Author of 'inappropriate' and 'tacky' LinkedIn response to job seeker's approach that went viral apologises through CNN after Internet backlash
A scathing response by a marketing executive to a job seeker who approached her through LinkedIn has gone viral, and provoked the ire of the internet in return, with its author forced to apologise in a letter to CNN.
The letter written by Kelly Blazek, who runs a job bank for marketing professionals, was contacted by Diana Mekota who was planning to move to Cleveland in the summer, and attempted to add Blazek to her LinkedIn contacts.
Blazek emailed Mekota following her approach to tell her; “"Your invite to connect is inappropriate, beneficial only to you and tacky."
She continued: "Wow, I cannot wait to let every 26-year-old jobseeker mine my top-tier marketing connections to help them land a job."
Blazek continued: "I love the sense of entitlement in your generation, You're welcome for your humility lesson for the year. Don't ever reach out to senior practitioners again and assume their carefully curated list of connections is available to you, just because you want to build your network."
She concluded: "Don't ever write me again."
This response has since gone viral through Twitter and across newsites after Mekota posted it on her Imgur account.
Blazek has since written a letter to CNN to explain "I am very sorry to the people I have hurt. Creating and updating the Cleveland Job Bank listings has been my hobby for more than ten years. It started as a labour of love for the marketing industry, but somehow it also became a labor, and I vented my frustrations on the very people I set out to help. (sic)"
"The note I sent to Diana was rude, unwelcoming, unprofessional and wrong ... Diana and her generation are the future of this city. I wish her all the best in landing a job in this great town."
Mekota has also tweeted that she has since received a personal apology.
In 2013, Blazek was named the Communicator of the Year by Cleveland's branch of the International Association of Business Communicators.