When I tell people how I landed my internship in New York and my job here in Copenhagen, they mostly think I am a fool. In both cases I just sent a mail to the agency director. No 'dear sir' or included cv's. Just an informal mail telling my story with all the attributes that cross my mind at that exact moment. Last time I even sent a picture of a cut off arm two days after my first mail that stated: "I will cut off my left arm to work at your place.". I'm an idiot, right?

Well, not quite. It is my way to find out if the agency is the kind of environment I want to work in. I would never want to work in a place where people feel too good about themselves, where you have Mr. X and Mr. Y and where nobody has respect for the coffee lady. The utterly ridiculous and informal mail is my way of screening, and until now it has always worked out for me.

I am writing this because just today Seth Godin wrote a little piece about it on his wonderful blog. I recommend you give it a read, and particularly keep in mind the last two sentences of this post. They describe exactly why I do it the way I do.

Thought: Of course the advertising industry is more open to this than let's say the financial industry.