Kiss those journalism aspirations goodbye
It looks like the big break I've been waiting for has finally arrived! My blog has been discovered...
...by a former employee of one of the publications to which I submitted an application back in the fall--a publication whose name was plastered all over this electronic chronicle for several weeks, and which may or may not have been portrayed in a decidedly unflattering manner.
I was browsing the hit counter (as I'm prone to do) and I happened to notice that one particular post seemed to be getting a lot of views in recent days. I went back to the post only to discover a long comment from an individual claiming to have worked at the publication I was blogging about. I couldn't bring myself to read the entirety of the (long) comment, but the gist of it appeared to be that I lacked modesty (for presuming that I would have a fair shot at being considered for a job at this publication) and that, moreover, to excoriate a potential employer in a publicly accessible forum constituted ill-advised bridge-burning.
I agree with the comment writer whole-heartedly on the second point--and in doing so I don't mean to be an apologist. In the early days of keeping this record of my job-search experiences, it never occurred to me that anyone at all would be reading--let alone representatives of the companies to which I was applying. But in the face of discovery by an individual who might have taken direct offense at the things that I've written, I see no choice but to stand by my words. The frustration conveyed in these posts, particularly the early ones, is very real. And I don't think it's an unfounded frustration. It takes a while to grow accustomed to the silent rejection that is so commonplace in the writing field. I don't think I was ever asking to be coddled--I just hoped to receive fair and decent treatment from potential employers. Eventually it became apparent that my standards for the treatment of job applications by major publications were idealistically high.
For my own part, it probably would have been prudent to have been a little more discrete in my cathartic outbursts. But the damage has been done, and now I'll have to live with the consequences of offending the very people I've been trying to impress. (Circumstantial evidence on the hit counter suggests that several individuals have spent time reading the relevant posts in recent days. Just my luck--it looks like my vitriol is making the rounds of the inboxes of employees of this (T)UILG-maligned publication.)
I spent about an hour purging the posts from the first half of this blog of all proper company names. I grew weary very quickly, but pressed on until about December. I'll finish up with the second half sometime soon (before anyone from a certain SAT prep company catches wise, let's hope).
The way I see it, there are two potential outcomes to this turn of events. I'll either be that much more resolute in my quest to land a cushy writing job as I'm faced with the prospect of muscling my way off the blacklist; or my decision to go to law school or not just got a hell of a lot easier.
...by a former employee of one of the publications to which I submitted an application back in the fall--a publication whose name was plastered all over this electronic chronicle for several weeks, and which may or may not have been portrayed in a decidedly unflattering manner.
I was browsing the hit counter (as I'm prone to do) and I happened to notice that one particular post seemed to be getting a lot of views in recent days. I went back to the post only to discover a long comment from an individual claiming to have worked at the publication I was blogging about. I couldn't bring myself to read the entirety of the (long) comment, but the gist of it appeared to be that I lacked modesty (for presuming that I would have a fair shot at being considered for a job at this publication) and that, moreover, to excoriate a potential employer in a publicly accessible forum constituted ill-advised bridge-burning.
I agree with the comment writer whole-heartedly on the second point--and in doing so I don't mean to be an apologist. In the early days of keeping this record of my job-search experiences, it never occurred to me that anyone at all would be reading--let alone representatives of the companies to which I was applying. But in the face of discovery by an individual who might have taken direct offense at the things that I've written, I see no choice but to stand by my words. The frustration conveyed in these posts, particularly the early ones, is very real. And I don't think it's an unfounded frustration. It takes a while to grow accustomed to the silent rejection that is so commonplace in the writing field. I don't think I was ever asking to be coddled--I just hoped to receive fair and decent treatment from potential employers. Eventually it became apparent that my standards for the treatment of job applications by major publications were idealistically high.
For my own part, it probably would have been prudent to have been a little more discrete in my cathartic outbursts. But the damage has been done, and now I'll have to live with the consequences of offending the very people I've been trying to impress. (Circumstantial evidence on the hit counter suggests that several individuals have spent time reading the relevant posts in recent days. Just my luck--it looks like my vitriol is making the rounds of the inboxes of employees of this (T)UILG-maligned publication.)
I spent about an hour purging the posts from the first half of this blog of all proper company names. I grew weary very quickly, but pressed on until about December. I'll finish up with the second half sometime soon (before anyone from a certain SAT prep company catches wise, let's hope).
The way I see it, there are two potential outcomes to this turn of events. I'll either be that much more resolute in my quest to land a cushy writing job as I'm faced with the prospect of muscling my way off the blacklist; or my decision to go to law school or not just got a hell of a lot easier.
posted by temporarily unemployed at 01:46
1 Comments:
Is there any way to stop Google from searching your blog? This is just a guess here, but people Google themselves (with publication names if they work for one) pretty frequently and for a few of those names in your early posts, Googling them w/ CoP etc puts you pretty high on the list.
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