Job Rejection No.1

-Content Research Intern, part of the Audience Insight and Technology Department at Channel 4.

This was the first job I applied for post-uni. I was really excited about this one; it sounded right up my street- exciting, dynamic environment, lots of researching involved, and the opportunity to bring in my Psychology knowledge. It had me at hello insight.

I spent bloomin’ ages on the application, tried to make it as funny and not boring as possible (I mean they must read tons of the same old application, how else am I gonna stand out?) I suspect I wrote more than they were expecting, but I wanted to get my determination and enthusiasm for the job across.

I didn’t even get through to the next stage. Was a bit gutted at first. However, in hindsight, I can totally see why they turned me down…

I think I might have falsely assumed that Channel 4’s fun-loving, forward thinking, and open-minded attitude to television programming would filter down to the recruitment level. I realise now that my attempt at creating an application that stood out and showed my fun side was perhaps not the best tactic at stage 1 of an application process. Perhaps they weren’t too fond of these snippets: (screen grabs from my actual application).

Mistake number 1- starting a sentence with “at my own personal detriment” probably doesn’t create the best first impression.

Then leading on to describing myself as “weird” and mentioning that my “thought filter takes days off” was not a good idea either. Oh God, this is application suicide. Lesson learnt; do not mention your weaknesses in an application. Admitting that I produce “an onslaught of random, unrelated thoughts and sentences (hopefully I pull this off as charming rather than ‘crazy -lady’ )”.....what was I thinking!? Then I basically tell them I’m boring and have no good stories.

It gets worse…

Hey, at least it answers the question!

I understand now that my approach may not have been professional enough, and I didn’t demonstrate my serious and mature manner so it's safe to assume that the impression they formed of me was "dear God, code red, crazy lady alert".

Maybe my comparison to Liam Neeson was also not appreciated… 

Taken is such a good movie though, okay so I may be comparing my aspirations to a ruthless murderer, but if I was recruiting and an applicant said they liked the movie Taken, I’d hire them! What’s become of this world, where cinematic preferences do not take precedence over academic qualifications?

Besides, how could they not like my reference to tea!?

Lastly, they just might have been offended by my honest account of a conversation I had with my father a couple of day earlier which I thought answered the question perfectly…

I admit, that is really, really informal and not in a good way. It’s as if I’m having a conversation with the computer. I quote, “Rick Edwards commentary, you just can’t make it up!” (that is true though, at least I don’t lie on my applications! he is hilarious). The final straw for them surely was that typo on the last line, using a capital 's' on ‘see’. No matter how many times you read over things, there will always be one damn typo.

Again, what I said about My Big Fat Fetish is true…seriously, what other channel would do such a documentary? I wrote that sentence as a compliment!

It is hard to find the balance of how formal and informal you can be in these applications, and especially being Channel 4 I would’ve thought they might have welcomed a bit of humour. What I don’t understand regarding the protocol of presenting a really serious account of yourself is that, yes that might land you the job, but it’s not necessarily a wholly true representation of yourself. Surely, once someone starts the job, then shows their more extroverted side, shows their humour, aren’t the colleagues surprised? I think it’s better to try and get across your true personality in an application because really, that’s who you are going to be when you’re working there, so you shouldn’t want to hide it just to get a job.

Either way, I’ve learnt I need to show my serious, professional side more, and tone down the enthusiasm/weirdness, as in this competitive environment you need to show a cool, calm and collected manner rather than an excitable, jokey, friendly one.

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed my lesson in how not to get a job J

Onto the next job!

P.S. apologies for the inordinate number of times I mentioned the word ‘true’. What can I say, I’m an honest person J