Dave's Manifesto (or this blog's raison d'etre)
After the U.S. economy began its nosedive in 2000, the San Francisco job market -- which had previously been very favorable to those in search of employment -- began to see power shift back into the hands of employers. As a result, the tone of job listings on community sites such as craigslist.org started to change from "please please come work for us -- we'll give you a Porsche!" to a decidedly smug "Looking for a job? Well, you'll have to meet our huge list of required skills and qualifications, and be willing to work for peanuts."
As the ranks of the unemployed grew, so did the brazenness of employers, who were well aware that they could list a job looking for, say, a software engineer with marketing experience, writing skills, and a blimp pilot license, and still get thousands of resumes from the desperate job seeking hordes. All the while offering salaries far below the market rate even long before the unrealistic dot-com bubble days.
Well, as one of those desperate job seekers who sent out thousands of resumes to jobs I felt I was qualified for -- and who was treated with thinly veiled ennui by the few interviewers with whom I managed to gain face time -- I finally decided enough was enough. It was time that someone fought back against the opportunistic, greedy employers and their unrealistic expectations. If they were going to act arrogant and self-important, then I was going to respond in kind -- by appplying to jobs using the most obnoxious, aggressive attitude I could muster. I decided to begin all email job inquiries by asking how much they were paying, and how many vacation days I would get. I also adopted a terse, blunt writing style that made it sound like I was doing employers a favor just by inquiring about the job. Bascially, I decided to act like a complete asshole, because, in my opinion, that's how many employers were (and still are) acting.
This blog serves as a repository for email exchanges between me and several San Francisco Bay Area employers.