Can a Creative Cover Letter Get You The Job of Your Dreams?

Just ask “stuff-strutter” Robert Pirosh

Robert Pirosh is my hero

Unless you’re a devoted student of the history of screenwriting, you may not know who Robert Pirosh is. I had never heard of him until I purchased a book called Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, compiled by Shaun Usher. (And I would be remiss if I didn’t credit one of my favorite publications, Maria Popova’s The Marginalian — formerly “Brain Pickings” — as the source for finding this gem.)

Turns out that Robert Pirosh was a guy intent on following his dreams of being a Hollywood screenwriter. He would do whatever it took to get where he wanted to be. He knew what he was good at, what he was passionate about, and what he wanted to do with his life.

Robert Pirosh was NOT afraid to try something different to get his dream job.

That’s why he’s been added to my “hero” list.

What Pirosh did

Robert Pirosh was a copywriter working in New York City in the early 1930s. Regardless of the fact that he was successful and living in the hub of one of the most business-oriented cities in the world, he wanted something else.

Pirosh’s dream was to become a screenwriter in Hollywood.

One of the hallmarks of people who achieve their dreams is that they don’t let obstacles deter them. Robert Pirosh wasn’t afraid of moving across the country, fighting to get into a fiercely competitive industry, and having no existing contacts.

He quit his job to go to Hollywood and follow his dream.

“Follow-your-passion” plan

Robert Pirosh’s plan is a blueprint for all of us dreamers who want to follow our passion — as long as we have his courage.

First, he created his contact list, compiling a list of the names and addresses of EVERYONE in the industry he could. Executives. Producers. Directors. (This tactic is valuable today, only now it’s made much easier through the wonders of the internet!)

Then, he wrote the most creative cover letter I’ve ever seen, and one that I’m jealous of. It so perfectly encapsulates his passion, his ability, his savvy. The writer in me wants to know how many days, how many drafts, how many deliberations he had with himself before he penned this masterpiece (which I’ve abbreviated for sake of length.)

“I like words. I like fat, buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutionous, toady. I like solumn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, pecnuious, valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde. I like suave, “V” words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve. I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words, such as splinter, grapple, jostle, crusty…”

I like the word screenwriter better than copywriter, so I decided to quit my job in a New York advertising agency and try my luck in Hollywood.

…I still like words.

May I have a few with you?

I was blown away by the creativity in it, and I know that if I were the recipient of that letter, I would give this person an interview, and I would probably have decided to hire him before he even arrived in my office. Read Robert Pirosh’s letter in its entirety here:

The results of “edgy” courage

Robert Pirosh’s creative cover letter got him three job interviews. While I don’t know if he had other offers, I do know that he was hired as a junior writer at MGM.

The rest, as they say, “is history.”

Pirosh went on to work doing what he wanted to do. He wrote screenplays for Marx Brother films, “A Night at the Opera,” and “A Day at the Races.” He worked his magic with words for actors like Henry Fonda and Gene Tierney.

His screenwriting career was interrupted when Pirosh went to serve in WWII, but his experience there (as is so often the case with writers), contributed to his next success. In 1949, he won an Academy Award for “Best Writing, Story, and Screenplay” for the film Battleground, based on the WWII battle in the woods of Ardennes, Belgium, a battle that was part of the Siege of Bastogne.

Robert Pirosh added producer and director to his screenwriting abilities. Over the course of his career, he won a Golden Globe, an award from The Writers’ Guild of America, and was nominated for a second Oscar for Go for Broke! a film he also directed. He worked with Steve McQueen and Don Siegal and continued to write for the film industry while adding his skills to the burgeoning television industry.

It pays (sometimes) to follow your passion!

The power of a creative cover letter

If you are looking for a job, it takes guts to do something out of the ordinary, but if you are the employer looking to hire, who would you be most likely to hire? Someone who writes a standard, basic, “My-qualifications-fit-with-your- needs-I-will-be-an-asset-to-your-company-letter,” or someone who actually struts their stuff and PROVES they can do what they are applying for?

What can you lose?

If you’re applying for a podcast job, write the letter in the form of a podcast. If you, too, want to be a screenwriter, craft the letter as a “scene.” If you want to be a movie, music, or book reviewer, write the cover letter as a “review” of your career. Write a story, design an infographic, engineer a word diagram.

Be a “stuff-strutter” like Robert Pirosh.

If creativity is part of the job and you have it, flaunt it. (Not everybody can tap into this valuable asset!)

Putting content into a creative format also works for fundraising, appeals, and networking.

Do creative cover letters ALWAYS work?

Absolutely not.

I once wrote a unique, extended analogy “story” as an entry for a writing scholarship. (I thought it was brilliant.) Did I win? Nope. Was I glad I attempted it? You bet. Part of being a good writer and creative marketer — and much of my persona — is NOT doing what everyone else is doing even when it doesn’t win.

Conversely, I won my first big copywriting job because I put my creative skills on display. When asked in an application to list three ways I’d improve a passage, I totally rewrote the passage with a completely different twist.

I got that job.

Sometimes, harnessing creative courage pays off. Sometimes it doesn’t. But I figure it’s always better to strut my stuff than hide it under a stuffy, standard format.

“Go forth and conquer” using your creative powers in a memorable cover letter that will knock their socks off.

If you are interested in the combination of creativity and success, read these: