“You should give them more time to submit applications. I don’t think we’ll get more than 10 applications anyway…” -Cherrie

“Try 70+.” -Stilts

I knew you guys were crazy, but I didn’t realize how crazy! Yes, it’s finally happening – a new contributor will be introducing themselves shortly. Sorry it took so long, but we got nearly double the applications we did last time, and it took a while to go through them all. We did it though, and came to our decision. The new writer has already been contacted, and has agreed to our ridiculous demands. “Make a contract with us and become a blogger!” /人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\

If you weren’t contacted, please don’t feel slighted. This was a really tough decision, and there were so many great candidates that I asked Divine to let me fire a few writers so we could bring in upgrades, but he told me I’d be the first one to go, so I scrapped that plan. (I’m just kidding…mostly.) We were also thinking of bringing on two writers, but then Divine made his triumphant return. Have you noticed that Divine is blogging again? We may also still reach out to another shortlisted applicant next season. We’ll see what the future holds.

In all seriousness, if you’re one of those who put yourself out there and applied, you have my respect. You said “yes” to yourself, so even if we said “no”, you gave yourself a chance. Seriously, give yourselves a pat on the back. You done good.

That’s why I’m offering a limited-time special offer to all our lovely applicants. If you would like feedback on your application or sample post, email me at stilts(at)randomc(dot)net – and only me…only I’m offering this, not Divine – with any questions you may have. I won’t answer anything like “Why didn’t I get picked! *whine*”, but if you’d like to know how to improve, I’d be happy to help. Please just keep the questions short, and don’t be surprised if I don’t respond quickly or in massive detail. I’m a little burned out from all those applications.

Thank you once again to everyone who offered to help, as well as those who cheered on everyone who did. Random Curiosity has the best community I’ve ever had the pleasure of writing for, and I know that’s true for our other writers as well. Soon it will be true for one more.

83 Comments

  1. YEAH! I DID IT! 🙂 THANK YOU EVERYONE! 😉

    Just joking. Contgratulations to the new writer, whoever you are, my friend! Kudos for the team for going through all the stock of applications. Good job!

    brajt
  2. @ Cherrie: no faith in the RandomC community? A lot of readers would jump at the chance to write for this place. 🙂

    I was seriously tempted myself, but I just don’t believe I would be able to maintain consistency required for the task.

    Anyway, congratulations to the new writer, and to the team for managing to get through all those applications. I’m looking forward to the future!

    PS: It’s wonderful to see Divine blogging again, even if it isn’t on a series that interests me. Has he decided to become active again long term, or is he doing stuff on a case-by-case basis?

    Wanderer
    1. LOL! Not faith… but I was surprised by the number of people that would dare suffer the same fate as us. We have quite the contract set up for those that want to join and it’s something along the lines of… “Sign your life away here in blood: _________”
      I’m not even kidding… o_o haha…!

      But thanks to all those that applied! It was a pleasure to read how many people want to contribute to our community and even more so how insightful everyone is. I’m glad I was wrong =) The readership here is incredibly awesome ^^

      Div is going to blog as long as I can make him keep watching! \o/

  3. Just to put things in perspective, the acceptance rate this time around was ~1.2%. Last time, the acceptance rate was at least above 20%. So don’t feel bad if you applied and didn’t get selected–it was extremely competitive (disclaimer: I had no part in the decision making) and your rejection has little weight on your abilities as a writer.

    …this makes me have flashbacks to college rejection letters all over again D:

    BUT ANYWAYS, don’t feel too bad. This won’t be the last time we ever take on new writers, so polish your skills evermore for the next recruitment stage. If you’re too impatient though, try starting your own blog too! I’d love to see some of your peeps’ full responses to the shows we watch, and the aniblog community always could need new blogs as a whole!

    Zanibas
    1. This makes me have flashbacks to college rejection letters all over again D:

      Try medical school, ~1200 applicants, ~400 interview slots, ~100 slots to fill (per school), with every applicant already around ~3.8 GPA. I was lucky enough just to reach the interview stage 😛

      Pancakes
  4. Congrats to the new writer!! And as always, thank you to all the current writers!!! As a faithful follower of Randomc for years (since Omni) now, I mean it when I say I truly truly appreciate all the hard work. You guys are awesome!! 😀

    Also its really exciting to see Divine back x)!<3

    Chloesong
  5. oh i forgotten a important advice.

    This here is not Facebook. Do not take these Votes so seriously, because someones are trolling with them. Even i have a Down vote fan here

    Dont worry, no Masters has fallen from the Sky. Just have fun writing

    Germanguy
  6. This was a really tough decision, and there were so many great candidates that I asked Divine to let me fire a few writers so we could bring in upgrades
    Just wondering, if its a voluntary job and many applications were received, why stop at one?
    More writers —> more series covered
    More series covered —> possible less burden of 1 writer only having to cover 1 series.
    (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧

    Techim
    1. We considered it, but a few things stayed our hands. As much as I love Zani, Zephy, Cherrie and all the others, bringing in seven writers all at once was something of a culture shock on the backend, and it took us a while to get the ship functioning properly again.

      Now we prefer to gradually integrate new team members rather than add a whole bunch at once, both so we can spend plenty of time getting each one up to speed and so all of you can get used to each one gradually.

      There are also organizational problems when you have more people (see: the difference between a lean startup and an entrenched company), so we don’t want to balloon too big and lose our ability to keep the train moving forward.

      Slow and steady, that’s the ticket. RandomC isn’t going anywhere, so there’s no need to rush : )

      Stilts
    1. Pretty crazy though even with 12 shows being covered this season there are 38+ shows and some good ones still not being covered. It took divine coming back to cover one of my fav shows. As awesome as RC is there is still so many gaps.

      But I appreciate them taking their time to do their respective shows properly. There are flashier blogs with music, gifs etc but RC has the bloggers that share my taste especially Zephy seems to cover majority of what I like and I have a high animelist compatibility with him, so easy to read his stuff, but I appreciate cherrie and Stilts who cover shows I normal don’t watch and sometimes they get me to try new stuff out. It’s the trust you have in them that makes this site nice to read.

      So welcome to the new writer and I rather RC slowly introduce people gradually and keep the quality up.

      Sherylfan
      1. Keep in mind that some of us are still deciding on which shows we’ll blog. I wouldn’t be surprised if the total is closer to 20 by the time all is said and done. We also have to be careful not to cover too much in a way, because we want to have enough slack in the schedule so that everyone is blogging something they enjoy. There will always be some gaps in our coverage.

        Stilts
      2. Not sold on Momoko Kyun Sword yet, but that ED in Ep02 has a pretty catchy tune.
        Taketatsu Ayana (voice of Kirino from Oreimo) singing while her character in the anime (Momoko = MC) dances to tune?
        So hgggggnnnnn. Much wow.
        I have a feeling it might turn even the ecchi / loli blogger Stilts into a “peach” fan.
        (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ*:・゚✧

        Techim
    2. Plus in the 2000’s there were a lot more 2 cour shows and very small winter and summer anime (ie more kid shows then what RC community watches) line ups. just look how eventful this winter and this summer season are along with spring and fall normal overloads. There is just a lot more to cover now a days.

      So it’s no easy task finding time to watch let alone blog.

      Sherylfan
  7. Wonder if the new blogger will be someone who’s part of the randomc comments community or some new (passive) reader.
    btw it’s always sad when a blogger quitst he blogging job and then disappears completely. Makes me wish that the new blogger will be someone not related to the comments.

    boingman
  8. Congratulations to the new writer. I look forward to seeing his/her unique perspective on the finer details of anime production and literary/screenwriting technique in general…

    Zen
  9. Congrats to the new writer(at least i tried XD).

    And i do have a suggestion, why not add the winning post/entry to this post, just posting it here will answer a lot of questions automatically (about why it was chosen and what standard you were looking for, ..etc etc), anyone else agrees ?

    1. I think Stilts has already outlined a lot of our criteria on the hiring post (like timeliness, quality of writing and insightful reviews). Here are some questions that are extra that I would have considered while reading the applications: Is this person someone I want to work with? Does this person add something different to the current staffing list and how? What is this person looking to get out of RC and can we provide it?
      Hope that helps a bit… kind of like the same questions you would want answered when you interview someone for a job ^^”

      1. Thanks for the reply, but some things (and some people) work better when given an clear-cut example, you could talk all day to someone about criteria but one example could do the job a lot better (this is something i learned first hand), it will also allow us to get an early hint on his/her taste in anime and their writing style before they make their first actual post here on RC (after picking a show from summer season to blog of course).

    2. @Hunter-Wolf

      Because even if we published the winning applicant’s post, that doesn’t mean people would draw the right conclusions; because those applications were sent to us privately, and private emails should never be shared without express consent; and because if someone doesn’t care enough to send me an email, they probably don’t deserve to know.

      Stilts
      1. I understand, but i’m not asking to post the entire “entry”, just the “episode review” part, and of course with consent from our “mysterious” winner, or maybe we could just wait for their first entry on RC .. just thought posting the episode review they made would ease their entry into the fray and also answer a lot of questions on people’s minds (about the winner’s taste in anime, their style of writing, … etc etc) .. two birds with one stone 😉

  10. Congrats to the new writer! I can’t wait to see the new perspective that’ll be brought to the site and of course it hopefully means more shows will be blogged about – which is never a bad thing in my book!

    Congrats to Stilts and Divine for making it through the struggle of hiring a new writer. 😛 70+ applications is way more than I expected.

    Tsuchimiya
    1. To @Stilts:
      Just make sure that this guys aren’t always :
      -“Burnt hands! I can’t write anymore” person.
      -Disappeared and we never knew who he/she was.
      -At war training and studying
      -Became a poet or some sort.
      -Eloped
      😀

    1. I explained the situation on my final post (as well as several posts leading up to it). Mahouka has been dropped from full coverage. It might still get some kind of…well, you’ll have to wait and see on that.

      Stilts
      1. Not sure if Mahouka’s problem is bad source writing or bad adaptation.
        Although I’m guessing Tsutomu Sato’s writing skills can never compare to starting writers like Veronica Roth.

        zztop
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