Last week I got a rejection letter. I was thrilled!
Let me back up a bit. January was a slow month for my writing business. That’s the norm as companies plan their budgets and projects for the new year ahead.
So, I marketed myself more than usual.
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Always Be Marketing. Always.
I don’t often apply to projects posted on social media, but I decided to give it a shot and see how things work. You’ve likely seen these posts on LinkedIn. They explain the project and garner hundreds of likes and comments.
Yes, those.
I applied to over a dozen in January. Magazine work. Blog posts. E-books. Essay writing. Landing pages. Product descriptions. Over the years I’ve tackled many formats and love the variety, so I apply wide and far within the content marketing and journalism landscape.
I read a handful of comments before throwing my hat in the ring, err, resume in their email. I see friends, colleagues and other writers all vying for these projects. Sometimes it feels like reading a chapter in the Hunger Games series.
Competition is fierce and plentiful.
But, why not try? I have years of experience and a solid writing portfolio. So, I sent off several letters of introduction, URLs to writing samples, PDFs of my resume and links to my writing portfolio online.
Then, crickets. (Does the quiet sound familiar?)
The circle of people posting writing projects work in communications, so you’d think they would be good at… communicating. Now before you remind me they are getting hundreds of replies, all I’m asking for is a tiny bit of cut-and-paste acknowledgement. I’m happy with a form letter that doesn’t explain exactly why I wasn’t a good fit for the position.
So, How Did The Apps Work Out?
Of the dozen or so applications I submitted in January, I received two replies. One was a personal email from a nice gal at an agency who is interested in my work and will reach out when she has a project in one of my niches. This note may have just been pleasantries, but it was pleasant and leaves me with a positive impression of her company.
The other reply was a boilerplate “your expertise doesn’t align with what we’re looking for” email. As I said earlier, I was thrilled to hear back. Why? I know where things stand on this application. I can now check it off my list.
And what about those other 10 or so projects I applied for and never heard any sort of update? Well…
- I remember the companies and now feel they are poor communicators.
- I won’t apply to projects they advertise in the future because I assume it will be a waste of time (again) or lead to a poor collaboration experience.
3 Takeaways for Those Hiring Freelancers
If you’re reading this and you hire contract workers, thank you. We appreciate your outreach and projects.
1. Send a Basic Reply
After you take the time to write up the job ad, please write a three or four sentence reply to cut-paste-send to each applicant. A quick “Thanks for your submission.” lets us know you did indeed get our application.
If that’s all you have the capacity for, that’s cool. Just add a sentence at the end that says when you’ll be reaching out to ideal candidates with the next steps. For example, “Thank you for your submission. We are reviewing applications and will be contacting individuals for interviews in the next two weeks and have a project start date of the first of next month.”
2. We are Reviewing You Too
Freelancing is a two-way process. As hiring managers review our applications, we freelancers are also determining if your project is in alignment with our expertise, schedule, rates and so much more.
These first interactions matter. We all want to work with people who are courteous, timely and good communicators.
3. Delegate These Tasks if Needed
Finally, if you’re in a hiring position and you simply can’t fit one more task on your calendar, I get it. Sometimes the workload is extra heavy and there just isn’t time to do all the things you want to do.
Can you delegate some of your communications to an assistant, an intern or a virtual assistant (VA)? Or, if you’re doing an electronic application, see if there’s a way to automate a reply to each application.
I think I can speak for all freelancers here: We appreciate acknowledgment and updates. Good or bad. This includes rejection letters.
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