horror story

Usually, applicants are pleased to hear back from the organizations they contact about job openings. In this case, not so much.  

Consider the tale of one Diana Mekota, who tried to connect with Kelly Blazek, the boss of the Cleveland Job Bank, via LinkedIn. According to a story on CNN.com, Mekota, 26, was planning to move to Cleveland in the coming months, and was checking out employment opportunities.

Mekota’s LinkedIn request sparked a response from Blazek that should make every HR manager wince. Mekota posted it in full on several social media sites, and it spawned a firestorm of comments.

Here it is:

We have never met. We have never worked together. You are quite young and green on how business connections work with senior professionals.

Apparently you have heard that I produce a Job Bank, and decided it would be stunningly helpful for your career prospects if I shared my 960+ LinkedIn connections with you — a total stranger who has nothing to offer me.

Your invite to connect is inappropriate, beneficial only to you, and tacky. Wow, I cannot wait to let every 26 year old jobseeker mine my top-tier marketing connections to help them land a job.

I love the sense of entitlement in your generation. And therefore I enjoy Denying your invite, and giving you the dreaded “I Don’t Know” … because it’s the truth.

Oh, and to request to actually receive my Job Bank along with the 7,300 other subscribers to my service? That’s denied, too.

I suggest you join the other Job Bank in town.

Oh wait — there isn’t one.

You’re welcome for your humility lesson for the year. Don’t ever reach out to senior practitioners again and assume their carefully curated list of connections is available to you, just because you wanted to build your network.

Don’t ever write me again.

Classy, eh? And we can’t resist adding this bit of irony: Blazek was  named 2013′s “Communicator of the Year” by Cleveland’s branch of the International Association of Business Communicators — although it appears that organization is rethinking its decision.

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