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I'm sure many people who are unemployed are unemployed through no fault of their own. But...

... the other day I checked out a site for finding tech/design-oriented interns. There were 50 listed in my city (Philadelphia)... and most of the eye-catching descriptions the interns had written for themselves were things like:

* "Coming soon"

* "19 years old"

* "I'm a recent graduate of the University of Miami"

* "My name is Brittany"

* "My name is [redacted] and I am a 19-year-old Korean-American student."

This was the only part of the profile that was really custom to them, other than checking off a list of skills & available times/dates.

Don't even get me started on the usernames they chose to present to potential employers. (Musicbabi_87?!)

Their chances are pretty much zero. Obviously nobody taught these kids (and, in a few cases, adults) anything at all about professionalism or the fact that when they take a job, their job is to serve the employer. And they obviously haven't been reading books on their own that would teach them that.

Only a precious few mentioned anything that would tell me what I'd get out of the deal, how they could help me/be useful to me. Almost none even expressed any interests or goals of their own.

So, obviously, I'm not hiring any of them -- when I would have liked to. They got in their own way. This is, sadly, their fault.




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