How (Not) to Get a Job, Part 1

Over the past few years, I have seen people use some strange tactics to try to get a job. "Strange" is my nice way of putting it. Rude, offensive, and creepy is more accurate.

Maybe I'm a dinosaur who just needs to realize that times have changed. Then again, maybe I'm right, and these people are crazy. You tell me.

Bachelorette #1

A few years back, I posted an ad on Craigslist for an editing position that my company was hiring for. A woman applied. We'll call her Grace.

Grace was not qualified for the job. I would have just written her back with a polite "Thanks, we've filled the position." Except that it was a Craigslist posting, and I'd been inundated with 250 other equally unqualified applicants. So I responded only to the handful that I wanted to interview, and ignored the other 245.

Then I learned that Grace didn't like to be ignored. She didn't go all Alicia-Silverstone-in-The-Crush on me or anything like that. But she did e-mail me every few days to "follow up." Gradually, these e-mails became annoying. I mean, take a hint, lady! I should have just told her to buzz off, but I was busy.

Next thing I know, I open Facebook, only to find a message from Grace. "Hi!" she said. "I hadn't heard from you via your company account, so I thought I'd try you on here."

I was creeped out. How could it ever conceivably be appropriate to look up a complete stranger on Facebook just to "follow up" on a job application? I was so wigged about it that I wrote her, politely, suggesting that what she had done was not very professional and that she consider how such a thing appeared when applying to jobs in the future. She wrote me back, all defensive of what she had done, as if I were the weird one.

Apparently she saw NOTHING wrong with cyber-stalking somebody to get a job.

The Verdict

So who's the crazy one? Grace, or me?

I'm pretty sure it's Grace. But my curse in life is to always second-guess myself. I have this idea that some perky little twenty-something will jump out from behind a smartphone and tell me, "Duh! People have been doing stuff like that for years! Get with the times, old lady." So I'd like to know what you think.

Next entry: Bachelor #2.