I’m a couple of days late on this one. I usually write on Thursday evenings, but this week I didn’t get to it, so here we are on a Saturday.
I almost wrote about HubSpot this week. There’s a lot going on there that I’m excited about and I’ll touch on it before the end of this post.
But the more I thought about what’s actually happened since my last entry, the more I wanted to write about something else: a class assignment from Full Sail helped me land my first interview in over a year of sending out applications.
That’s the post.
The Assignment I Submitted with My Resume
The Career Readiness assignment was straightforward: find a real job listing in your field, write a professional cover letter tailored to that role, and follow the Anatomy of a Cover Letter guidelines. One page, no exceptions.
I didn’t treat it as busy work. I may have said this in previous posts, but I treated every assignment in my program the same way, because I needed the degree to mean something on the other side of graduation.
Specifically for this one I wanted to do it step by step through the instructions. So, I started by looking up a role I hadn’t already applied to.
When I found a Digital Marketing Specialist position with email marketing ownership at its core, that combination of words felt tailor made for what I’d been working towards and I got to work on the letter.
When I finished it, I read it back and it felt good. Like, every metric was real and I knew I could do the job. I was honest about the tool gap I had on paper, but I’d made a clear case for why I was still a strong fit.
I didn’t sit down that night intending to find another job to apply for. But I’d written a cover letter for a job that I believed in, and submitting it felt like the obvious next move.
Why My Cover Letter Actually Worked
Submitting the cover letter and resume was the easy part. I’d written something real, so clicking send wasn’t a moment of hesitation. But it’s probably worth explaining why.
In his feedback on the assignment, my professor said the letter was strategically written, clearly demonstrated measurable impact, and showed strong alignment with the company’s mission. That feedback made sense to me, because I hadn’t tried to sound impressive. I’d just answered the brief.
I wasn’t thinking about strategy when I wrote it. I was following the instructions and writing what was true for me and how I saw the position. The assignment pushed me to be specific though, so I was.
I pulled real numbers (a 20% sales increase from an email campaign I ran, 20,000+ organic views from content I produced) and tied them directly to what the job description was asking for. I also researched the company and found that I really liked the values they operate by and communicated that.
I also didn’t hide the one obvious gap between my resume and the job description. One of the tools they listed as necessary wasn’t something I had direct experience with. I said so up front in the letter, but also made the case for why I still felt like a strong fit.
I wasn’t sweating the gap if I got the job. I know how to learn new tools quickly, and knew I could close it with a little training.
My research into the role almost cost me the interview though, when the question of salary came up.
How Salary vs Budget Almost Ended the Process
I submitted the application in February and then life kept moving. I went to work the next day, kept applying to other roles, and was honestly close to writing the position off my tracker when I got a message from the marketing manager asking if I was still interested and inviting me to a meet and greet.
I was still interested.
The meet and greet went well. We talked through the role, my background, and how the team operated. A few days later I followed up to check on next steps. What came back instead was a rejection. The gap between my salary expectations and their approved budget was too wide to move forward.
I wasn’t frustrated when I read it. I just didn’t want to let the conversation die there. The number I’d put out wasn’t based on the job description since the listing hadn’t included a range.
I’d researched comparable roles, but the examples I found skewed toward mid to larger companies, and this was a relatively smaller operation.
Turns out, I’d overshot significantly without realizing it.
When I saw the rejection was about salary and not fit, I responded the same day and told her I had more flexibility than I’d communicated and asked if she’d share the range they were working with.
She did. It worked for me. A week later I was sitting in a formal interview.
How My First Interview in a Year Went
In the Room
I’d been anxious walking in. Despite everything I’d done to prepare, I still felt like I hadn’t done enough. The office was busy but relaxed, people moving around, the lobby getting prepped for a repaint. They didn’t make me wait long before the marketing manager brought me back.
There were three of them in the room. When one of the interviewers seemed concerned about whether the panel setup would throw me off, I laughed and told her it wasn’t going to bother me. I’d been through that kind of interview before and always did well in them.
If anything, having an audience settled me.
The interview felt more like a conversation than anything taxing. Some of the questions I was ready for, some made me stop and think, but I felt good about every answer. One stood out.
They asked how I’d describe my communication style, and I told them I’m blunt and direct, that I prefer when someone gets straight to the point with me. “You could chew me out today and we’ll be best friends again tomorrow.”
The body language in the room had been positive the whole time, but that one seemed to land especially well.
One moment from the interview stuck with me after the fact. The gentleman on the panel mentioned he’d been reading my blog and told me he loved my writing. I’d included the link in my application materials, so it wasn’t a surprise that he’d found it.
But knowing someone on the hiring panel had taken the time to actually read it before I sat down in that room meant something. That’s the whole point of building something in public after all.
On the Way Home
I got out to my car, put my suit jacket back on the hanger, and texted my wife that I felt really good walking out of there. On the drive home I was thinking about the commute. It’s basically a straight shot from my front door.
Right now I’m doing thirty minutes in the morning and forty-five to fifty on the way home. I’m looking forward to that gap closing significantly soon.
Somewhere on that drive it also hit me how strange it would be if I actually got this job. The role I’d found because a Full Sail professor told me to find a real listing for a class assignment.
When the Job Hunt Ended
The offer came through and it felt like victory. Then immediately after that it felt like, “Wait, is this real? Is my life actually about to change?” Then it settled into relief and excitement and something close to vindication.
Signing the offer letter proved something to me in a practical sense. This was the first interview I’d gotten in over a year of sending out applications, and the only thing I’d done differently was follow the cover letter assignment instructions to the letter.
I can’t know for certain what tipped the scales in the room, but I’m pretty sure the certifications, the AI work, the blog, and the prep I’d done leading into the interview all factored in. I only guessed right on about 40% of the questions they asked, but that 40% took 40% of the pressure off.
Prep work doesn’t start when you schedule the interview, just like champions aren’t made on the tournament floor the day of the competition. They’re made in everything that comes before it.
For me that meant taking AI seriously before anyone was paying me to, upskilling through a tough market, and treating every assignment like it mattered. Because one of them actually did.
The Work Continues
The new role starts on the 4th. I’m working out notice now. HubSpot is already on my radar because the position calls for it, and I have real motivation to go deeper than I would have otherwise, (along with another reason that I may get into with a future post.)
The AI work continues. The freelancing continues. The blog isn’t going anywhere.
If you take nothing else away from me this week, please take this. Prep work makes hard work into light work. And light work looks easy.
Are you doing anything right now that you think you should probably be giving more effort towards? What does your prep work actually look like at the moment? Have you ever had anything pay off in an unexpected way? I’d love to know if you have.
