You will often hear me bang on about REACHING out to the BRANDS you would absolutely LOVE to work for ... I can't stress the 'absolutely LOVE' enough. The number #1 golden rule for getting traction with organically reaching out is to show GENUINE sincerity, love, drive, excitement and interest in the brand.

Just imagine if you had your own brand or business and received emails from hopeful interns or employees, the stand out emails would be the ones that did the above, right? The ones that really showed they loved you, understood you and REALLLLLLY wanted to work with you.

Trust me, reaching out to the ones YOU LOVE will make this process (and your life) 1000000000000000 times easier! How much easier is it to write about something you love compared to something that you don't?!

1. CREATE A SUPER-DUPER SPREADSHEET

Let's get technical Honey! Let's create a HIT-LIST of the brands you want to work for plus some other vital info that will keep you super organised and 100% on it! I like to do it in a spreadsheet on Google Sheets but OFC you can use Microsoft Excel or any other format that works for you. This is how I did it at Uni and I managed to get a role at Cosmo!

See the video above.

2. SO WHAT MAKES AN ENGAGING REACH-OUT EMAIL?

So that you can understand what makes an engaging reach-out email, this is what I would LOVE to see (and other brands will too):

• Overall ATTENTION TO DETAIL throughout! From pinpointing specific brand research through to spell-checking and correct linebreaks
• Make it personal and ensure you address me correctly (Jasmine). Not 'To whom it may concern' or just 'Hello' etc. 
• If I can see and feel DRIVE and HUNGER, that wins you big points!
• Please don't send an email with about 20000000 words, I would prefer a short and sweet email. Consider using bullet points and keep the paragraph to no more than 250-300 words. After a brief intro you could add:
  

  Here are 3 reasons why I would make a great addition to your team:

  1.
  2.
  3.

  Here are 3 reasons I LOVE [insert brand]:

  1.
  2.
  3.

• Tell me what you would bring to FYI! I would love to hear any ideas you have... Even how you could improve areas! For example, if you are looking for a Social Media role, what kind of social campaign do you think would work at FYI? How could you make an impact on the team? What would you do differently?
• I want to see you have done your homework and brand research. What have I done recently or in the past, that aligns with your skills? I want to know you have actually been keeping up with the brand and haven't just gone onto Insta or Google that day to suss me out!
  
  For example:
  
  'I loved the orange and pink collage spread in the most recent issue of ELLE. The vibrancy of the colour palette alongside the modern typography was the perfect pairing. ELLE continues to create new ways of telling a story visually with colour and type — something that I also love to explore. Check out this spread I recently created that I think you will love.'
  
  
• Being friendly, natural and showing personality makes a great application, just always bear in mind your audience. For example, I love it when someone signs off with something like: 'Thank you for your time! I really hope I can be a part of the FYI Crew soon' as opposed to 'Kind regards, Hannah.'
  
  But OFC, always bear in mind who you are talking to and ensure you use the right language!
  
  
• I would also LOVE to see something different! Maybe you use bullet points but you also attach a quick video of you designing something cool or an "About" me video clip. If you reallllllly want to work for a brand you should be happy to go that extra mile!