Le Job. The Writing. The Posting. The marketing. The Online. The Neuralab. The Part-Time. [Done]

“It’s good to be the king!” That’s what Mel Brooks says in the cult comedy ‘History of the World, Part I.‘ At Neuralab, we say: “Content is king!” Content (with a nice packaging, of course) is what sells. Constantly generating new and quality content is not easy at all. It requires knowing the trends, having a wide range of interests and knowledge, and most importantly – knowing how to write… Writing interesting, correct, and high-quality content on topics that can vary from promotional texts about a new food mixer to fresh news about optical fibers.

The scope of work forced us to publish a job advertisement in search of a junior copywriter. In other words, a young, creative person who knows how to write. We first posted the ad on social media at the end of June. The result – three applications! We weren’t sure what was happening. We attributed the low interest to summer vacations, perhaps a more demanding task, and the fact that the ad only appeared on Facebook and Twitter.

We left the summer behind and revisited the material in September. This time, we removed the “official” ad and changed the task. The application deadline was three weeks. Three days before the deadline, we barely had ten applications in our inbox, none of which followed the specified file format, and very few actually solved the task we set as a requirement for applying. What is going on, people!? Unemployment is thriving, breaking records, and yet the unemployed don’t even read the ad, let alone understand it. And then, when an opportunity arises to demonstrate yourself, you can’t be bothered to complete the task and send an application! It discouraged us a bit.

And then it started! The last day. Literally thirty minutes before midnight: bam, bam, bam! The inbox is lighting up. People are sending like crazy! The student syndrome – five to twelve. A large number of candidates had already dropped out due to the file format of their CVs and the unsolved task. Swallowing the Europass CV was a special challenge. Some CVs were impressive in design, some in content, the motivational letters left us breathless, and the solved tasks were impressive. But that applies to only about 10 people whom we asked to come and meet us: and we didn’t “miss the mark.”

Every single one of them lived up to expectations, and once again, they (just like in the designer competition) impressed us with their skills from ’86-’88. Each interview was unique: some were heated discussions about the state of media and music, some were funny and charming, and some were too short for such interesting individuals.

However, only Bojan, Marina, and Nela deserved another espresso at our HQ. A little more grilling of the final top 3 candidates, and then the decision was made. Conclusion – there are plenty of creative, imaginative, and entertaining people out there! They just need to be found 😉

Tips ‘n tricks:

• Stand out from the crowd, but be formal – you never know who will be reading your email. Some were even too casual for us.
• Be creative with “out of the box” cover letters: trust me, there are 330 thousand hardworking and communicative unemployed people out there, you don’t need to convince anyone of that.
• Don’t think that anything mentioned in the job ad is unimportant – believe me, it is important.
• Don’t complain about how everything is wrong, but suggest how to change the world.
• Be confident – that doesn’t mean you can’t say that you “don’t know” something – and be honest!