Flair and care a tasty combo
Anyone who's seen even five minutes of MasterChef or My Kitchen Rules will have heard the exhortation from the experts to "cook with love". It's been repeated so often that's it become the tiredest of mantras, ironic given that at its heart are these very decent precepts: don't be mechanical; don't revert to careless repetition; trust your instincts; take genuine care.
Cooking up a job application isn't so different from cooking up a dish on a reality TV show. Both will be brutally scrutinised. Both may be humiliatingly dismissed. Both could ultimately lead to the Vocational Promised Land.
It's all too easy to begin with the best intentions, and to take the "cook with love" dictum in its purest sense, before quickly letting it drain of meaning and colour, and using it as the fuel for your production line rather than the inspiration for brilliant applications. And then comes the vicious cycle. Your production line keeps coming up with the same product, the same flaws, the same reasons for prospective employers to laser it with their eyes. Every rejection saps your motivation and strengthens your reliance on the line. The trick is to heed the wisdom of the edict and not fall for the comfort of the cliche. That or try the Cookie Monster tack.
Frequently Asked Questions about this Article…
The author says they are not a fan, criticising reality cooking shows for contrived emotions, formulaic “stories” and a tendency to keep contestants who lack culinary sophistication.
The article explains that while “cook with love” has useful core ideas — don’t be mechanical, avoid careless repetition, trust your instincts and take genuine care — it’s been repeated so often that it has become a tired cliché rather than a meaningful guide.
The author argues they’re similar because both are brutally scrutinised, can be dismissed harshly, and both may lead to success if done well — meaning care, originality and attention matter in either context.
The article warns that treating applications like a production line produces the same product with the same flaws repeatedly, giving employers consistent reasons to reject you and making it harder to improve.
The vicious cycle is: you rely on repetitive, mechanical applications, receive rejections, which sap motivation and push you further into using the same production-line approach, causing more identical rejections.
Drawing on the ‘cook with love’ wisdom, the article suggests being genuinely careful and creative: don’t be mechanical, avoid careless repetition, trust your instincts and make each application distinct rather than formulaic.
No. The author criticises the overuse and cliché of the advice but acknowledges that the underlying precepts of the mantra — care, instinct and avoiding mechanical repetition — are decent and worth following.
The offhand ‘Cookie Monster tack’ is a humorous aside implying that if the earnest advice feels unusable, one could try a very different, less conventional approach — but the main takeaway is to avoid dull repetition and be authentic.
Call 1300 880 160
Start a chat
Schedule a call
