My Predictions Are Coming True & People Reading Craig's List Ads are Fighting Back

Yes, some of them are.

The first is that for now, things are working out on my husband's job front. Maybe someone did their homework on me or realized that maybe it wasn't a good idea to start triggering angry natural redhead lawyer wrath so they'd better not transfer him to some hellhole area & invite trouble. So that whole being spared from falling trees on Amtrak turned out to indeed be a sign that the situation would be resolved.

The second is that people are fighting back against shitty job ads on Craig's List. I swear I didn't write any of these but I kind of wish I had, especially the last one.

Here's the first ad that begged to be shared on free writing services:

WHAT? Looking for Free Editing (deadbeat city-POST IN VOLUNTEER)

Date: 2012-07-17, 10:17AM EDT
Reply to: 4m7xg-3144786649@gigs.craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]


listen, who ever you are, this is a JOB BOARD where people are seeking to EARN MONEY to live on.............

You seek a volunteer not a professional writer...get it....PROFESSIONALS=GETS $$$$. The avg cost of a good freelance
writer is at least $25 an hour. Can't afford it? Well guess what, you can't have a website based business unless you write
it yourself...can't write? OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, then you can't have a website related business.

THAT'S LIFE

I wish you people who are looking for jobs would flag people like this and most of the intern
bull dinkie as well...no where on CraigsList are there more moochers than in the writing
section....

IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD A WRITER, YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO BE IN A WRITING RELATED BUSINESS.

Do not, young writers, write for free unless it serves you own personal writing goals as writing
for some of these Bozos ( most of them) can ruin your reputation for good. THEN WHAT?
I didn't make this information up-it comes the Idiots Guide to Professional Blogging...what
ever you write today may bite you tomorrow.

Do these people go to the supermarket and ask for free food?
Do their landlords give them free rent?

But they want writers to edit, write, etc for ZERO

Get lost, okay....FLAG EM

Location: deadbeat city-POST IN VOLUNTEER
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: no pay

PostingID: 3144786649

The only free writing I do is for myself. Whether to increase my public persona, vent or expose people to something new that begs to be in their radar, I make those decisions on my own.

I also get to work on my schedule, not anyone else's & retain some creative control. If I didn't get that, what on Earth would be the point? I did a book review for NYCLA that's going to be published soon. It was through my choice & at my husband's suggestion. Plus, it's on a book that I felt the legal community should be exposed to since how many people do we have who hate their law firm jobs, other lawyers or any variation of those? Lots.

I also like to see things that aren't your typical bland, boring or stuffy content that gets characterized as being "for lawyers." I sure don't fit those things myself so if no one else is going to step up, I guess it's up to me to inject the controversy.

Considering I've gotten paid to write (and done lots of different styles of writing) plus was told I'm talented by people who actually know what they're talking about, I won't work for free. I also get offended by resume/cover letter ads asking people to write them for $25. Please! I'm a business professional & a licensed advocate. Getting a letter from me is at least $100 for an hour considering the high praise my letters have generated & my knowing what it's like to be an interviewer. Give your $25 to your best buddy, not some stranger on Craig's List.

Here's another choice ad:

STOP Asking for Free Graphic Work (Your Black Soul)

Date: 2012-07-24, 1:04PM EDT
Reply to: msjdm-3159986449@gigs.craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]


Unless you are a BONA FIDE non-profit who is looking for someone that believes in your cause, just STOP asking for free graphic design/motion work. And you, designers, just STOP enabling these fuckers by DOING THEIR WORK for alleged "film credit!" It's bogus and you all know it. And spare me the "Hey, Man, we're all about community and creativity and spreading the love and getting experience and there's gonna be TONS more work down the road and blah fucking blah." Please. The only one being helped is yourself. For fucking free. Just. Stop.

Oh yeah, Ryan Gossling is a prick.

Location: Your Black Soul
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Compensation: no pay

PostingID: 3159986449

I agree with this sentiment. The art director at my company is highly talented & highly respected. We don't waste her time with bullshit since that's just disrespectful.

Now if you have no $ to pay anyone & you offer deferred pay plus expenses or equity, that's one thing. At least don't make it a loss for people working with you. Deferred pay or equity tells me that even if you don't have the money today, you're not going to dick me if you do make something from the project. Outright freebies, however? Totally a dick move.

If you want to be a legitimate company & get respect from people, don't do it. You will be known as those cheapskate assholes who exploit creatives. People talk & you could easily get blacklisted if you mess with folk.

Plus, I just don't trust anyone offering future work unless they're going to put that in writing. No writing = go fuck yourself. Professionals aren't stupid & anyone with a brain respects people for protecting themselves. Anyone getting nasty about the presence of lawyers, agents, managers, contracts, etc. is an obvious scam artist & you will get screwed over. Don't say you weren't warned. Even friends & family who are professionals take care of formalities when it comes to their business.

As for Ryan Gosling being a prick, I have no personal knowledge on that one. However, if he were a prick to me he'd not get to work with my company & I would be spreading the word. My husband would also kill him or make him wish he was dead if he tried to bother me in a sexual manner.

This last ad, though is the fulfillment of what I've warned employers about for posting ads for illegal internships. Read here:

PAID INTERNSHIP? (Midtown)

Date: 2012-08-09, 10:56PM EDT
Reply to: qdxvh-3195676900@job.craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]


We are currently seeking past or current interns for a possible lawsuit against employers. Increasingly, greedy companies are using "interns" to avoid hiring entry-level employees. According to the US Department of Labor, this is illegal.

Several lawsuits are now challenging the legality of unpaid internships.
These include suits against prominent media companies such as Fox Searchlight and PBS.

If you feel that your place of work has abused your status as an intern or student, you may be entitled to compensation. If, as an "intern," you were required to work full-time, or for long periods, without pay, contact us immediately. You may have a claim, even if you received school credit. You may be entitled to compensation even for work that you have performed 4-6 years ago.

If you do the work, you should get paid. With our help, you can fight back for lost pay and overtime.

For a confidential consultation with an attorney, please email us.

Compensation: To Be Determined

Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
Please, no phone calls about this job!
Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

PostingID: 3195676900

I'm proud to see someone doing this. I hope it's legit since that would make this one of the most awesome law firms ever. If you've previous entries on ads I responded to that offered illegal internships & how shitty the circumstances were, you know I've said stuff about knowing they didn't have an attorney around & that they were going to eventually be sued.

Looks like there's an attorney working on that. I love it! I'm tempted to contact this firm & tell them of their awesomeness; I hope this ad is still up on Craig's List. Maybe they should read some of the ads I've seen & the dressing down I've done of people doing that shit.

I wonder if they're exclusively going after entertainment/creative companies or if they're also going to go after the law firms offering this bullshit. I hope they smack down the law firms I've seen doing it; that would tickle me & make me laugh at some folks' misfortune (and some people truly deserve it).

So, fuckers with an entitlement complex: perhaps this firm will sue your sorry ass for expecting people to be your slaves. I hope other firms will follow suit since this is a prime example of "serving the public" and all those high lawyer ideals we're supposed to (in theory at least) be living up to. Bravo to these folks! Glad to see I'm not the only one who finds that stuff offensive & has high standards. This also makes me feel vindicated when I've been strict on how the internships are structured in my company & how folks are treated.

Signs a Corporate Job Is NOT For You

I'm not quite sure when I realized a typical corporate job wasn't for me but I think it must have been sometime after I got my partnership in my own film company & started working with people who respected me + wanted to listen to me.

A few other signs were there before that, though. I was reading this article very recently & it reminded me of stories I've heard about attorney job interviews.

If you go to lawyer blogs or spend time with law students, you'll hear all sorts of stories. I've read things that say married women shouldn't wear their wedding rings in job interviews and heard about downright insulting questions like "You were on XYZ Journal. Why weren't you on Law Review?"

One fundamental problem I'm seeing in these career advice articles is telling people that they should yield to companies to a fault. I'm surprised I've not read an article that told people to lie prostrate on the ground in front of the executive suite & say "Yes, Your Excellency! May I have another?" after being kicked in private areas. That might be a bit of a stretch, but not by much.

When I read an article saying to defend & lie about felonious companies you worked for in the past, that author lost all credibility with me. Do that as a lawyer & you'll be accused of participating in the fraud, even if you worked in the mail room.

I believe performing your civic duty & being a decent human being trumps "never say anything negative about a past employer." If you're seeking work in my entertainment business & your past employer was a scam artist, you'd better tell me. You have a duty to protect others from the same experience & not telling an interviewer might lead the company to work with the scammers later on.

This article essentially tells people to yield to illegal questions & be "polite" in the face of them. Sorry, some things are so fundamentally offensive to ask about & are often delivered in a very snotty tone. You won't get politeness from me in that context; you'll be lucky if I don't smack you. Implying that I'm going off to breed is just insulting to me & asking me about my marital status makes me think you're considering me for a sexual harassment victim instead of an employee. Not every woman has baby rabies, all right?

Oh, and people who hire law firm associates are not ignorant in the least. THEY are assholes & you have to handle those types differently.

I once shut down someone at my career services office who tried pulling the old "you aren't at this rank" attitude with me. I pointed out that I was the first person in my entire family, including extended, to even go to law school & that in light of the fact that I didn't come from money or have the ability to afford all the study guides like everyone else, the fact I wasn't flunking out or made anything lower than a C- was pretty damn good in my view. After I said that, this person backed off & agreed w/me!

Asking something about a journal to me would have invited a combative answer in light of my background, no matter how politely you asked. Personally, there were no journals in law school for my interests so I didn't really care.

I'd have no desire to work someplace where I was asked an illegal or combative question so I'd not care about any impression I gave since they already poisoned the water for me. That whole good impression thing goes both ways.

I really think that my refusal to put up with that kind of shit is a major sign that I'd better own my own business & call my own shots. I've noticed that I'm far more direct & pointed in asking for things than most people probably are. Call me arrogant or pushy if you want but I just have no tolerance for BS & feel that even though I'm nowhere near 40 + look even younger, life's too short for it. I've put up with enough in my own life & telling me to "suck it up" (as you'll find many established attorneys telling newbies) just doesn't cut it. I'd rather be poor & keep my soul than a rich little drone who sold out or became someone's punching bag.

Plus, telling me to take BS means you've just insured that I'll one day snap & kill older folk who pissed me off. Do you really want that hanging over your head?

So, 2 signs you shouldn't work in a typical corporate job: You work someplace where people appreciate you & you don't put up with illegal conduct.

This Craig's List ad also has some relation to this whole theme:

Why does everyone want you do everything free (Manhattan)
Date: 2011-01-17, 9:35PM EST
Reply to: gigs-bzpfd-2166075081@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

Actors, Muscians, Photographers, Comedians.......If we all stop working production would not go on.


1. If the comedians stop doing bringer shows there would be no comedians to see at the comedyclubs. You should not have to pay or have your friends pay for you to perform. Let a whole month go by with no comedians clubs will start losing money. You don't need them you can perform at other venues, hotels, parties, colleges, local bars.

2. Actors....you don't know to have roles available to build up your reel, if you can truly act you can make a demo monologue with your video camera at home. Most of these filmakers out there after you complete the film you gonna have to stalk them to get a copy of it. If filmakers are going to make films then they need to understand the real world of filmaking that you have to raise money for production. At least pay the actors $50 a day and have some decent food on the set.

3. We all love the craft and love what we do but TFCD and Demo Reels don't pay the B.I.L.L.S

4. We have to stop whoring ourselves out for free and start holding out and boycotting these people that want to get everything for free.

5. Actors/models we have to start expecting to pay for things as well. You want a new headshot, demo reel, portfolios. Expect to pay for it.

* Location: Manhattan
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
* Compensation: no pay

PostingID: 2166075081

I agree w/the general sentiment. However, I think you can only be exploited for as long as you let someone do it to you. I, for instance, will not "PAY to play" in any context. I'm not even doing freebies so you won't convince me that pay to play is worth my time.

Second, get a written contract. If someone refuses to give you one, don't deal with that individual or entity. That's a sure sign that someone isn't a professional & if you hope to be one, you aren't getting anywhere by dealing with people who can't even give you a simple written document concerning your role, rights, etc.

Third, there are ways to do things that don't require posting a Craig's List ad. I know there's a company that will film a short movie starring you & you can use that for demo reel material. Just pay them & you're done. The entitlement attitude of some people truly reeks; professionals don't care about the troubles of strangers. Boo hoo, you don't have a lawyer. If you don't have money, then don't ask me to help you for free when I don't know you & we don't even have mutual friends. Have a friend help you; don't expect strangers to care or give you freebies.

Then again, maybe these people have NO friends because they acted entitled to get freebies & didn't reciprocate. Somebody should post a list somewhere so people don't waste their time dealing with these entitlement issues.

More Interesting Links & Comment on Them

If you're a believer of common sense in immigration policies, take a look at this petition. I haven't signed it b/c I hate logging into that website & most petitions/stances of people don't match up to mine but here you go.

The boycotting junk ticks me off & b/c of it, I think the supporters ought to go out of their way to support Arizona. I can certainly relate to how those citizens must feel.

Oh, and if you dare think that only white racists support enforcement of immigration laws & kicking illegals out, you'd be dead wrong. I have heard about & know of many people who came to this country LEGALLY + learned English who hate the freeloaders & think they should get out without any amnesty. Their feeling is "if we did it legally, you shouldn't be rewarded for doing it illegally." Plus, the freeloaders get lumped in with the legal immigrants who aren't breaking the law, flying their native country's flag in protests or demanding accommodation in a foreign land. Who can blame those people for being pissed off?

Bravo to this guy as well.

I 100% agree w/making English the national language. It's pathetic when you can't go to a local establishment & find an English speaker. A major city like NYC or some area where there's a large concentration of foreign speakers & long established neighborhoods is one thing. When you're seeing this in places like NC or areas without that tradition, it's a different story.

It still pisses me off to go someplace in America where there's NO English signage on a business. I saw a lot of it in in NC in places where this didn't used to be the case.

I think that should be mandatory in places without that tradition & ideally, I'd like to see that all over America; otherwise, you're pretty much announcing to me that you're a racist + don't care to have my business. I really don't blame people who have an English only policy or won't accommodate people who could learn English but refuse to; my husband has co-workers from other countries & they find it distasteful when people don't adapt to the ways of this country.

End of that rant for now. On another front, I saw this story just this morning.

So I have to wonder: what do the law school scam blog folks have to say about this? I also wonder who thought a high school diploma was enough until just recently. This is old news. Doing something beyond high school was expected in my household, especially for me.

I have a question for the President myself on the issue of higher education: what about paying for it?

More undergraduates have taken on private loans & aid has gone down for them. For that matter, what about making graduate education available for all qualified people & not just those coming from money? What are your plans for that one, hmmm? How about reforming the law school/attorney system while we're at it considering much of our nation's legislators & you are attorneys?

If you think the current system is fair or adequate, you are living a sheltered life & haven't got a clue about the real world. You're one of those people I could demoralize in about 5 seconds by taking you apart emotionally. I haven't personally done that to someone yet since I'm saving that for when I'm downright pissed off at someone & don't want to ever deal with him/her again. It's a line I don't cross with those I care about or who I consider friends; call it an unofficial agreement. They don't whine to me about not getting something I'll never be able to afford & I don't call them a whiny brat who'd never survive a real crisis.

If you're young, it's a real problem to think that way; at least older people lived in different times & can be forgiven for being clueless on this issue. Many of them are more likely to have earned their way & are aware of being out of touch unlike some younger people.

Some Witty & Funny Craig's List Ads

I hope they don't take this one off Craig's List before you see it b/c this one's just too funny for me to ignore. I couldn't copy the flyer image so I have to post the link.

This one also has a charm to it that I like. Calling out leeches & freeloaders is definitely something I support.

Look below!!

Skilled Intern? (New York)
Date: 2010-05-06, 1:52PM EDT
Reply to: see below

An intern - by definition - is someone with no, or very few, skills. If you advertise for an 'intern' with a long list of highly technical skills and/or equipment, what you advertise for is truly slave-labor. Experience with your company is nearly useless on any resume - just look at all the resumes for actual jobs floating around out there at this very moment with tons of actual references and employment experience that get passed on every minute.

The bottom line is that one should never solicit something for nothing. Why? Because it is the wrong thing to do.

* Location: New York
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
* Compensation: Fair Pay For Services Rendered!!!