Just being yourself

10:48 PM Michael 0 Comments

A few nights ago, I ran into my dear new friend Mark at the computer lab. I saw he had an article of himself in the New York Times as his profile picture. CRAZY right? Like THE newspapers out of all newspapers. So curious of course, I asked him how that happened. Hopefully I'm getting the story right but an Advertising agency was hosting a twitter contest where you were to explain why / what you could do to help them via 13 tweets. Practically it's like tweeting a cover letter. So while everyone else is using really big, i-want-this-job-i-am-super-smart-higher-me words that I myself am guilty of employing like "super optimize", "capacity", "efficiency", all very hard to be in your natural vocabulary type words, Mark decides to take a different approach and talk like he normally does-in his words like a typical goof ball. So funnily enough he gets an interview or more like 4 of them, via skype, with people like not only HR, but the creative director, and like the CEO and chair. caray caray! Anyway, he aces it like a natural and finds out that there is going to be an article on all that's going on and so he thinks its like a town newspaper article, something cute and small. Histerically during his interview he answers questions like"why would you like to be an art director?" with responses like "because then he can kick back at 4 oclock in the morning and have a glass of wine" (Sorry if I got that quote wrong!) He gets an email from a lady who tells him to please respond to her via telephone and not email. So he calls her and explains they'd like to publish an article in the New York Times. So by now he thinks it'll still be a small thing via internet. When viewing the article on the website, he finds "also in the print edition". SO CRAZY. But that is not the end of the story my friends. Because of the way media works, that story trickled down to like 30 other publications. When going to the Career Fair a few weeks ago people KNEW WHO HE WAS AND HAD ALREADY SECURED JOB POSITIONS FOR HIM. Mark is also now apart of a certain insider team at scad AND ladies and gentlemen, got an email from THE Paula Wallace congratulating him. WHAT AN AMAZING STORY. The ENTIRE time he was talking to me my mouth was embarrassingly agape. I am SO proud of him. Sorry I'm telling everyone about this Mark... I just can't help but brag. He is a Junior and this all happened THIS quarter just because he was himself. Such an amazing guy. So inspiring, and I am just so honored he took the time to talk to me and even gave me some new cover letter and resume pointers. And so so kindly told me it was okay to keep getting denied internships, to keep trying and maybe they'll remember your efforts. And he told me this without me explaining my situation.

Aim to be yourself you guys! Your decent self of course. But if we offer so many copies, so many overly embellished cover letters that sound nothing like you, well you are marketing the wrong person. You want this to be an honest transaction so that it is a right fit and you are happy! But this of course goes outside of working examples. Friends, relationships all of that are much stronger when you are comfortable with each other and not faking. If you are making a pretend self it becomes too, too much work. I hope good things happen for all of you! Continue to live well.

Congratulations Mark, I am so, so, so, so, so, so, so impressed. Sorry again for bragging about you in front of the internet!

Let's just say a little birdie told you guys. tweet tweet!