Dear people wanting an entry-level PR job:
Thanks for your interest. We’re thrilled that so many of you visited our firm's web site. Those of you who didn’t should consider a different career. Or go work for one of our competitors.
You all have nice resumes. That’s expected. But we read your cover letter first. This was your chance to tell us why we should be interested in you versus the 90 other people who also want this job.
Unfortunately, many of your cover letters were poorly thought out and badly written. Several were stunning in their awfulness.
Next time you submit your resume somewhere, make sure your cover letter doesn’t get you rejected because of mistakes like these:
No-brainer personality traits. You love working with people? Excellent. This puts you above all the PR job candidates who love working with farm animals.
Hyphenation hate. If your letter reads that “I’m a first class writer with an all out attitude ready to work for a top notch company,” you’re not and you won’t.
Redundant hyperbole over and over. If you use the word passion more than five times, you’re mostly passionate about not using a thesaurus.
A firm and wordy grasp of the obvious. We don’t know if you’re sucking up or if you honestly think we’re impressed by you telling us that “It requires a lot of hard work and an exceptional team of employees for a business to become and remain successful.” Leave the bromidic insights to us pros.
Missing something important. One letter we received was 400 words long and didn’t mention our company once.
A wrong view of how the working world works. We know you want things out of life. We also know we don't want self-absorbed newbies who says things like: “After significant research into your company, I have decided that this position offers me an excellent opportunity to gain valuable experience in a career area in that I am interested in.”
One more thing. You're not writing a novel. If we have to go to the bathroom in the middle of reading your letter, it’s too long.
Good luck out there.
Steve
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Also: Five things all PR students should know about their choice of career
(Originally posted in 2010.)
My firm GBSM, Inc. has posted this job opening:
GBSM, Inc. seeks an exceptional professional to serve as senior executive assistant for our growing corporate communications, public relations and crisis management practice. The position requires one or two years experience in a PR agency, consulting firm or communications department. You must have absolutely superb organizational, administrative, research and project management skills.
Responsibilities include all facets of principal support, scheduling, research and assessment, materials creation, contact management, social networking, conferences and events, distribution, community outreach, media relations, reporting and other areas.
For consideration, send resume with cover letter directly to Steven Silvers, Principal, at stevensilvers@gbsm.com. Please put “Attn: New Staff Position” in the email subject line.
Denver-based GBSM has a 23-year track record in providing management consulting, strategic communications and public affairs services to help clients through the increasingly complex nexus of business, media, government and community. Learn more at www.gbsm.com.
More than a year ago I suggested that unemployed journalists will take many of the jobs that would have gone to communicators without newsroom experience.
That was an understatement.
In less than ten years, the nation’s news business has lost more than 14,000 jobs, some 25 percent of the entire industry. Things have yet to hit bottom, especially for newspapers and magazines.
The result, as the Atlantic’s Jeffery Goldberg calls it, is the The Great Journalism Exodus. Every PR agency, communications department and public affairs office in the country is hearing from reporters who are either unemployed or desperate to get out.
Goldberg wonders if all these hacks make good flacks, but the volume of job candidates makes this a non-issue. Many reporters don’t transition from the newsroom because they can't let go of their often sanctimonious cynicism about the business world. But just as many are damn good at it. They write better, learn faster and have better connections. That’s why they’re getting so many of the good jobs.
What's important is how this hacks-to-flacks migration represents a tectonic shift in the relationship between sponsored message and third-party credibility. For every public affairs officer and publicist with newsroom experience, there are many times that number of news beats and media outlets that simply no longer exist.
The changing landscape means the best communications people will be those with skills far deeper than writing press releases and pitching stories. They’ll need to know research, integrated marketing, community engagement, public affairs, issues management and yes, blogging and social media.
It’s worth keeping in mind whether you’re hiring a flack or a hack. Or one in the same.
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Based on comments, links and other highly unscientific measurements, here are the top ten Scatterbox posts from the last year:
Five things you didn't realize you learned from Obama's victory
Good intentions aren't good crisis management
Best worst excuse to avoid jury duty: Your studly hotness
Big brand doody from the toilet paper wars
What's missing from your communications plan
The low risk, high rise of phony grassroots groups
Hate mail and other comments from our readers
Blah Blah Nation: PR people promote the value of blogging by boring readers to death
John Edwards scandal shows conflicting truths about mainstream media
How the PR business is changed forever (And why you might not be in it)
... Have an idea or link to suggest? Send to scatterbox(@)stevensilvers.com.
Welcome back from the holidays. Here are 10 predictions that might influence what you'll be communicating about in 2009. Or not:
1. A dean of Russia's foreign ministry academy predicts that the United States will explode in civil war in 2010, leading to the nation's collapse and disintegration. (Colorado will be part of a new Canadian-controlled republic. But we're not playing Kanuck football. That's where we draw the line.)
2. James Carville says the Republican Party will be confronted with a "near catastrophic ideological rift."
3. "America's #1 Psychic" Sylvia Brown predicts that trained psychologists will start offering hypnotic past-life regression, which will be common practice by 2011. (She doesn't predict what the insurance co-pay will be, however.)
4. Business Week thinks Chrysler will merge into General Motors. They also think Americans will start buying a lot of boxed wine.
5. Wired.com's senior editor says we'll see hundreds of new on-line magazine start-ups as entrepreneurs take advantage of low competitive barriers and journalists willing to work cheap.
6. Technology industry guru Mark Anderson predicts China will be rocked by huge and deadly riots, causing its GDP to plummet as the West recognizes the country as a "polluted place, rife with economic turmoil and starving people."
7. Personal finance columnist Jeffery Strain says the credit crisis will cause many beloved small, locally owned businesses to disappear forever. (This will also include many small advertising and PR businesses.)
8. Industry analyst Yankee Group is confident that free microblogging service Twitter is the new Facebook. (Except for the minor fact that it generates zero revenue and limits messages to 140 characters. Hype on, Internet phenom.).
9. WSJ columnist Evan Newmark predicts Wall Street will cut jobs, people and bonuses by another 25 percent -- forcing many Masters of the Universe to seek their fortunes in consulting. Or government jobs.
10. A former Mafia boss says top-level tennis matches will be a prime target for gambling corruption.
Send any other predictions worth noting to scatterbox(@)stevensilvers.com.
Go get 'um, my friends.
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