"Off with his head!" I commanded

Businesses needing help sometimes bring in college interns for extra hands. The student gets solid experience, employers keep wages low, and schools can offer something extra of value. 

Being inexperienced, students can be forgiven for not recognizing they’re interviewing for a job, have competition, and must present their best face.

Business owners regularly interview girls with bare midriffs and pierced navels and guys with huge holes in their ear lobes for publicly visible positions. Except where customers are similarly attired, few of these kids are typically hired.

But what of someone who dresses the part but doesn’t speak well?

ESL classes can help the individual whose primary language isn’t English. But someone who just doesn’t care about speaking well…that’s another story.

For example, there’s a teenager whom I recently considered for an internship. He appeared right for the job, but his every third word was “like.” I found myself unable to listen to him, and ended the discussion quickly.

I’m increasingly surrounded by people saying “like”. It’s a verbal tic, replacing “um” and “er” in the vernacular. I find it annoying, and may ask them to say the exact same sentence without using the word “like”. If they can’t, I quickly excuse myself.

Dr. Alan Brownlie, an English professor at Anne Arundel Community College in Baltimore, likens this tic to a hamster running on a wheel, stopping periodically to catch his breath. “The ‘likes', ‘ums’, and ‘ers’ are that person stopping to catch his breath while searching for the next word,” he says.

It's beyond me why there can’t just be a moment of silence while that next word is being sought.

My millennial daughter says I’m too judgmental. Maybe she’s right. Yet as a communications professional I work hard to say the same thing in different ways. This young man only seemed to say different things the same way.

Said Professor Henry Higgins, “The majesty and grandeur of the English language is the greatest possession we have.” He referred to its “extraordinary, imaginative, and musical mixtures of sounds.”

I agree.

While potentially entering old-fogeydom, I’m depressed that so many people have either ignored or forgotten the joys of using language well. And while I appreciate the word “like”, too much of anything is unpleasant.

Business owners concerned with their public image will think hard before hiring someone who doesn’t represent them well in every way. Jobs are scarce these days, and an inability to communicate well makes selling yourself to potential employers unnecessarily challenging.

Job seekers are advised to dress nicely, have a resume, and be prompt. For me, add speaking well to the list.

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.

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Like, is Mr. Marketing, like, too harsh? Like, tell him your thoughts at, like, www.askmrmarketing.com. And, like, thanks.