One and Dunn&Co.

Who needs an experienced copywriter in Tampa? Dunn&Co. is one answer. I know that because they posted a job opening about a week ago. They've done that before. Many times. I know because, many times, over the course of about ten years since my arrival in Tampa, I've answered those postings by applying.

I've spent many hours many times on those efforts.

I've made attempts where I prepared line-by-line responses in great detail with links to then-current and past portfolio pieces with links.

I've also made attempts with hardly any thought at all. (click)

As well as attempts that fall between the two extremes.

Including an actual visit to Dunn's headquarters where I intended to slip my resume underneath the door in 2015.

I settled for handing it to a Dunn employee I saw come out of the elevator. (I almost felt like a secret agent attempting to infiltrate headquarters, what brazen behavior from a guy who thought 25 years of experience earned him a shot at an interview)

All of them engendered the same response: none, zip, nada.

And yet, when I saw the latest job posting my initial reaction remained ... "so, you're saying there's a chance?"

As it stands, I did not join the 58 people who clicked apply.

Instead I was angered enough by the condescension in the text to reply with this post.

Do I view new projects as an opportunity to challenge the status quo and disrupt the industry?

Yes, sure. (Whatever you want to hear if it gets me an interview)

And wait, no, not really. That's kinda of highfalutin nonsense, ain't it?

Experienced copywriters understand hyperbole, how to use it, and spot it.

That's this job posting in a nutshell.

But it gets worse.

And even more insulting. (I'll skip ahead to the line that got me)

"This copywriter should not be an ass or arrive at the agency with suitcases filled with ego."

Geez, I just wonder who is renting out space in the brain of this job poster?

That guy or gal really left a mark, huh?

My guess is someone who may have challenged the status quo at Dunn itself and caused disruptions when saying a direction was full of shit (although not exactly in those words).

He or she may have also have drained the coffee maker without making a fresh pot.

Someone who likely carried themselves with the confidence that a lifetime working with the written word provides.

Someone who knew how to break the rules of the King's English with flair while absorbing feedback for the good of any given project.

As a 58-year-old copywriter I've worked for agencies both in Toledo and Tampa, and have maintained a strong self-penned freelance effort across my 35+ year career.

That career continues.

Not full-time, more sporadic, so it goes.

AI has taken a large cut out of the available inventory.

What's left comes from my longstanding clients and partners.

Not enough to keep me from hoping to land that dream writing job again.

That won't obviously won't be at Dunn&Co.

My suitcase is pretty packed.