Medium Happiness

So, I am out in Chicago; happy to report I didn’t get the flu while I’ve been here, unlike last year.

Anyhow. I didn’t plan on blogging today but I found this amazingly pitiful story on Cnn.com and I had to share it with you all.

A wretched woman in San Francisco has taken it upon herself to help her husband find a job by starting the site  myhusbandneedsajob.com. on his behalf. Ostensibly turning him into a charity case. I am not trying to marginalize what’s happening in the job market right now. I work in advertising, and a light breeze is all it would take to send the agency I work at toppling. People are unemployed and it’s not good. But, is resorting to panhandling to find employment really the answer? I think what this woman, Ms. Sterns and her husband (tacitly) have done is tactless and self-important.

Here (below) is the header image from the site of Ms. Sterns panhandling followed by the site’s manifesto authored by her.

This site was born out of frustration with the job market.  My husband graduated in 2008 with an MBA from Georgetown.  After Mike finished his MBA, we moved back to California to be closer to family.  We both had high expectations for his career and our life after business school.  However, those expectations quickly changed as we were faced with this horrible economy.  After almost ten months of watching my wonderful husband work tirelessly to find a job, I decided to take matters into my own hands and help him stand out in a sea of unemployed.

Take a look around my site and get to know Mike.  Learn more about him on the About Mike and Meet Mike pages.  If you have any questions or would like the opportunity to meet my husband, you can email me on the Contact Mike page.  Please pass this website along to friends, family, colleagues, and those who are hiring.  I know each visitor to this site will think my husband is as great as I do.  Someday soon one good company will become even better with him on their team.

Thanks for visiting!

Robin

Holy fuck that’s abhorrent.

This guy, for whom the wife-created site was created, is Michael Sterns.

“Michael Stearns, 30, earned his master’s in business administration from Georgetown University in Washington in May 2008. He says he is “basically looking to get into a corporate marketing environment” but is willing to try anything reasonable.”

First, Michael, maybe you shouldn’t have gone to Georgetown to get your MBA. And, if this, “looking to get into a corporate marketing environment,” is your goal in life, Michael, I have no sympathy for you. Take what you’ve learned and do something decent, man.

Undoubtedly, I am coming off as callous in this post, but it really chapped my ass for several reasons. I am not much of an MBA adherent. None of the most successful people I know have their MBAs. Getting an MBA has become this kind of imprimatur or rite of passage for making a lot of money and little else. What an MBA really is is 2 or 3 years for money hungry people to network and solidify a high paying job when they leave school with their degree. Will they have to work like dogs? Yes. But is that really admirable; an infinite tolerance for subjugating yourself to the man.

I would have been way more impressed if Michael Sterns and his wife had created a site soliciting good business ideas. “My husband can be a great administrator. He isn’t very good at coming up with original ideas. (That’s why he went to Georgetown to get his MBA. He he. Oops.) But if you have a good idea, he can help you raise capital to get it off the ground. And then,  you can both get rich and take credit for the idea.”

Michael, you and your wife are barking up the wrong tree. Check out this guy, he was laid off and started his own company building jelly fish tanks. That’s badass, man.