On rejection, looking for a job, and numbers that boggle the mind…
(Long read, would mean the world if you read it and share it) I wanted to shed some light on the overall challenges I am experiencing in trying to find a full-time job right now. I am going to share the raw numbers and effort with you before I share my background and situation.
1. Of the now 317 creative jobs I applied to on various job boards and networks over the last 4-5 months, I only received 11 replies.
Seven of those replies were automated rejections due to my CV not making it through the tracking systems in place.
The other four replies were mainly that they felt I had a great CV but that the position(s) had been filled internally or otherwise.
2. Let’s talk a little more about the automated systems in place that read your CV. The systems are widespread and meant to lighten the load of in-house recruiters.
Your CV passes or is rejected due to keywords and phrases. In the past, people apparently used to try to stuff their CVs full of keywords and/or essentially copy the job listing to pass the system. However, the systems have gotten more intelligent and also should you do that to your CV, it makes it a tad unreadable once it reaches the eyes of an actual human.
I am fairly positive that cold-applying to jobs is a futile process for the most part due to this factor.
3. Some listings aren’t actually viable jobs. Companies leave listings up long after positions are filled or worse, there are CV harvesting services posing as regular listings that essentially are collecting CVs and data.
4. I even tried paying to in-mail hiring and talent managers on LinkedIn. I reached out that way with personal notes about 32 times.
People who replied from this effort: 4
One person who replied was from an agency I really want to work at and she replied to let me know she had just quit her job but wanted to wish me success. Another recruiter also replied to let me know that she moved on to working at a dog rescue and hadn’t updated her profile.
The other two people replied that they loved my background and would get back to me while also admitting that they had a hard time keeping up with in-mails. I never heard back from them despite pinging them again just to re-establish a connection.
I should add that for every job I apply to via that job site, I also seek out the talent acquisition person(s) at the company and send a personal note to them. This hasn’t actually led anywhere.
5. I compiled a list of 84 media/streaming/ad/design/PR agencies in NYC and cold-emailed them all with personalized emails.
Replies from this effort: 0
6. I reached out to over 12 recruitment/staffing people/agencies (also called half of them and was assured I would have someone ‘get back’ to me).
Replies from this effort: 0
7. I was referred to 4 recruiters personally who I reached out to.
Result of this effort: 3 of the recruiters ghosted me after talking to me, and the other one I never even reached in the first place.
8. I swallowed my pride and plastered myself all over social media publicly asking for leads (for reference, I have around 400,000+ people following me across networks, see below for my actual background if curious).
Actual responses that panned out: 1
One potential really great lead did contact me and we talked on the phone.
Perhaps that will turn into something.
Only 1 person with a genuine lead appeared.
The rest of the replies were from people who didn’t read any of my actual post (skipped over where I said I am specifically looking for a full-time job in creative/advertising/media/design related work)
9. I tapped into my network by posting a few private posts to specific groups of people. Truthfully, some people went out of their way. However, ultimately those leads haven’t materialized into anything either due to a non-response despite having internal referrers.
In fact, I have exhausted all of the familiar networking advice typically given. I am a the point of not wanting to actively get the people in my network to resent me for all the times I have reached out already to them individually.
In the last decade, I have been to more networking and various industry events than I can count. I have a lot of thoughts on this that would be more suited to another lengthy post though. Just wanted to add that this is not something I haven’t done.
Of the rejections I have received from agencies (creative/media), I keep hearing that I am not being considered because I don’t have literal agency experience (meaning, because I never worked full-time at an agency, I am tossed out of the running even with my background which involves doing actual contract work for various creative agencies). This has been the most maddening part of the whole process to be honest.
This brings me to my background. Here’s my formal background statement that I had to write out for a job months ago but covers quite a bit.
Having just spent the last decade building my art career from scratch resulting in a following of around 500,000 people across all social media, two passion projects that became a traditional book deal resulting in two internationally published and best-selling photography books, a multi-year financial sponsorship with a major imaging brand, and a wide array of experiences that have informed how I approach collaboration and creation, I am at the next step in my life. That step is to find a full-time creative home.
I truly believe that ideas are at their best when they are allowed to thrive alongside a diverse array of audiences and collaborators. Nothing excites me more than sharing an idea with utmost excitement knowing that the sharing of that idea is just the start of the story.
In fact, I truly believe that storytelling is at its heart a collaborative process and that everyone has the potential and ability to contribute to the storytelling process. Everyone has their own unique set of experiences and adaptive knowledge that they can contribute and I love nothing more than being the person that can synthesize all of these perspectives and ideas into something incredible.
I believe that everyone I have collaborated with, from the astronaut who chose me to tell the story of our trip to the Arctic together, to the teams I worked with to create creative campaigns, to the communities I was privileged to help in the Dominican Republic and Cuba, has changed me in a multitude of ways in terms of my perspective, and how I approach life, art, storytelling, and the process of creation. Every day, as humans, we learn and grow in a variety of ways. The ability to look back and call upon these experiences that help us learn is what truly helps foster a well-rounded view of what it means to be, at heart, a storyteller and synthesizer of ideas.
Now that I have hopefully regaled you with that formal statement, here are the last 10 years of my career put into a tidy format:
► Directed the creative process of all photography and writing projects from ideation to execution and distribution
► Managed all project assets, including project plans, data back-ups, uploads, photo-editing, photo-management, photo-shoots, disc storage management, file transfers
► Negotiated contract rates, terms of usage, and day rates while producing project requirements and timelines to consistently meet deadlines for events, exhibitions, and roll-outs of product releases
► Collaborated and executed many large-scale projects resulting in exhibitions around the world and even a featured collaboration with Astronaut Commander Hadfield presenting our collaborative art project to the Toronto Art Gallery of Ontario
► Expanded brand presence across multiple social media networks, resulting in 200,000 followers on Facebook, 115,000 followers on Instagram, 44,000 followers on Twitter, 195,000 followers on Tumblr, 1.8 million followers on Google Plus, and developed PR strategies for photography and books, including construction of a contact list of relevant press targets in the US and UK, production of press releases, and development of pitch
► My two books NY Through the Lens and New York in the Snow were the result of a traditional book deal. Both were published and released worldwide in stores (Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart, the Strand, Watersmiths, WH Smith, and a host of other well-known stores and indie outlets offline and online) in 2014 and 2017 via Ilex Press, an imprint of Hachette UK.
► NY Through The Lens was based on the writing and art featured in my blog of the same name which had grown in popularity over the span of three years. The book was featured in the Guardian, on the Weather Channel, in the NY Post, on Yahoo News, as well as across many other news outlets.
► New York in the Snow was the culmination of a passion project that involved 7 years of taking photographs in every snowstorm in New York City. The book was featured in the NY Times in December of 2017 and had a major book-signing in London, England in January of 2018
► As a full-time Sony sponsored artist, my art was used in multiple national ad campaigns and I regularly collaborated with the Sony Digital Imaging, and Sony marketing teams
► Selected to speak on behalf of Sony at PhotoPlus Expo, the largest annual photography event in the United States and at WPPI, the largest annual portrait photography conference
► Ideated and executed exhibitions for gallery spaces and new media installations including a showing at the Park Avenue Armory and show at London’s Somerset House during the Sony World Photography event
► Participated in a pop-up store event hosted by Wired Magazine in which Sony sponsored a photography gallery featuring black & white prints and 250 signed copies of NY Through the Lens were given to VIP guests
► Commissioned to write regular features for multiple entertainment and media partners representing the Sony brand
Why am I looking for a full-time job with this background?
I am looking towards a sustainable career future I can invest in. What I have loved the most about the last 10 years of my career has been working with various teams. I adore people and I excel in team environments. I also love structure.
When I say I am looking for a creative home, I mean it. I have a very strong work ethic as is hopefully evident by the career I built from scratch. I am looking to apply that work ethic and my creative output and vision towards a full-time job.
Jobs and roles I have been going after: creative producer, art director, brand strategist, engagement manager, creative strategist, various marketing positions, various social media positions, creative lead
I have mainly been looking at ad agencies, media (broadcast and streaming), and some marketing and PR agencies.
To add to this, I am losing the lease to my apartment at the end of August. I have no safety nets which I know is hard for most people to imagine. I don’t have family, I don’t have a Prince/Princess Charming, it’s just me and that’s terrifying on tons of levels considering that I really want/need a full-time job right now to not only move on with my career/life but because of this time-frame.
Hope this helps some of you understand my plight. I have gotten tons of messages about this and wanted to answer all the questions generally.
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Links for good measure:
My LinkedIn
