Songs!
The hills are alive, with them.
For 27 years [WUT!?] - oh who would’ve thought Résum•eh would be unintentional therapy….
…. okay, admittedly, for 27 years - still wow - I’ve listened to one band more than any other. Not The Beatles, like my forefathers and their fathers before them. Not The Rolling Stones. Not Foo Fighters (though Dave Grohl’s the man and they’re a close 2nd).
I don’t care what anyone says, there’s two Matt’s that created magic and have maintained it with every album release, every genius lyric, and every guitar-piano accompaniment since the late 90’s. Matt Thiessen and Matthew Hoopes’ - consider this, my long overdue fan letter in the form of a newsletter post. An unconventional yet respectable art form worthy of my favourite band, Relient K.
Few artists master song structure. Some have just-okay intros, followed by bland verses, catchy choruses and bridges that can only be described as ‘passable’. Not Relient K. They’re talented. Today’s ‘music’, I’d argue, lacks this basic formula. It’s just, concocted electronica vs. legit instrumental know-how. It’s “hey ChatGPT” vs. “Imma just gonna wing this, based off experience”.
Which brings me back to interviewing.
Folks, after a while now I wonder if in retrospect these will all say the same thing in different ways. 1 thesis, sliced and diced 50x over but really just coming back to a singular basic point, “Don’t go into a job hunt half-cocked”.
One alarming trend my team and I’ve been witnessing is A.I. reliance. Not A.I. enhancement or augmentation, if you will - but rather a default to, wanting A.I. to ‘do it’.
“Siri, do this. Now do this. Now do that. Now do, everything.”
What happened to talent? Where are the, we’ll call them ‘Relient K candidates’, who get that the best representations of themselves aren’t filtered but instead, authentic. If you’re a Job Seeker showing up to an interview with Microsoft Copilot running on the side, you’ve missed the point. Employers want to hear your song! YOUR song. Not the A.I. version of your tune - sing the one you came up with in the shower. It came from your soul. It came from your heart. It came from YOUR experience.
If you’re cheating (let’s be honest, that’s really what A.I. interview ‘assistance’ is), next time you get a rejection, wondering how someone could possibly say no to hiring you - maybe it wasn’t them, maybe it was you. Worse yet - you know it wasn’t really you.
-Matt