by Ted Sherman

Created on: January 03, 2007   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

I managed PR, ad and sales promotion at large corporations for 40 years. I was responsible for hiring business writers. In those years I hired about 100 writers, mostly recent college grads with a year or two of experience, from as many as 1,500 query letters. My requirements for applicants' letters were simple:
1. Honest info in a short, concise, grammatically-correct letter.

2. College degree in marketing, journalism and maybe ... but not often...English or creative writing.
3. Include several published samples of your writing, preferably from a paid job in advertising, magazine or newspaper. (no internet yet in those days)
4. A brief comment on your ambitions as they apply to working for my company. (Smart applicants did their homework)

In hiring the 100 writers over the years, I probably interviewed five candidates for each job from about 50 letters for each job advertised. When they showed up and went through the one-on-one part of the interview, I played a dirty trick. I asked them to sit at a typewriter (computers were just starting to replace them) and write me a news story in 30 minutes. The subject was often the first expedition on Mars has encountered intelligent life. Or something as challenging. The dirty trick worked, because half of the applicants didn't honestly have the required writing skills nor the ability to think fast enough.

In conclusion, when applying for a job and your query letter gets you an interview, you've already passed the first test. Don't negate it by showing up not totally prepared to look and act like you can do the job.

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