Hiring a content writer
Two hundred and twenty applications for a job where the CV is close to irrelevant, the samples are what count, and the samples are all somebody’s best three pieces.
This is the one role where the application itself is a work sample. Writing is unusual in this list: the evidence is right there, in the covering note and the samples, and you do not need to infer capability from a job history at all. That makes it easier in one way and harder in another. Samples are curated and often edited by someone else, so polish proves less than it appears; a piece can be excellent and tell you nothing about whether the writer can hit a brief, take a note, or write about something dull. And the discipline splits — SEO content, brand copy, technical writing and long-form editorial reward different people, all of whom call themselves writers and all of whom will send you three good pieces.
What they will actually be writing
Selene narrows the kind of writing before anything else, because “writer” covers four disciplines that share almost no craft.
Format, subject, and who edits
The useful questions are what they will write, how often, and whether anyone will edit it. A writer producing four blog posts a month with an editor is a different hire from one who is the entire content function and publishes unreviewed.
One sentence changes the guide
It is also the difference between a writer and someone who likes writing. The paragraph in question is usually the best-written thing in the piece and the reason the piece does not work, and being able to remove it is a discipline that reads clearly in how somebody describes their own drafts.
Exceptional, not just good —
“Someone who cuts their own favourite paragraph because it does not belong.”
→ Self-editing became a must-have; stylistic range dropped below the ability to hit a brief.
What the guide ends up measuring
Six criteria for an unedited role, and note that "range" is deliberately not near the top. A writer who can do four voices adequately is worth less here than one who can do yours exactly, because nobody downstream is going to fix the difference.
No gates, and a degree is the tempting one
Nothing here is a yes-or-no fact. The proxy this discipline reaches for is an English or journalism degree, and it is a poor filter: some of the strongest commercial writers came from the subject they now write about rather than from writing, and the samples make the qualification redundant anyway.
Scored on judgment, not just on polish
Selene never receives the candidate’s name or the raw CV. She scores a blind, structured profile, with any stated age, sex, nationality and religion stripped out before scoring runs.
She reads what a writer says about their own drafts and briefs, which is where judgment shows up — a finished sample can only ever show the result of it.
How the blind scoring works →What stays with you
Selene's half
- Narrowing which of the four writing disciplines this role actually is
- Reading all 220 against the same guide, blind, with the evidence attached
- A ranked shortlist that is not simply the best covering letters
- An interview brief pointed at the gap each portfolio does not cover
Yours
- Getting writers to apply — Selene doesn’t post to job boards or source candidates
- Reading the samples themselves; she reads what people wrote about their work, not the attachments
- Any paid test piece, which on this role is worth more than the interview
- The offer, and every call that matters
Say whether anyone edits it
Published as written or reviewed first — that single fact moves the whole bar.