We are very pleased to announce a new member of the Freelancing for Journalists team. Helen Quinn has joined us as our research assistant and she will be helping us promote our resources, find guests for the podcast and get the next round of our Journalism Work Experience Initiative in place.
Helen is fairly new to the world of freelance journalism after a career switch from making broadcast media, including science documentaries for the BBC. She brings to the team some different skills and experience which we hope will help us reach out in new ways.
We had some other great applicants who we know will do really well when the right opportunity comes up for them. We will also bear them in mind if we have any short-term projects we need extra help with.
Helen was one of many applicants we had for the role and we thought it might be useful to offer some insight into the ways in which candidates stood out and got on our shortlist. We whittled down a list of 45 applicants to five we invited for interview.
We have already given some detailed advice on applying for jobs in our Jobs Bored dualcast so do give that a listen if you haven’t already.
But amongst the applications for this role there were some common mistakes so we thought it might be useful to give our top tips on getting noticed when you’re applying for a position, be that a part-time writing gig, a short-term contract or project, or a more permanent position.
1. Read the application carefully
Make sure you know and understand what you are applying for. In some cases applicants had guessed at or made assumptions about the role that meant the resulting application made little sense or was focused on the wrong thing. Skimming through a job description or not paying proper attention is a surefire way to get off on the wrong foot.
2. Do your homework
What can you find out about the organisation/role you are applying for. Look at their website, read, listen to or watch their content. Make sure you understand what their purpose is, who their audience is and so on. We had quite a few applications who had not really ‘got’ Freelancing for Journalists despite there being lots of easy ways to find out more about us. This would be particularly important for a journalist or research role where finding out more information will be part of the job. Once you get to the interview stage this is doubly important.
3. Provide what is asked for
In our job advert, we asked for a cover email and CV and importantly we wanted an idea for a podcast episode. If you hadn’t included any one of those three components that was an automatic no from moving onto the next stage. We were looking for someone who could be organised and pay attention to detail so this was a good way to filter candidates. We weren’t overly bothered about what someone’s CV looked like as long as it was short, easy to read and provided key details such as job history/work experience and qualifications. Quite a few candidates suggested podcast topics we had already done or that were not about freelancing (see the previous tip). A quick look through our series would have helped avoid that.
4. Proofread
We did have applications that contained errors including in our name. One began Dear Sirs…. We cannot stress highly enough how important it is to proofread your application (or get someone else to do it for you). We had some that arrived so quickly, there cannot have been much thought going into them. Although we had a short deadline, we did consider all that arrived before the cut off and it was definitely not a case of first come first served, so do take the time to reflect, check and double check.
5. Sell yourself
Don’t be afraid to set out the skills you have that make you a good candidate for the role. There will be a job description - use that to explain why you fit the bill. This is not a time to be coy. For example, if you are good at social media and that is a key part of the job, say that and provide examples of when you developed, used or showcased those skills. Those we interviewed had wide range of backgrounds/experience but the one thing they all had in common was they did a good job of selling themselves in their application and that does stand out.
Triumph of the week
We have started on our lengthy to-do list for 2021 including setting up our Instagram account. Come and find us over there. Soon we hope to be posting key tips and audio clips from the podcast as well as links to other resources.
That feeling when…
You pay your tax bill in full and on time but then have a little feeling of sadness that your bank account looks very depleted (even though this was all money you had saved to pay said tax bill which was not a surprise).
Do keep sending in your listener dilemma’s for the next series of the podcast. Either in our Facebook Community or to freelancingforjournalists@gmail.com.
If you like what we do at FFJ or have found our resources useful then perhaps you would like to buy us a virtual cuppa. Click the button to be taken straight to our Ko-fi page.
Bye for now!