The Secret Language of Business
“If scientific language is about longer individual life in exchange for an ethical one; if political agenda is the xenophobic protection of a few families against the catastrophic others; if religious language is discredited as contempt for the nonreligious; if secular language bridles in fear of the sacred; if market language is merely an excuse for exciting greed…where might we look for humanity’s own future?” Toni Morrison, “The War on Error”: Amnesty International Lecture, Edinburgh, Scotland, August 29, 2004.
The process is of looking for a job is similar to a self-flagellation by existential crisis. In its noblest of pursuits, the job seeker must regularly and with brutal honesty confront their strengths, weakness, and abilities. They must pragmatically detail their contributions at service jobs and unpaid internships, quantifiably explain the impact of their accomplishments in school, studies and life abroad, and ultimately market, package, and brand these abilities for potential employers. Employers who will then, dependent on a suite of arbitrary and asymmetric criteria, make a hiring decision based on that information.
The result for most job seekers is a disheartening period of profound discouragement, made worse by constant rejection and self-doubt which, cruelly, grows with each rejection. Because, in America, our very survival is dependent on…
