Over 17-plus years on the job market, I’ve applied to a lot of jobs. During that time, the hiring process — quite frankly — has gotten scattered and cumbersome. “Please upload your resume” …  “Fill out the online application” … “We’ve selected you for a phone screening” … “Welcome to our offices, here’s an application and a pen” … “Nice to finally meet you in person, Mister Schultz; now tell me a little more about yourself.” I mean really, let’s pick one method of getting acquainted and run with it. Most times, I’m also asked to share a portfolio of my work and submit to a writing assessment.

Now bark like a dog.

Look, I’m not here to rant (entirely). I understand that there are lots of qualified applicants and that each leg of the gauntlet narrows the field. Recruitment standards are still evolving from pre-internet conventions as well. Fine.

Whatever the case, it has occurred to me that I have a stack of assessments I’ve written for a multitude of industries but no real use for them. The solution: publish them here and share some game film with you. I’ve been given the impression that these are good; on more than one occasion, a hiring manager has told me that I advanced in the selection process due to the strength of what I wrote.

So perhaps you are a job seeker having a hard time acing writing assessments. Feel free to study my approach. Maybe you’re here to assess me for a job I’ve applied to. Well hello there, sir or ma’am! I’ve been through the gauntlet many times, so I encourage you to check out my portfolio and this writing assessment, and a good day to you, sir!

Up first: the Content Marketing Coordinator position.

The assignment

“Create copy for an infographic for our product, RealQuest.  Come up with a narrative arc (single topic) that tells a story that would be of value to the persona described below.  You must utilize 3-5 supporting stats (provided).  Your infographic should be fluid, concise and easy to understand.  It must include a headline, subsections and supporting copy.”

My notes

First off, the double-spaces after periods and hyphen instead of an endash in the numerical range (not to mention numerals below 10 — c’mon now) tell me I’m not dealing with sticklers for AP style. Nonetheless, I took the provided supporting information (essentially a creative brief) and ran with it. This company is in the financial, property, and consumer data and analysis industry, a field I have some experience in, mostly from copy editing similar documents at Experian and my own leisure reading on the Southern California housing market.

I think I was able to really make my submission sing for two main reasons. One, I took the extra time to read and pull additional information from the actual product page. That gave my writing additional depth over what was provided in the creative brief. And two, I allowed my personality to shine through by suggesting a superhero theme for the infographic. I’m not even much of a superhero guy, but I found parallels that made for a few nice subheads.

In the end …

They told me I was their top choice for the position. Unfortunately, I ended up being too expensive for their budget. It happens. A lot, actually. In the end, I felt I submitted a strong piece, and unless they were blowing smoke, they agreed. Ultimately, this experience boosted my confidence, which is HUGE for any writer.

So there you have it. I’ll share more writing assessments in future installments.

In the meantime, I love to talk shop, so hit me up in the comments!