Hunter S. Thompson's brutally honest Canadian job request

I think the letter is a great example of how I would like to see resume submissions / job requests written. It gets to the point pretty directly in "this is how I think I can help" and "here is the type of environment I am/am not interested in".<p>Instead, a lot of time these days is wasted in "here is my resume", phone back and forth with some HR person, phone with the hiring person, if in person, then you may or may not get a good feel for the work environment.<p>If only it were possible for both sides to be frank about "this is what we do" and "this is what we want".

Hunter seemed to be heavily inspired by Hemingway at this point in his career.<p>When Hemingway started out, he worked for the Toronto Star (another Canadian newspaper). He wrote his first novel during this time: The Sun Also Rises, about expatriates living in Paris.<p>Hunter decided to apply to a Canadian newspaper after admittingly not being familiar with it. Then not long after he wrote his first novel - The Rum Diary - which was heavily inspired by Hemingway's first, about expatriates living in Puerto Rico.

2 other awesome letters he wrote:<p><a href="http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/07/your-work-was-inadequate-and.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.lettersofnote.com/2010/07/your-work-was-inadequat...</a><p><a href="http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/okay-you-lazy-bitch.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/09/okay-you-lazy-bitch.htm...</a>

Hilarious, now, the one thing I can't get out of my head is the question if he got the job or not?

I did part of my MA on Thompson and even reviewed a collection of letters for Canada's National Post newspaper years ago (<a href="http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg57692.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg57692.h...</a>). I don't know if people will read anything but Vegas in 100 years, but his style and humour made him a standout in his time. He was influenced by Hemingway but he also typed out The Great Gatsby to try pick up on the style. Another strong stylistic influence was Revelations. A great letter that brought it all back.

I have always hated writing bullshit cover letters. Now I just write short, honest introductions. As an aside, should I make a plain text version of my resume and put it in the body of the email itself? Or is a pdf attachment enough? I figure the overhead of having to download and open the pdf could be overcome by putting the resume in the body itself. Thoughts?

My Favorite <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/graffiti/crook.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/graffiti/crook....</a>

I don't know anything about Thompson as a person, so I'll refrain from judging. I'm only glad that I'm finally able to put a term to what I despise most about journalism in our country (U.S.), evidently the term is "Gonzo journalism."<p>"Gonzo journalism tends to favor style over accuracy and often uses personal experiences and emotions to provide context for the topic or event being covered." --Wikipedia<p>I don't care about what the journalist thinks or feels. I'm an adult and I can form my own opinion, based on my values. Give me the facts! Just please give me the damn facts, I beg you! I don't need the anchor to "show attitude" and give me "what if" scenarios to wiggle my imagination while bending the facts in the process.<p>Currently, this technique is king among the major news networks in the U.S. It makes them completely incapable of reporting the news in its natural form: facts. It is unethical and amoral for journalists to swing public opinion with eloquent narrative that favors "style over accuracy."

I remember once telling an HR person at M$FT when interviewing for an internship ( 12 years ago ) that "I don't like to be micromanaged." I've since learned to be less forthright in my job interviews.