Ask a Manager

Have you seen the old cover letter from Hunter S. Thompson that’s been going around, written before he was famous?

Some choice quotes:

“I stepped into a dung-hole the last time I took a job with a paper I didn’t know anything about (see enclosed clippings) and I’m not quite ready to go charging up another blind alley.”

“By the time you get this letter, I’ll have gotten hold of some of the recent issues of The Sun. Unless it looks totally worthless, I’ll let my offer stand. And don’t think that my arrogance is unintentional: it’s just that I’d rather offend you now than after I started working for you.”

“I didn’t make myself clear to the last man I worked for until after I took the job. It was as if the Marquis de Sade had suddenly found himself working for Billy Graham. The man despised me, of course, and I had nothing but contempt for him and everything he stood for. If you asked him, he’d tell you that I’m ‘not very likable, (that I) hate people, (that I) just want to be left alone, and (that I) feel too superior to mingle with the average person.’ (That’s a direct quote from a memo he sent to the publisher.)”

Now MediaBistro has asked a few career writers if they think the letter would work today. I’m quoted (saying “hell no,” basically), along with Laurie Ruettimann and Nick Corcodilos. Check it out here.