Wouldn’t it be great if you could get paid to do job applications?

This thought occurred to me today, as I received a rejection for a copywriting job.?

I’d probably put in around four hours+ of work, to not even get to interview.?

I wasn’t totally gutted, so you know, probably a case of the Scots wisdom ‘What’s for you won’t go by you,’ but I was a bit annoyed at how much of my weekend it had taken and I also wondered how much I could have been paid for the ideas and input I gave them in my application letter.?

And then of course, my brain being my brain, the answer to that was not straightforward either, in that it depends which of my most recent salaries you take as the benchmark.

We don’t talk about money, it’s crude

At Sovereign Housing Association I had very pleasantly worked my way up from a nice starting salary of around ￡35,000 to c. ￡47,000 when I left - but the benefits on top of that were aces too, including accruing holiday at a day a year. For argument’s sake let’s call it ￡22.60 an hour.

In 2022, when working for RightShip as a senior copywriter, I started on a basic of ￡65,000 a year plus London weighting. What’s that, you cry, what attracted me to the job? It was their vision of a sea that’s safe for everyone, of course. But the salary and perks were also phen-om-en-al. That’s ￡33 an hour (roughly).

Working as a freelance copywriter, my rates have varied. I find it difficult to know what to charge, as some things I find really easy and interesting, and other things I find incredibly dull but possible, and other things I find impossible, either due to my generalist background or flighty nature. They’re the ones I’ve learned to pass on and luckily I know a whole bunch of fab people who are fully capable (@Mums in Marketing I’m looking at you). Let’s say that the rates are somewhere between ￡18 and ￡56.25 an hour.?

The job I was applying for, FYI, was paying ￡14.87 an hour at the maximum end of the scale (￡25,000 - ￡29,000 a year pro-rata’d to 10 hours a week). Please, if my maths is wrong, go for it and correct me, but my basic point here is - it wasn’t very much.?

As a uni support worker, guiding visually impaired people around campus (and London, and all the way to Leeds for a field trip!) I was getting ￡10 something an hour, until a recent Living Wage increase took it to ￡14.44. Taking notes - ￡19 ish. Great job, but the pay - notsomuch. And it’s zero hours. Don’t work, don’t get paid. No sick, no pension, no nuffink.?

Finally - JSA, not means tested and available if you’re working fewer than 16 hours a week. A whopping ￡2.26 an hour assuming an average working week - living the dream of getting paid to look for work!

As a side note, this is also why I hate the question, ‘what is your expected salary / most recent salary,’ not to mention the discriminatory overtones. What salary should I expect of all of the ones above?

Gotta feel it in my bones

Anyway, despite the spectre of stonybroke on the horizon, I’ve made a resolution not to go for jobs that don’t feel right in my gut, after my bouncy post-cancer year of employment.?

The one I applied for earlier this month felt OK. It passed the Janey ‘is it bullshit’ test. And so, being me, when I do go for something, I like to be thorough and give answers that actually mean something, rather than being generated by a computer programme. I spent some time looking at their website, their socials, their testimonials, I looked at the founders on LinkedIn - it so happened that I’d already connected with both of them, earlier in the year. This all seemed positive and probably took me around 2.5 hours, really getting a feel for them and their organisation.?

Hours that I was not spending with my children during their half term break - ah how much is mum guilt worth, now that is the million dollar question? But back to my calculations, for this ‘work’ I would have been paid between ￡37.18 (the job I was applying for salary) or ￡168.75 (my highest freelance salary) and again yes, tax, benefits, insurance, pension, blah. But you see where I’m going with this??

I wrote my application letter - and whoop! I got through to the weed out the chaff ‘task round’.??

This was the task:

Create a Promotional Post Headline and Caption

Instructions:

1. Craft a headline and caption for a promotional post based on the provided customer quote.
2. Ensure the caption is no more than 200 words.
3. Please use the xxxx one pager for more information on xxxx and guidance

Customer Quote: "Thanks to xxxx I can just focus on xxxx. After a xxxx xxxxxx, they've had lots of xxxx I can just focus on xxxxxx for them" - xxxx xxxx

Submission Requirements:

• Headline: [Your headline here]
• Caption: [Your caption here, max 200 words]

The task is designed to get a sense of your writing style and to assess whether you can capture the essence of xxxxx.?

Obviously it didn’t have all xxxs - but I’m trying not to drop this company in it - that’s not the aim of this post, as I said, I went for the job because they met my standards, my values. What they do seems good, what they say seems true, what they represent seems worthwhile, and I can do what they are asking for, so I had a go at the task.

OK, on your marks, get set, write…what, though?

This organisation does write some blogs, but mostly uses Instagram. It has an X account, (dormant) and a Facebook account (which runs the same content as Insta). I don’t know about TikTok. It has a clear house style. But the task was confusing to me. Was it asking for a blog based off the quote - but no actual blog since the word limit was 200? Or was it asking for an Instagram post? In which case, did they want me to follow the house style, or make up a new style??

They’d also already used the case study in their own promotional material, which made it difficult to write something new, as their sentiments more or less echoed my feelings about the quote. I can’t tell you what I wrote without outing them, so I won’t.?

However, I decided to be upfront and email them to ask for clarification on the task. I thought, ‘this organisation seems like they support different creative styles, perhaps they will come back to me.’ Just in case, though, I also crafted a headline (not needed on Instagram) and I wrote a post, sticking to their house style.

With my research time taken into account, it probably took me another two hours. Another two hours of iPad time for Small, another two hours fewer reading, or exercising or batch cooking for me. A theoretical ￡28.88 (minimum) earned from the application process. The fact is, though, perhaps I was a little too thorough.?

Perhaps I was a little too ‘clever’? Perhaps I deviated a little too far from the job description and was a little too pedantic about the task that was set. I did also raise a few critical questions about their website in my application letter. Maybe that’s why I was rejected. Or maybe my writing was just rubbish. Who knows - no feedback is offered, natch, just a bland computer says no.?

At the same time, I don't totally regret it. Because that’s me, folks! I can see the teensy weensy tiny picture - and I can see the whopping massive big picture. I can draw a lovely messy mindmap, and get to the part where I’m giving you advice before you even know you need it. I can put myself in so many people’s shoes. And animal shoes. And the ocean’s shoes. I’m empathetic, but blunt.

I guess I’m pretty annoying with my unsolicited opinons, but I can also draw out the essence of you.?And I really think I should get paid for my application, especially if I go back to their site and see the changes I recommended.

Show me the money, man!

Should I just have got on and applied for another job, instead of writing this blog??

Probably.?

BUT but but…I do love doing in depth research to figure out what makes a business unique. I love listening to people talk and drawing out their magic. And believe me, if you are looking for work, I could craft you the most beautiful STAR answers you ever saw AND help you learn them off by heart. Finally, if you’ve read this far, it seems I’m not so bad at telling stories after all.?

Wanna pay me ￡14.44 or ￡56.75 an hour to do some writing for you?