August 17, 2004
Power Player
A friend recently shared with me a blast fax he received from someone seeking a job. The letter was compelling, listing a "wide and professional knowledge" in multiple fields, including experience as general counsel for a large firm.
Frankly, I felt a bit of resume envy. There was just one thing out of place. It's such a little thing, really, but it caught his eye nonetheless. For the sake of anonymity, I won't share the suffix of this person's email address (i.e., the @blahblahblah.com part), but the prefix, oh, that I have to share.
This high-flying, hard-charging, extremely experienced job-seeker goes by the Internet handle of: "Tomatocup."
I can envision the taut boardroom scene now:
"Margins are squeezed, and our main adversary is trying to engineer an LBO! What do we do? We're going to lose control of the firm!"
"Boys, we've got no choice. We've got to bring out the big gun."
"No, it's not decent. I know they're our mortal enemies, but this is just too devastating."
"We have no choice."
"You can't be serious."
"I'm deadly serious. Get me Tomatocup."
"Oh. Dear. God."
When the going gets tough, the tough call Tomatocup.
Posted by Woodlief on August 17, 2004 at 12:26 PM
I was working part-time in a small bookstore while they were going through the process of hiring an "associate". The store was inundated with emailed resumes and, believe it or not, the one with the email address of hotchick69 did not get the job. Go figure.
Btw, I think you mispelled power playah!
Posted by: Shawn at August 17, 2004 1:34 PM
Dude, get your mind out of the gutter. I'm sure that's just the year of her favorite Mustang. Or maybe the year she was born. Or her age.
Sheesh.
Posted by: Tony at August 17, 2004 2:08 PM
In our office, we had a new receptionist. One day, the office e-mail (per usual) was not working. So this receptionist chose to write her work e-mails from her Hotmail account.
When I received the first one and saw that her Hotmail account listed her sender name as "Jungle Bunny," I reluctantly pointed it out to her...
Posted by: a fan at August 17, 2004 2:11 PM
You're right, I apologize. I may be in need of some sensitivity training as well (see second to last SiTG entry). I guess it's a matter of perspective. But, but (see last SiTG entry) had she been applying for a position at the Chicken Ranch, it would have taken on a whole different and qualitative meaning.
Posted by: Shawn at August 17, 2004 2:19 PM
Tony, you really need to try to get these filthy-minded readers (read: guys like Shawn) off of your site. I mean, really...
It's clear to me: The "69" in the applicant's e-mail address was likely the last two digits of her cell number...
Posted by: A Concerned Fan at August 17, 2004 2:25 PM
State Dept., in its retirement seminar, take the effort to inform soon-to-be-looking-for-job types to make sure they've got a "clean" e-mail address. They don't have your example, but plenty of others.
Posted by: John at August 17, 2004 5:47 PM
Conversely, one of the benefits of blogging nicknonymously is that when I job hunt under my true name my rantings are invisible.
Posted by: triticale at August 26, 2004 5:44 PM
