Dear Hiring Manager… I’m Sorry

Had to keep the title short because as clever as “for job seekers who consider suicide when being themselves is enough” takes up a lot of space.

Dear Hiring Manager,

Perhaps you’re landing on this page because I’ve applied for a job within your establishment. Or perhaps you’ve done a random Google search on one of my areas of expertise. Nonetheless, I feel the need to offer an apology of sorts. It seems to me that in today’s job climate, where worker supply greatly outpaces the number of available jobs, candidates are encouraged to be robots. Job seekers are told to scrub most or all evidence of their personality from their web footprints to be “employable.” We’re told to remove unflattering information.

I’m not that candidate. Let me apologize in advance for whatever you may find on Google/Bing/Yahoo/*insert search engine here*

I’m sorry if my professional pursuits bother you. I started in radio at the age of 16 as a lowly, coffee fetching intern and rose up the ranks to co-host a show in a top-100 market that lasted for eight years. I fell in love with this thing called hip hop which, despite being a billion dollar industry, isn’t taken 100 percent seriously by people outside the culture. I was a bit of a wild and crazy personality on air and a little bit of that shows in my writing.

I’m sorry if some articles you may find after searching for my name may seem a bit trivial. That love of hip hop led me to Hip Hop DX, where I was a contributing writer for roughly seven years. While there I did everything from short news stories to controversial editorial pieces. You may consider it a “hobby,” I called it a job, a virtual office if you will. That site, by the way, is the number one hip hop site on the Internet. In the words of Barack H. Obama, “you didn’t build that,” but I did. And I’m proud of it.

I’m sorry if the sport of mixed martial arts isn’t your cup of tea. Maybe you consider it to be barbaric. Maybe it’s just not your thing. But I’ve been blessed to live out my dream, covering the sport I love since 2008. And while you may not like the sport, my writing – the thing I hope to be evaluated on for this job – is good. So good, that I’ve penned five cover stories for a national magazine.

I’m sorry if my interest in sexually explicit media is a turn off. I don’t expect p0rnography to be everybody’s thing, or even most people’s things even though the vast majority consume and lie about it later. A chance interview for Hip Hop DX in 2008 turned out to be one of the most read pieces on the site that year. Which led to my master’s thesis. Which led to that Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies which probably piqued your interest and made me qualified for this job in the first place.

I’m sorry if my opinions ruffle your feathers. During my time as a journalist, I’ve felt the need to speak up and speak out on things that have a negative impact on my community: HIV/AIDS, police brutality, negative music. I also occasionally frequently criticize the establishment. Because I expect more from most of our leaders and taste makers. Because my high expectations for them also drive the high expectations for myself. Because there are so few voices offering substantive criticism in my community, I figured, “Why not me?”

I’m sorry if you’ve found something that offended you. Maybe I’m not a good fit for this job. Maybe you just needed a reason to overlook my application.

What I’m not sorry for… is being me.

Sincerely,
Anthony Springer Jr.