Classified Act
You may recognize the name of my contributor today if you’ve been reading your Revolving Door Newsletters lately. “Delaina Dixon has been named a staff writer for OK! magazine. She was previously a freelance writer for Celebrity Living.” What might interest you thought is that Ms. Dixon found her positions not through connections but by the job postings on this very site. Read on for how to make the listings work for you.
They say it’s who you know that gets you a job in the publishing industry, and I certainly wouldn’t dispute that. But don’t overlook the obvious. The want ads, like the ones conveniently posted on mediabistro, are a great place to find work. While there are several good reasons why the old-fashioned job-hunting method is the way to go, the most important is that those who advertise are looking to fill an actual position. I actually found my last three jobs from the site’s postings. Here are six ways I’ve used the mediabistro listings to my full advantage – and how they can help you score the job you really want.
Keep your cover letter brief and simple. Brevity is a blessing to the person fielding the onslaught of resumes for the job posted, so ditch the rambling overview. When crafting a cover letter, state the position you’re applying for and briefly describe how your skills will benefit the company. Don’t forget to ask for the interview. Highlight the benefits you’ll bring to a company as the main focal point of your cover letter. So many people say what they did in a job, but not how they benefited the company (editorial people don’t think in terms of quantifying their jobs since we really don’t deal with numbers.) Example: “As a senior editor for an entertainment website, I conceptualized the editorial direction of my section and wrote a twice-weekly column, increasing the section’s traffic by 50 percent.”
Ignore the job description. Well, not entirely, but even if you don’t match all the job requirements, send your resume anyway. The company may have other positions they have yet to announce that suit your expertise. Don’t pretend to have skills that you lack, but highlight your other talents and let them judge if they want to bring you in for an interview. One celebrity lifestyle magazine I applied for was looking for beauty writers; I had never written about eye cream in my life. But I still sent in my resume and clips, and they called me in for a month of freelance work. Of course, if you do fit the listed qualifications to a tee, make sure to highlight that in your
concise cover letter.
E-mail may not be enough. It’s easy to send your cover letter and resume online; you hit “Send” and off it goes. But there is always the chance that a computer glitch just sent the hiring personnel 100 pieces of spam and that your submission is buried among them. If the job posting suggests another way to contact the company — e.g., fax or mail — go ahead and send it as a backup. I hadn’t heard from a company to which I had e-mailed my resume. A few days later I faxed my submission, and they called me the next day.
Use your contacts. You’ve found an amazing job posting on mediabistro.com, so you e-mail/fax/mail in your resume. Then you remember that you’d met someone who works at that company at the last Mediabistro.com mixer. By all means, ring them up and ask them if they can walk in your application as well. I happened to see a job posting at one of my favorite magazines, and I was actually meeting with one of the writers the next day on another project. I slipped her my resume and got a call that afternoon. When I went in for the interview, they had the hard copy I had given the writer.
Dig deep. Okay, there’s no need to apply for a job that was listed over a year ago, but don’t shy from a job that’s a couple of weeks old. It takes awhile for a company to find just the right person to fit a position, and if they haven’t found him or her, they are going to keep looking, as I was once told in a meeting with HR. Even if the job is filled, the company may be trying to fill other positions, and then your resume will be first in line.
Be patient. We all want a job yesterday, but like everything in life, good things come to those who wait. It may take up to two weeks (or longer!) for someone to call you in for an interview, especially if it’s a position with a big media company (it’s happened to me on several occasions), so resist the urge to follow up on your submission right away. Once you do get in the door, I know you’ll wow them with your amazing skills, expertise and charm, and they’ll offer you a job.
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