because most advertising ignores intelligent people," and that -- when done with skill -- an honest appeal to the intellect demonstrates a respect that is generally repaid by greater audience engagement. My recommendation was accepted; my series of advertisements ran in several national newspapers; our client's debenture issue was oversubscribed; the campaign was counted a success.
 
Now, how much credit can I legitimately claim here?
 
My agency had the client's considerable financial resources available to pay for running the ads, so their reach alone would clearly have helped to raise awareness and inspire action. (Yet if reach were everything, we'd all be living on McDonald's: but we aren't.) The Sri Lankan market for securities was at that time relatively buoyant, so demand alone would to some extent have underwritten the issue's success. (Yet if demand were everything, every Sri Lankan share issue of the time would have been oversubscribed: but they weren't.)
 
As the adage goes, "the best way to kill a bad product is with good advertising." That's because good advertising exposes more people to a substandard offering in a shorter time and brings forward that offering's inevitable decline. In this case, good advertising successfully introduced a novel financial product while allaying investor concerns and inspiring their investment.
 
So perhaps it's legitimate to say that my little advertising campaign sat at the juncture of healthy audience reach and substantial underlying demand, at which point it provided a credible rationale for astute investors to take action.
 
Yep. That feels about right.

5. What are some strategies that you would use to help donors feel valued and appreciated for their contribution to Your Charity ?

First of all, I'd thank them! And I'd make sure they heard that ‘thanks’ loud and clear, while making sure it’s personalised. (Handwritten notes, anyone?)
 
Speed is a great impressor. As soon as practicable after their gift is received, I would make sure that each donor was provided with evidence of the tangible impact that their generosity had enabled Your Charity to make. Where possible, I would connect each donor with stories about the individual people that their gift had benefited and relay specific messages of thanks from individual beneficiaries via photos and videos.
 
I would -- where appropriate and with permission -- give public credit to donors for their contribution by means including social media announcements and special no-cost-to-donors events. I would ensure that I nurtured relationships with and developed understanding of individual donors to help connect them with other of their passions.
 
I'd keep them in mind as "whole people" and stay alert to opportunities to do things - like remembering their birthdays or inviting them to events of interest - that are personally meaningful to them.
 
I would try to find ways to engage donors with Your Charity more broadly. Without overwhelming them, I'd keep them up to date with project reports. I'd offer them ways to contribute non-monetary support in the form of their expertise or advice, or maybe time out and about to engage in conversation with the actual people that their generosity is helping.
 
6. Provide an example of a challenging project that you have coordinated, ensuring you include information about (a) project objectives, (b) your involvement, (c) key stakeholders, and (d) final outcomes.

In 2013 while I was a Technical Writer at Santos, my role was expanded to include responsibilities as Management of Change (MOC) Coordinator for Santos's US$18.5 billion GLNG Project. The new responsibilities arose as a result of my team's development of a new SharePoint-based workflow to govern the submission, review and approval of Project Change Requests. The new MOC workflow was designed to replace and improve upon the previous paper-based system.
 
At the time of this expansion of my role, I took over the internal rollout to the business of the communications and training for the new MOC process. Key stakeholders included the Director of the Appraisal and Development team, the lead Cost Controllers and Schedulers of the Project Services team, and the Asset Managers and Engineering / Technical Leads for Santos' four principal Queensland gas field assets. Due to the constant pressure of the project environment and the ongoing requirement for predictable and reliable processes, the wider project team needed to have confidence in the new MOC system. The aim of the communications and training that I designed, therefore, was to ensure confidence in the new system to enable a smooth and confident cutover.
 
In consultation with the SharePoint Analyst who designed the workflow, I also wrote a comprehensive user manual for the new MOC system. This manual formed the basis of the training that I designed and delivered. I provided small group and one-on-one training in the use of the new system. The series of internal communications that I wrote set expectations and timelines for the cutover, and I managed all engagement with the affected team members.
 
The final cutover went ahead relatively smoothly with few glitches and high buy-in from all the stakeholders. Within three months, the MOC system under my stewardship was delivering approvals in an average of two weeks -- half the average time taken under the previous system.

7. Anything else you'd like to mention about your application?

My most recent writing appears on the website of my consultancy, Wordience: www.wordience.com. Other than that ... nothing more to add!
 
Thank you for reading my application. I hope to hear from you soon.
 
Best wishes,
 
Mark.

The Aftermath

So. Did my written application win me an interview? Yes, it did. However, it has since won me an even more important interview:

This very opportunity to persuade you to use my writing skills to help you. 

Could your written applications be getting you more interviews? Do you think I might be able to help? If so, then my writing has done its job. It's time we had a talk.

yes! help me get more interviews!

 
* In fact, I've changed all the names.