By Rayomand J Patell
We recently picked up a large business for which I had to hire about three teams of Senior Copy and Art.
I was in a tearing hurry to fill the positions, so did what came naturally to me as in the past – fire up the ol’ LinkedIn account and put a post out. Here’s what it said:
“Looking for six baby sharks. That’s three Sr. Writers and three Sr. Art Directors who know, love and are obsessed by their craft. I have 6L CTC for each.
We’re at Parel East where McCann and Famous are at and we work out of our office most days of the week.
Mainline experience preferred but so long as the writers know how to write – and the art directors have actually been to Art Schools like Ecole or JJ, I’m happy to meet you and hire you asap.
This is for building out an A Team who will need to bring their A game to the table daily, for a client who’s one of the largest in India.
No pun-filled level of juvenile writing or non Art School candidates please. If you don’t have released work, that’s fine, show me what you can do. Show me what you wanted to do. Baby sharks just need an opportunity, I’m here to do that for you.
Mail me directly on (my office email id) because I will not let AI get in the way of hiring no matter what.”
My inbox got hit almost constantly for the next couple of days from over a hundred aspirants. A few observations:
1. Nearly all mentioned they were so happy to be dealing directly with me rather than an AI empowered HR. I made it my business to respond to each and every email that came in and even when I was saying I’m sorry this skillset isn’t what I need at this time, they were so pleased to hear back and though it was a rejection, even then, they were happy about it being a clear no.
Some took it very well and asked for specific feedback on their books, which though I didn’t have the time, I made the time to reply and that in turn won me some new friends. So I have to wonder – in all this keyword blah blah and all this AI blah blah, have we completely thrown the baby out with the bathwater? Hiring is one of the most delicate things you can do for your company. To leave it to tech to sort out and leave people guessing, seems to have become conventional practise. AI is categorically NOT to be used where the human touch matters most.
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2. Many seemed to think I would now want them to do some assignment. Which really threw me. Your portfolio and interview are really enough to get you hired. When did we start adding this extra leg to things? I can understand a Copy Test for absolute cubs, but they all seemed to look at me expectantly about some real world project to be flung at them. So for the ones I did hire, the lack of an assignment seemed to almost be a disruption in the process.
3. Despite the requirements being very clear, a fair amount of people wrote in who were just not what I needed. Shooting their shot as it were. Which is also fine at some level, but it wasn’t even the sort of person who might be an unconventional choice; it was maybe someone who was far more expensive or far more senior in terms of position. That bit made me worry about what’s going on in our economy for this cohort to write in. Finally, I had to edit my original ad with this:
“EDIT: Appreciate all the people writing in. But if you’re a) not able to be in the office five days a week b) above 6L c) not a writer or art director first and foremost, please don’t write in. This is a hardcore writing gig for digital, website, etc with the occasional film needed.”
4. The completely out of left field comment that came in from more than one person was a query – is this a real job posting or are you just doing it for the engagement? So after a little probing I got told that some agencies post fake postings for jobs, just to create an aura around them that they’re always hiring. You could have knocked me down with a feather. It was sad and funny at the same time. Who even does this? No wonder candidates are so sceptical. I asked them to scroll through my LinkedIn for a previous hiring post many moons ago to assure them this was the real McCoy.
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5. For all of the vastly off the mark candidates, there were those few diamonds in the rough who wrote in and got hired pronto. They made the entire process worth it. I haven’t filled out the entire team yet but it’s a matter of time. Which made me feel happy that even in 2025, your vibe still attracts your tribe. But what if tech had gotten in the way of these people and their very charming emails to me? I’d have completely missed out on some of the finest options. Do yourself a favour.
Try hiring people yourself the next time you do a round of creative hiring. It’s one of the most inspiring things I could have done, meeting so many interesting minds out there in a fortnight. Somewhere as creative leaders, we need to institute guardrails around tech getting in the way of the perfect candidate getting hired. Intuition, is everything. More so now than ever.
Rayomand J Patell is an advertising veteran and InspiRAYtion is a weekend column on everything about advertising and marketing.