This posting is both funny and kind of sad.
The mental arms race is on – people that are “repackaging” themselves a little too aggressively in the organizational marketplace.
People are trying to differentiate themselves from the thousands of people that are just like them – both inside organizations and in the floods of people in the job market. It is relatively easy to do if you have two things – something clever to talk about that is new and current, and have a basic understanding of marketing.
I have positioned myself as a thought leader in redesigning HR processes, and in new metrics to align HR with the organization. I have been trying to re-package myself with some success at the national level, and am working on a book that will make a difference (I hope) and am enrolling in a PhD. program. Fine.
Because of this, I am always on the lookout for people that are doing either a better job than I (so I can learn) or a worse job (so I can feel a little smug.) Today, I ran across an amazing example of repackaging that is as fascinating as a train wreck.
Remember Jayson Blair? He was the journalist that resigned from the New York Times because of plagiarism in 2003. As you can see from his Wikipedia entries here, he had a life-long history of poor reporting and fabricating important information in his stories. Simply put, he is a very bad reporter and a chronic user of other peoples’ information. At his student paper, he got in trouble for 4 stories. At the New York Times, it was in the hundreds. Yikes.
Drummed out of the journalism corps andthe subject of quite a bit of national press, I always wondered where he might get a job. A greeter at Wal-mart? A drive through order person?
No. Try personal coaching and career consulting. I’m not kidding. I stumbled across Jayson’s web site here. It looks very professional.
Read his page on Career Coaching. He is offering his personal experience as a writer and journalist, and his personal experience as a defrocked professional who broke multiple ethical laws, as the reason you should hire him.
Wow. First, I am not happy that someone can sell their lack of personal ethics as a benefit. That the fact that they were caught at it as a point of personal pride, and is now a billable part of their package. Marketing a stinky past as perfume is done often in politics, and I’m disappointed that it is now in the professional ranks.
I’m also irritated that he joins the ranks of career counselors and life coaches. At the very least, they should keep a very close eye on his ethics….
Whatever. I guess the moral to my story is that re-packaging is rampant out there, for better or worse. Be careful, and screen your relationships and new hires well.
Karl Ahlrichs' Uncommon Experience 
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