PressEthic

So let me get this straight – if people like you, they’re more likely to hire you for a job, and therefore it’s a good thing to have social skills when going to a job interview. Wow! Oh my gosh, wow! I never ever would have figured that out by myself. Thank you, Boston Globe! You really saved my bacon. I mean, here I was, under the impression that when I go out to interview for jobs this summer, I should be rude and boorish, but thank God, you’ve set me straight.

OK, sarcasm aside, isn’t this something that people already know? Isn’t that something that you know intuitively? I mean, call me crazy, but I think it’s pretty obvious that if the person interviewing you doesn’t like you, they won’t hire you – who wants to work with someone they don’t like? More importantly, why is the Boston Globe dedicating a whole article in their jobs section to this stuff? I would understand if this was part of a larger article about how to land a job, or interviewing advice, but they’ve dedicated a whole article to the importance of social skills.

I know that what people consider news differs depending on who you are, and that newspapers (and other media outlets) have to cover all kinds of different things to keep people interested and reading (including articles about smoked salmon-flavored soda). But isn’t there a point where certain articles could be considered a waste of someone’s time? If I go to a website, or read a newspaper article about how to find a job, or how to interview well, I expect to get something more than “If they like you, they’ll hire you, so brush up on your manners.”