Jason Fried

February 22, 2022

How to land the job you really want

As someone who's been hiring people for 23 years, I've seen, read, and reviewed tens of thousands of job applications.

The ones that typically rise to the top are the ones that demonstrate effort to get this job, and not just any job.

We recently hired our first Email Marketing Manager. Nearly 400 people applied for the position.

As applications tend to do, they ranged from the basic resume, to the standard cover letter and resume, to the custom cover letter and resume, and, finally, some more creative approaches to stand out.

I wanted to share one, in particular. This application is shared with the applicant's permission, although it's been slightly modified to remove personal information they weren't comfortable sharing publicly.

Beyond it being an exceptionally good application — you'll know why when you see it — it was the one that got the person the job. This is who we hired. It's a great example of what really wanting the job can look like when you put in the extra effort to stand out in the right ways.

Here it is, check it out: https://jobsapp.info/basecamp/

About Jason Fried

Hey! I'm Jason, the Co-Founder and CEO at 37signals, makers of Basecamp and HEY. Subscribe below to follow my thinking on business, design, product development, and whatever else is on my mind. Thanks for visiting, thanks for reading.