As a leading Bristol copywriting agency we get this almost every day. It’s great to receive applications, but if you want a job here are a few pointers from the pros…
There are two types of speculative application: the thought through approach that lands well and the casually tossed off email that gets ignored and deleted. Here’s the difference…
Thought through email
A copywriter works with words, so the first thing to ensure is that your copy is clear, simple and effective. Oh, and there are no spelling errors or grammar mistakes either.
We know you want work, we do too. If you’re looking for work we want to know what you’ve done in the past, who you’ve written for and your skills.
Passion isn’t enough, it’s about professionalism. Send us some PDFs and include your rates too. While we’d all like to earn London-rates, the nature of the affordable content business is that we can’t always do so.
Keep it brief, to the point, professional and polite.
Casually tossed off email
“I want a job as a copywriter…” – we do too.
“I’ve currently got some availability and I’d like to offer it to you…” – well, aren’t we grateful? (Unless you’re a regular we work with, then probably not).
“Can you send me any freelance work?” – you can guess the answer here.
These are, sadly, some of the emails we battle through every day. What makes it doubly disappointing is that most of these have also clicked a Google-ad to get through to us, costing us upwards of £2 for the privilege.
It’s great that you want to work with us, but take a look above and see what we’re looking for in a speculative email.
“I want to intern / do work experience”
Work experience is a great way to get exposure to the industry. We’re less enamoured with internships, a concept that screams the death of late-capitalism to us. Any agency that uses you to do client work and then doesn’t pay you (or offers annoying stuff like half a Domino’s pizza on a Thursday) isn’t going to help you, or your career.
We don’t have the capacity to offer work experience or internships at this time. Sorry – but good luck. In the future, it’s likely we’ll be the ones tapping you up for a job.
Bristol is a great place to live and work, we wish you all the best with your copywriting career.
