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Tips for applying to Ritza

We get more applications than we can process or respond to. We don't have an HR team.

Upside: If we engage with you after reviewing your application, you will immediately get personal attention from a decision maker. We won't make you jump through hoops for weeks or months, just to ghost you at the end of the process.

Downside: We don't have the capacity to respond to every single applicant.

If you don't hear from us after applying, please consider your application unsuccessful.

We keep all applications on file and may reach out to existing applicants months or even years later if a new role looks like a good fit.

Tips for increasing your application's chance of success

We like applications that:

  • Include a writing sample, even if it's a sample you aren't particularly proud of or haven't published.
  • Tell us something about yourself and your background
  • Include a mention proving that you read this page or another section of our handbook before applying

You are less likely to hear from us if you:

  • Spam us regularly and on multiple channels. If you follow up on your application after a few hours or a few days, or try to contact us on multiple channels (Slack, email, filling out the form multiple times), or do anything to try get more of our attention, we will move your application to the back of the queue.
  • Don't follow the application process. Normally our posts contain instructions on how to submit an application. If the job advert says that you should fill out a Google Form, and you instead send us an email to apply, we will ignore the application.
  • Leave most of the fields in the form blank. Our form tells you to leave out fields that don't seem relevant, but if you leave out many or most of the fields, we will probably ignore your application.
  • Send a very, very long CV. Your CV should ideally be one page long. Put the most relevant information at the top (previous experience and highest level of education). If your CV is 8 pages about your primary school achievements and your 10 years of technical writing experience is hidden on page 8, we'll probably ignore your application.
  • Send a very, very short CV. If your CV is two sentences with barely any information about your previous work experience or education, we will ignore your application.
  • Use GPT slop in your application or contact. We use GPT internally as a tool, but it's output is usually bad and wastes everyone's time. If you email or message us with slop, we'll ignore your application.
  • Add to this form. If you do anything that gets added to this page (these are all real examples), we will probably ignore your application.

Contacting us about open roles

You're very welcome to contact us with additional questions or requests for information, but we get a lot of messages on Slack and Email saying things like

  • "Hi"
  • "Is this still available"
  • "I'm interested in this role"

If you contact us with the above or something similar, we probably won't respond (but you might get a link to this).

Communicating with us during the application process

As written communication is what we do, we'll assess your written communication skills everywhere that we see them as part of the application process. This includes how you communicate with us on any channels (usually Email, LinkedIn, Slack) while setting up interviews, sharing information on skills and availability, or anything else.

We're not sticklers - you don't need to proof-read every single word you send us, and we're not going to disqualify you for a typo in an email or LinkedIn DM. However, we will be looking at how well you share information with us, and how well you understand information we share with you.

For example, if we say "Please share three times that suit you for a call this or next week" and you respond with "I'm free at 11am today", then that means we already doubt your ability to read and transmit basic information. Same thing if we say "Please share your CV and your current availability" and you share your CV without the availability. These might seem like small things, but we highly value people who can read, process, and share information via words very effectively, and we've found that there's a strong correlation between people who can do this while communicating boring day-to-day admin stuff and people who can do it about technological concepts.