I work for a fantastic company called <a title=\”meltmedia: an enterprise level web application development firm and interactive design agency based in Tempe, Arizona\” href=\”http://meltmedia.com\” target=\”_blank\”><strong>melt</strong>media</a>. They’re a rock-solid group of developers, designers and business people who build amazing web sites, mobile applications and enterprise class software. What’s even nuttier about <strong>melt</strong>media is that they let ME rewrite their job posts in my silly random banter that I hear up in my head up there.\r\n\r\n<strong>melt</strong>media uses the <a title=\”meltmedia Job Openings on the Resumator\” href=\”http://meltmedia.theresumator.com/\” target=\”_blank\”>Resumator</a> service to post its open positions. The stupidity starts on the page that lists all of the open jobs. The paragraph next to the list is like the intro to <strong>melt</strong>media for prospective applicants and it reads like this (thanks to me):\r\n<blockquote>Thanks for visiting our Job Board! If you think our Job Board is sweet, wait until you see our Scoreboard! It’ll be AWESOME when we get around to buying one.\r\n\r\nPlease review our open positions and apply to the positions that match your qualifications. Be sure to mention that you found the listing written on the underside of a cowboy hat you almost bought at the gift shop in Buffalo, WY. That won’t get you any extra points, but it sure does make a great story!\r\n\r\nRemember: The secret word is, \”limburger.\”</blockquote>\r\nThe internal process of sending these posts to me for modification is called, \”Andyfication\” or, \”Andyfying\” a job post. I don’t remember where that came from, but it’s kinda catchy. I dig it.\r\n\r\nHow do I do it? I read every single post from top to bottom. I read every word. I absorb the letters into my brain matter, as a matter of fact. Every little wordy morsel squishes into the creases in my brain. While I’ve never seen the creases in my brain, I assume they’re up there because I saw another brain on \”Dr. G: Medical Examiner\” on the Discovery Health Channel, er, whatever channel that was. As I read, I wait for my brain to conjure up a response to the sentence I just read. I read like I’m listening to someone lecturing and I’m in the peanut gallery. It’s as if I was volleying stupid quips back and forth with my most comedic friends. It’s like heckling, but I have plenty of time to think of something funny to say. I usually see a phrase or sentence and it triggers a memory or a stupid quote or a joke. I try to rewrite the post to include those random thoughts like it’s a dialog between me and the potential applicant. It’s funnier when it’s written in a conversational way, I think. It’s almost like the sentences have been squeezed through my internal stream-of-consciousness hamburger press. Yes, that’s a good way to put it. The best part is that the imaginary potential applicant can’t run away from me. They’re trapped. Like rats. Up in my head.\r\n\r\nOne other thing that makes this tougher is that I really try to avoid repeating funny tidbits and I really try to avoid repeating funny tidbits in the posts. See what I did there? That’s comedy bronze, right there. Realistically, there will be repeating lines, since we sometimes bring back old posts or I simply didn’t have enough caffeine the morning they sent me the post to be Andyfried. Deal with it. Nanny-nanny-boo-boo.\r\n\r\nWhy does <strong>melt</strong>media do this? The following is an article from the <a title=\”meltmedia blog | Phoenix, Arizona Interactive Agency\” href=\”http://blog.meltmedia.com/\” target=\”_blank\”>meltmedia blog</a> where our Creative Partner Dave Woodruff explains his take on it: <a title=\”meltmedia blog: Can Job Applicants Know Your Culture Before They Apply?\” href=\”http://blog.meltmedia.com/2013/03/can-job-applicants-know-your-culture-before-they-apply\” target=\”_blank\”>\”Can Job Applicants Know Your Culture Before They Apply?\”</a>\r\n\r\nAgain, I can’t remember how it started, but I believe it was in early 2012. I or someone mentioned that we should try to funny-up our postings. \”Funny-up\” is like \”cowboy up\” but without the sombrero and spurs, er, whatever those country folk wear to the honker-tonky to go line dancing.\r\n\r\nWe figured that if someone reads that posting and says to themselves, \”What in the h-e-double-hockey-sticks is this tripe??\” they’re probably not a cultural fit for us. At <strong>melt</strong>media, we like funny and relaxed. If another potential applicant reads it and says, \”Holy crapmuffins! I GOTTA work there! They’re hilarious!\” then that person is pickin’ up what we’re puttin’ down, if you know what I’m sayin’ and I think you do. Also, every time an applicant says the word, \”crapmuffin,\” and RC airplane gets its wings.\r\n\r\nWe’ve received many contact form submissions and emails from people who don’t even qualify for the positions but who just wanted to say that they LOVED our job postings. Sweet potatoes, Margaret, we’ve struck ohl! (\”Ohl\” is how Texans say, \”oil.\”) (No, I’m not from Texas.) (If you’ve ever driven the distance of I-10 from east to west OR from west to east through Texas, all 910 miles of it, you’ll want to punch a cowboy. It sucks.) (I hear Austin is nifty.)\r\n\r\nWe recently received a comment on our website about the funny job posts, but the person wasn’t applying, just letting us know that she really loved the posts:\r\n<blockquote>I read with much delight–okay, gleefully even, the LinkedIn posting for your email Marketing Project Coordinator… Reading your posting all the way through was the most fun I have had in…well, I’m embarrassed and really don’t want to talk about the details… But the reading was very entertaining… So while I am not applying for this role of a lifetime (\”You like me! You REALLY like me!\”), I wanted to take the time to say super-kudos on a CRA-ZAZY fun posting! Yepper-pepper, way fun, and much needed, I might add…</blockquote>\r\nCase in point: <strong>melt</strong>media’s new Director of Technology, Anthony, was hooked by the, um, Director of Technology post below. You see, he is the Director of Technology, so it stands to reason that he was hooked by that particular post. Or was he? [Insert scary bagpipe music here.] [Wait, no. Insert spooky organ music here.] Read what he had to say <a title=\”The Creative Technologist on Culture, Culture, Culture!\” href=\”http://www.thecreativetechnologist.com/culture-culture-culture/\” target=\”_blank\”>here on his blog, \”The Creative Technologist.\”</a> From the comments on Anthony’s blog post, a one Paul Dwinell writes:\r\n<blockquote>The slapstick recklessness was beautiful, and had me Rolling off my chair and onto the floor, hand over my aching belly from laughing too hard… Between breaths I said to my wife: “Honey, I know where I belong, now!”</blockquote>\r\nAnthony writes in his blog post:\r\n<blockquote>These were the funniest and funnest job descriptions I’d ever seen… My heart and mind raced as I read through the rest of the description. “Is this a joke? What kind of company would post something like this? How have I never heard of these guys? Has someone gotten a hold of my secret business diary and is playing a weird trick on me? Is that how you spell fundoozie?” I was totally dumbfounded.</blockquote>\r\nBased on those quotes from actual people, I’d say we have a good thing going with our funny job posts at meltmedia. I mean, cereally! REAL people!\r\n\r\nJan X of Spokane, Washington writes:\r\n<blockquote>Never in my entire life have I ever been so disgusted by… Oh, wait. That was supposed to be funny? Well, sh*t, dawg! Load me up with some more of those whacky job posts! And Carolton! Get me a beer! [unintelligible mumbling]\”</blockquote>\r\nNow, to be fair, we’ve gotten a few mildly unfavorable comments, as well. Weirdness, funny, humor… They’re just not for everyone, it seems. Case in point: We’d reached out to someone for the Art Director position who claims to enjoy \”fun,\” but they replied back with this:\r\n<blockquote>I checked out meltmedia’s website and read more about the Art Director opening. I’m just having a hard time taking you guys seriously. Don’t get me wrong… I like to goof around and have fun at work. But your company just comes across as unsophisticated and inexperienced. …I’m just not sure I would be a good fit.</blockquote>\r\nOur Director of HR had included that response in an email to the group of us that work on the job posts. I replied-all to everyone on the list with this:\r\n<blockquote>\”Unsophisticated and inexperienced?\” Somebody needs to stop pouring serious syrup on his pancakes every morning. Try some Cheerios®, Mr. Poopypants.\r\n\r\nExcellent example of how the filtering works! Yay team!\r\n\r\nNow, if you’ll excuse me, I must go hide in a corner and cry a little, for Mr. [Name Obscured] has sucked all of the happiness out of my day.</blockquote>\r\nBelow, I’ve collected the various postings I’ve Andyfied to keep an archive for myself. At this time, we haven’t made these available on the <a title=\”meltmedia | Superheroes Unite – enterprise level web application development firm and interactive design agency based in Tempe, Arizona\” href=\”http://meltmedia.com\” target=\”_blank\”><strong>melt</strong>media.com website</a>, but it’s coming. I’ve highlighted in yellow the bits I added to the posts as well as I could, but most of the additions are context-sensitive: You really need to read what surrounds the funny things or the funny things may not seem that funny. Like I said above, it’s written kinda conversationally-like-sorta-kinda.\r\n<ul>\r\n
Be the first to comment