Serious business indeed

Could be a good applicant, it’s just that English does not appear to be their first language. Might be a bit of a set-back for someone writing for an English-language publication. After some thought, it might be best if you don’t take it any further.

I can’t believe how picky employer’s are these days.

This person desperately wants to get out of their current job of translating product manuals to English, but I think you should give them a pass on this opportunity.

Humiliating a wannabe?

They’re not a PR firm representing a brand and it’s not un-solicited.

Poor show Mumbo. You owe them an apology.

I totally agree with @dch. Good for you for stepping up. Poor show. Mumbrella is stooping lower than ever for a cheap gag.

I encourage more good people in our industry to comment here now to show Mumbrella that they’re off target. There are many good people in this industry of ours that are not like this, and don’t support this nasty behaviour. When we can all stand up together and be vocal enough our collective voice will then be stronger than this.

Good people find it easier to sit down and shut up, and let the nasty few have their voice rather than stand up against them. There are many that say ‘Don’t respond or you’ll give attention to it’ – the opposite is true. Ignoring poor behaviour allows it to continue and it becomes real and is perpetuated.

Silence = Condone. It is time to step up I say… with full disclosure about who we are too.

Tim,

That it’s an overseas applicant is not the point. Furthermore, you have no idea if they’ll read this or not and that’s still not the point.

I understand having a giggle at press releases or what-not that come your way. They’re written for publication. Fair game.

A job application isn’t.

Poking fun at a badly written application is one thing.

Publishing it is very much another.

-dch

But still, why post this?

Keep the joke internal if you must, but posting for everyone to see… not necessary, and not funny.

Yep Mumbrella – very poor form indeed….

You should know us Aussies support the little guys.

They are defenceless – go back to picking fun at the big guys and leave the little ones alone.

Missed that advertisement, but I returned to free-lancing just last week. Are you still taking applications for this work? I have searched your site for details without success.

I disagree with all you softies re Mumbrella’s poor form……Tim’s having a gag and as a recipient of job applications like this myself I totally get the joke. It’s even funnier that they are applying for a journalism position.

If offering this up humiliates and discourages just one ill-advised overseas applicant who hasn’t a chance in hell of getting a job with their lack of relevant experience and basic command of English then I say Tim has done all employers a good service.

Time for everyone to harden the F%^* up. And if you don’t like Tim’s sense of humour you’re visiting the wrong blog. Go to one of his competitors for safe, recycled press releases with no chance of offending anyone, rather than trying to change Mumbrella – most of us here appear to appreciate Tim’s spin on things.

I say fair game, the applicant clearly did not take the time to check out Mumbrella and pick up any of the tone, subject matter, etc. that they’d be required to use and convey in the role.

Poor English aside, it’s a good lesson for any aspiring applicants – do your research. This person obvs didn’t bother.

So your comment, Tim, of “if you’re the right person for us, we can train you” doesn’t apply to this poor sap then.

I’m with most others, poor form. Job hunting is merciless at the best of times – poking poo at someone because they gave it a go isn’t very Australian.

I agree with Rob and Tim. Talk about being PC…ever heard of a sense of humour

So picking on someone’s poor grasp of English is funny now?

Tim, readign? Hmmmmm….

leave Tim alone – as long as he’s picking on foreigners to whom English is a second language he has less time to have a crack at the PR industry and Hill & Knowlton in particular

Dom @ 17 the humour is in the fact they are applying for a journalism job with such a poor grasp of English. same as it’d be funny for the taxi driver applicant to get lost driving to the interview, or the lifeguard applicant who can’t swim…..geddit?

wow did not expect mumbrella to make fun of job applicants, however bad/irrelevant the application is. It’s not B2B, it’s one-on-one. Such poor form.

as a non-native english speaker working in marketing, I’m actually offended. So not on.

Tim, I know this person. He’s the deputy governor of the bank of Nigeria and has $100m in funds that he needs to transfer to a safe haven. Kind sir!

Yeh – it is funny mr mumbrella, but I have to agree with the majority of commenters that it’s poor form making fun of a job applicant publicly – even with the anonymisation of the application.

Show it around the office or email it to friends, but this isn’t the place for it.

I really don’t see the point in why Mumbrella would publish this – it’s cruel and in poor taste (and I work in recruitment)! Keep jokes that are made at others expense private.

Haha Gezza. Gold.

But I agree with the angry mob on this one Tim. Not a great look poking fun at the poor fella.

Totally agree with Rob (comment 11). I found this article hilarious! If you don’t like Mumbrella’s ‘blog’ site (in particular his super-entertaining “Dr Mumbo” section), then go read boring old AdNews – they need all the readers they can get. But good luck expressing your opinion in the comments thread – I hear they’ve banned this!

Yes .. we’re Australian and yes, we like to laugh and take the piss. Stop being so bloody pc and soft. I’d suggest more than some of you Tim knockers may want to take a long hard look at yourselves and stop being hypocrites. Those of you who honestly think they aren’t can go pour themselves a cup of Shut the F*ck up. It’s a blog – not a political policy. Lighten up!

Is this how you select your candidates? by taking the worlds point of view on their language skills? is this candidate aware that this is what is happening to his application?

he could sue the shit out of you…

If it was an application for a ‘normal’ job, then fair enough, but it wasn’t. If it was an advert for a lifeguard and they couldn’t swim, then it would be the same.
Sonal – “Is this how you select your candidates? by taking the worlds point of view on their language skills?” well yes, it is, FOR A JOB AS A WRITER.

He couldn’t sue, and I’m 99% certain this person has never visited this site. If it was a heartfelt, genuine application for a position (no matter how unqualified) I’m sure the letter wouldn’t have got the same treatment. It looks like a spray and pray by the like I get several of every single day in my inbox.

“Dear Sir, we would very much like to make partnership with your company. We have extensive experience in your field and can deliver good results”

I can haz job now?

@ Sonal if the applicant decides to sue I look forward to Mumbo publishing the legal brief for a few more laughs

@ Rip-Off Red

Hilarious

+1

@blue then perhaps you should inform your applicants that the selection procedure involves you putting up their application on your website/blog for the world to judge/laugh at.

Comon Tim, we all know you’re not the sort who’d be intentionally cruel to anyone. Humor comes with a certain level of risk. Just admit you may have made a small error of judgement and we can all default back to the not-outraged-by-Tim-anymore position.

The question posed by Tim (and the only thing he wriote about the application) is “should we take this further?” Besides, it’s a heads up to similar applicants that attention to detail (and decent Englkish) are basic essentials and not only for the application…

@Andrew – luckily these days the law now accepts that it is more than the literal content that applies, but the intention behind it and the actions that have created the opportunity. ‘Should we take this further?’ is not an innocent statement alone and Tim or Mumbrella clearly knew what they were doing.

Making fun of an individual in poor fashion is not an appropriate forum to market the job availability or criteria.

Like with Mumbrella’s lack of appropriate moderation on blog posts it supports verbal abuse by allowing it to happen. There is successful legal precedence that bystanders that did nothing or facilitated a crime to take place were equally a part of the crime. It is a matter of time before poor moderation becomes accountable.

@andrew. really? mumbrella can’t decide this themselves?

@Sonal All Tim did was publish some of their writing on this site. No comment was given. That’s all they wanted to achieve anyway, wasn’t it?

and the intent behind it was what exactly? please dont defend what you thought was a funny joke, on the basis of technicalities… the intent is obvious.
would have thought an organisation in the business of communications would understand that we’re not that literal in the world today.

but then again you cant even decide whether this applicant should be considered or not on your own… and you choose to ask the world. so maybe not.

@anna thanks for pointing that out

I’d be interested to hear from any lawyers as to whether publishing this breaches the Privacy Act. Even though mUmbrella has removed the applicant’s details doesn’t the company have a duty to treat a job application in-confidence? I’m pretty sure mUmbrella is on fairly shaky legal ground here.

people, people

time to take a deep breath and relax. if i read anne miles’ expert legal opinion correctly then it means that both on and offline the grand Australian tradition of taking the piss is now illegal…..WTF???!!!

anne, i suggested elsewhere you might want to skip on visiting mumbrella to protect your sensibilities, now i’m thinking you might want to emigrate to avoid being offended by the sense of humour most of us are proud to have. maybe that lovely little country called uptightistan

I rest my case.

@ Anne – well rest it elsewhere. Lighten up for God’s sake (unless that’s illegal too .. suggesting God would want you to relax?)

I agree that some people are being a tad PC on this issue. It was a really poorly written application for a journalists position – can’t some of you see that is just plain amusing. As for privacy, lawsuits, ethics and all the rest…. may I suggest some of you get a life along with a double helping of a new sense of humour?

As the original nay-sayer… 

It was a step too far. That’s all. If I saw this privately (ie ‘hey look at this job app on my computer”) I’d be chuckling away like the rest of you. 

Litigation is not the question raised by this (and certainly not the answer ffs!)

It’s that a light-hearted opinion blog used material that wasn’t fair game. 

Moments after RUOk day Dr Mumbo decided that making fun of someone who failed, and not through carelessness or poor judgement, is a totally ok thing to do. 

“Oh look, their English skills are not at the level the applicant thinks they are, and they’re wanting to work for me! Let’s all point and laugh at someone tried and failed!”

Ok, so it’s not what was going through your head when you laughed, or when anyone commented in favour, but by it’s publication and defense – what are we really saying here?

“Let’s make sure that anyone who tries to aim for something that’s out of their reach is derided and humiliated. Silly person, what were they thinking?”

Honestly, this reminds me of when the Daily Tele put the yr 12 photo and hsc marks from Mount Druitt high on the front cover a few years back. Only difference is, the Tele didn’t do it it so we could all point and laugh. 

That it’s a journalist position and utterly unfit – is ironic and, in a different setting, is hilarious. 

But that doesn’t make it ok to act they way we are.

Right or wrong this article just comes across as annoyingly smug. It’s a side of mumbrella that I could personally do without.

“All applicants will be treated in the strictest confidence”????

what a shame!
I have all the desired skills but I am not an experienced journo.
I waste my talent in the comments section.

Mumbrella haters crying “poor form” go and read cuddly stories about fairies. Tim is making light of what many members of management in media get bogged down in; incoming thoughtless drivel…

Perhaps though Tim, just for an experiment… Give this person a section. Call it ‘tales from afar’. Perhaps this new recruit can comment on our industry and we can have some light hearted banter and intrigue as a result?

I am intrigued to see what content would be produced… The section could have the persons photo at the top. You could make a star out of this person, their fate is in your hands Tim!!!!!!