Possibly less so for the student in question, but if they haven’t responded after these unsubtle hints, they’re a lost cause. Or, more kindly, just young and clueless, as we all were one day.

Thanks for sharing this Stil.

Best,
Tony

The rude shock when they graduate will include facing the very human response of someone putting in a bunch of effort — for free! — on a couple of days notice and then not having receipt acknowledged before close of business that day. Pretty poor way to build a relationship so fuck off question 7, right?

This is just in such stark contrast with a guy last year who explained precisely what his project was, booked a time, sent me background notes and had clearly read a whole bunch of my stuff because he cut to the chase and asked me specific questions about what I’d said in an article the previous year compared with what others had told him.

That was an intelligent conversation via Skype that went way over time because it was fun and fascinating for both of us.

This student — are you reading this now? — seems to be going through the motions and ticking the boxes. Low pass at best, I’d say.

Also, for the record, “mongfest” is a perfectly acceptable description for Facebook.

If not as a role model, at least as a dire warning.

@BernieTB: Yeah upon reflection the questions I was asked were rather generic — and it’s not like I haven’t written and spoken shitloads about this stuff before.

Indeed if you follow the links you’ll find plenty about the industrial-age media factories. I know some of them have already been used in university classes because I’ve received copyright royalty payments for them — though why you’d reprint them when you can just email the students a link to them for free is beyond me. Perhaps some universities do that to justify their fees.

Another thing struck me about this student. They don’t seem to have much of an online footprint — unless it’s all in that mongfest called Facebook. No indication on Twitter that they contributed anything to the world. No website. Nothing written anywhere.

Even their email was from a generic free email account, didn’t mention their phone number or their university or even the Twitter account through which they’d first contacted me. In retrospect, for someone who intends to make a career out of marketing and PR, that’s pretty half-arsed.

Now I do know which university they’re at ‘cos I did some basic forensics on their email. And thinking about it, I’m tempted to create a PR disaster for them to see how they cope. Now that would be a learning experience!