Sean D. Francis

Nobody Uses the Internet on Friday – Friday the 13th Edition

Posted on 13 August 2010

Can you believe it is Friday again? It is like there is a Friday every week. What is up with that? I’m not getting caught with my pants down again, though I did totally forget there was a Friday last week. Oops, that happens.

By now we are friends, right? Can I tell you a secret? I’m all up in the job search and I read every bit of advice on how to get a job that I can possibly find. Sometimes the advice is spot on and sometimes the hypocrisy of it all makes me sick to my stomach. Oh, you want an example? Of course, why else would we have this conversation?

Prospective employers find job seekers who drink alcohol to be less intelligent and less hireable than those who don’t. In this tough market this bias isn’t much of a joke.

In one of their experiments, the researchers asked 610 middle managers at U.S. companies to evaluate a video recording of a dramatized interview over dinner between a pair of actors playing a manager and a prospective hire.

The script for the questions and answers was the same in all cases. In some of the mock interviews, the manager ordered “Coke” or “the house Merlot.” The job seeker also ordered either the soft drink or the wine.

Regardless of what the manager ordered, job seekers were seen as less worthy of being hired and less “intelligent, scholarly and intellectual” when they ordered the Merlot.

Ah, hypocrisy, by any other name would you be as sweet? I’m going to go out on that dangerously sturdy limb and say that in any job situation, partaking in any mind altering substance is a bad idea. Yeah, don’t even order that soda, stick with sparkling or still water. Seriously. I know you are snickering at me right now because you know I think this is a load of pure bunk, but speaking as a job seeker, every advantage one can get in the effort should be taken. If you are in an interview situation where alcohol is an option, do the responsible thing and pre-drink*. Get the credit for responsible behavior and the benefits of social lubrication.

*This statement only applies to people of legal drinking age and does not encourage over-indulgence, which really is a sign of weak character. No one wants to hear that ‘I had a bad day’ excuse anymore. That got old last week, okay?

Random Video Tangent!

Sorry it was too stupid not to share.

I guess since today is Friday the 13th I should share some unlucky stuff from the Internet with everyone. How about unlucky shirts?

see more Poorly Dressed

Maybe this guys isn’t unlucky… maybe he was lucky he had those shorts available when you ruined his pants. No, I take that back. Those shorts are pretty damn unlucky.

see more Poorly Dressed

I’m not superstitious. Really. I don’t walk underneath ladders because stuff can fall on me if I do. I don’t like breaking mirrors because it takes 7 years to find all the little glass bits. Seven years of being afraid to walk barefoot. Who needs that? Spilling salt is the exact type of distraction ninjas use to sneak up on people so tossing that salt over your shoulder just might catch the assassin off guard.

Perhaps the best way to combat bad luck is by having some good luck. There is one person who seems to have an amazing gift for finding four leaf clovers: Summer Praetorius. She has an amazing track record in finding four leaf clovers.

I think most people don’t look, that’s the interesting thing. Because if you see somebody who’s lucky or – in some way it seems like luck is just this random thing that’s streaming through that some people intercept and, you know, other people just don’t. But I guess I think its a little bit more like the people themselves are actually engaging or intercepting that luck.

Yikes, that was a bit too deep for a Friday post. I better put the Internet down and back away slowly before anyone gets enlightened. Until next time, it is your Internet, use it or lose it.

Luck is a crazy thing, but maybe Summer is absolutely right. We get the luck we look for.