An Open Letter to Anyone Who Has Ever Applied Here

Before going any further, if you have ever applied for a job here and never heard back, we are sorry. This is our heartfelt apology letter to you.

First let us tell you a little more about our approach to human resources and personnel in general; it is a “role by committee.” We are a small team without a dedicated human resources division. Everything is informal and pretty much wide-open.

Yes, if you have ever applied, or will ever apply for a position here, know that everyone on our team, from Luis down to an intern, receives your submission. At Atypic, collaboration is what makes us tick. Working alongside someone is far more emphasized than working for someone here.

This begins with our transparency of sharing portfolio submissions and resumes, then on to holding group interviews with everyone on our team.

With all of this considered, keep in mind that we are a small team that is heads-down focused on creating fantastic projects for our amazing clients. We are honored to receive a considerable amount of interest from our community of passionate marketers.

Our concerted focus on these submissions ebbs and flows naturally as the tide would. The timing of your submission, as well as the powers of the universe, can have a lot to do with our outbound responses. We will send you an automated message to let you know that your submission was successful. Those that really stand out usually garner the interest of a few A-teamers which would lead to more follow up.

Now, as atonement for all of the inquiries that went unresponded, we’d like to share a few pointers and anecdotes to consider during your application process.

Stand Out

As noted above, do something that differentiates you from the crowd. The simple fact is that Charlotte is a booming creative hub. There are larger numbers of designers, developers, copywriters, strategists (the list goes on) coming into the workforce every year. No matter the position you’re interested in, we want to see your passion and creativity right out of the gate.

Make Up Your Mind

We usually scratch our heads when we see that a submission comes in from the same person for multiple positions, especially in a sudden influx. We are a small team, which requires the wearing of multiple hats. We see these each as completely separate if they are posted as such, so we’d rather know which of them you feel you’d be able to contribute the greatest.

Why Atypic?

Tell us why you want to work here, not why you want to be a designer, developer, copywriter, etc. We like to think that we do things a little differently, so what makes that stand out to you? What drew you to apply? If “I googled marketing jobs and you came up” is your answer, feel free to tell us (just don’t expect too much with that type of response). But if your answer was: “I googled and found your site really easily, which means you’re good at what you’re doing,” you may get somewhere. Whatever drew you to finding Atypic, tell us please!

Tighten It Up and Make It Pop

Every designer just got chills! Do consider these as actual words of wisdom. Spelling and grammar matter. As does your presentation in general. Any new contributor on our team will be expected to make our clients’ messages stand out, therefore that will be your profession. We need to see it from the start.

Down To The Dirty Details

Every agency can be different in what they're looking for at a first glance, but here are a few quick and easy ones from our team. As mentioned above, we are busy, everyone sees these, and we are fortunate enough to receive a lot of inquiries.

1. No cover letter…next! This is a simple one. If you don’t have enough interest in working here to dedicate 10-15 minutes to draft a custom cover letter, that tells us something. Even if your cover letter is included as the first page of your resumé, paste it into the Cover Letter form field so that it is not overlooked.
    

2. PDFs Please. If your resume or portfolio are created in other tools, please upload the PDF version. Make it super quick and easy for anyone who is receiving your submission to open your files. Plus, you don’t want Microsoft Word’s red underline to bring any bad mojo into your resume, even if everything is actually spelled correctly, red underlines are usually a sign of mistakes.
    

3. Relocating? Please Explain. Charlotte has some awesome creative people, many of whom we’ve already come to know. If you are relocating to Charlotte and haven’t updated your resume accordingly, please mention that. This is an initial “first cut” item (We look at local talent first). Don’t let us confuse a future Charlottean with someone who may be putting out initial feelers. 
    

4. Buy Your Domain Name. Portfolio sites are already huge bonus points, but consider the tiniest of details related to the URL itself. Branded domain names are simply more professional than dynamically generated URLs.  e.g. “stevetheawesomedesigner.com” vs. “myportfoliosite.com/sites/steve09642.”

There are a million things that you can do to stand out, so please don’t use this as an application template. We want to learn about you and why you are interested in working here. You will see that we don’t want your submission to be boilerplate and we encourage you in our job descriptions themselves to “not take yourself too seriously.” Have some fun with it, demonstrate your personal style and personality and lastly, please don’t write us off if you’ve applied before.