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Comment by miketomo | Hacker News Reader

Wow... It's reading articles like this that makes me very pleased that I decided to decline an offer to move to the USA a couple of years back.

"Personal brand"? Thank you letters to recruiters? "Thank you for your guidance and support"...

I can't be the only British person to read this article and feel a little bit sickened by the cloying falseness of the language used here, it's one of the main reasons why I no longer consider job offers from big US companies - I like to work with people who tell me what they think, not what they think I want to hear.

Apologies for this sounding like an anti-American rant, I don't mean it in that way, but there is something very wrong with the false-friendly, euphemistic speech used by a lot of people and organisations over that side of the pond. I think a lot of it is really just "please-don't-sue-me" speech.

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I absolutely agree. What I find extremely distasteful about what the article recommends is the total fakeness of everything. Were I on the receiving end of that sort of communication it would leap out as less than genuine and I'd be insulted.

Straightforward honesty and integrity will get you much further than a personal brand.

I don't think a personal brand and integrity are mutually exclusive ideas. In fact, I think the people who have great "reputations" or good "names" in their respective communities base that on their honesty and integrity.

I'd be curious to know how you would alter the wording of one of the templates to be more honest and integrity-based.

This pretense permeates American culture and it's one of the things that really gets to me, because my personality is very somber by nature.

I talk to everybody as I would a close friend or neighbor, and this includes potential employers. I just can't seem to adopt default business lingo/customs, and this may ultimately be my downfall, but I'm not comfortable slapping on a fake persona.

I absolutely agree with you. I get to the shop talk and neighborly language asap when I'm building a relationship. But I also build up to that point rather than coming right out of the gates swinging.

Interesting point. That's good to know there is such a gap there. I do think most companies have one goal in rejecting candidates: don't get into a lawsuit.

I mentioned this in response to another reply, but, seeing your point, I do feel a second set of templates is in store. It's a matter of personal preference... But I never recommend that people be false or fake in their communication.

The bottom line in this article is this: you can be a jerk to the recruiters and therefore blow future chances, or you can thank them for their time and move on without closing any doors. I always recommend the second because I've seen far too many candidates accept an offer and then hate the job, at which point they have to go crawling back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n2PW1TqxQk

Nice. I get your point.

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