A studio spends days and weeks tailoring their job description to get the right people.
If that's true, they are wasting money and time. I run the largest independent studio in the business. When I bring on a new subcontractor, my ads are two lines long and my interviews last about three minutes. I don't have time to play games and neither do they.
When I say "largest studio" I am not fucking with you. I can drop a creative team the size of a military battalion anywhere on this planet in 12 hours.
If you think a generic application or a one-line application will get you the job, you are mistaken.
That will be news to the 1300 clients we've delivered work for. I don't have time to bake you a special birthday cake and write your name in the frosting, sweetheart. We all have bills to pay, and I see anywhere from 60-100 jobs a week. Get the fuck over yourself or you will never retain the services of someone like me.
These kinds of applications will land in the bin faster than it took to write these few lines.
If you knew how many stone cold pros bypass your ads and blacklist you forever because of this attitude, your hair would turn white. You want to jut your chin out at us with your five dollar gig? All you're doing is guaranteeing your slot on the "never work for" list, and trust me when I tell you there are 100 freelancers just like me who keep those lists up to date like a book-writing monk.
I am trying to be honest here.
So am I. If you want the pros, stop acting like an amateur. Your job ad is a preview of what it's like to work for you. If you put attitude and little chickenshit gotchas in there, you go directly to the blacklist and I am on to the next guy.
The quality of your application is a representation of the quality of your work.
The quality of your ad is a representation of you as a client.
You have a better chance waiting for a headhunter than applying with a generic or one-line email.
Headhunters would sell their pants for a chance to hire us.
Tailor your application to the job requirement.
Memorandum to freelancers: Do not EVER tailor an application. If your future client needs to be entertained by your application, that's a hard next. Move on. They will be just as much of a dick after they hire you and you don't want that.
Hiring is a numbers game. You have a conversion rate that requires sufficient volume to sustain you. It is the CLIENTS who made it this way, so if they want the reason you aren't baking them a fluffy birthday cake with little sugar squigglies and candy hearts, they can find it in a mirror.