Yeah, About Essay Writing

 I noticed this story in the AM today....that the University of California/Berkeley now requires you (if applying for a job) to write an essay.

In the 1990s, I worked with a guy who'd applied for a job, and in the last group of final applicants....they sprung a essay requirement on him.  It had to be forty lines and demonstrate his ability to take a subject, writing with a pen....telling a basic story.  

What they wanted to know....could you actually write and do so with limited errors or misspellings.  The subject could be on anything....they didn't care.  They just wanted to know if you were capable of independent thought and the capability to tell a story successfully.

I asked him if it worked out for his essay, and he just grinned.  He told some story of handling a gathering of forty-odd wasps, and he was stung so intently.....that mama had to carry him to the county hospital.  Apparently, either the writing style or the story itself....failed him for the job.  

Well, in this case with Berkley....if you are apply for the Office for Faculty, Equity, and Welfare (OFEW)....it's not a unlimited topic situation.  They want you to write a statement which indicates or acknowledges they did something in the past to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, or belonging.

I paused over this.

I think for 90-percent of people here in 2022....it'd be hard for them to write any type of essay.  You could make the topic of aliens, unicorns, cowboys, fetishes, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, the effect of homelessness, or even bad dates....it'd be hard for folks to sit there and tell some story over forty lines.  

I'd even suggest that only one-third of college graduates today....are capable of independent thought, and writing that into 'something'.  

In this case?  What you did for diversity or belonging?  Maybe something along the lines of 'I picked up some hitch-hiker name Darwin.  We connected on a UFO situation, and talked for six hours between Tulsa and St Louis'.  Would that be enough to make the Berkley folks happy?  

Will you be graded on writing or will this be a poorly/crappy essay about some BS inclusion matter on how you equalized something at your last job?

Just looking at this....working at some college campus is going to be challenging, but for the wrong reasons.