I saw this in John Tierney's column in the International Herald Tribune for today, May 22nd. Here is the BBC version of the story [1].
Although "just" a taxi driver, Ugandan Guy Goma had a business degree and was at the BBC for a tech interview. A flack saw him and asked him "are you Guy", because the flack was looking for Guy Kewney, the editor of newswireless.NET, to appear on-air to comment on the Apple v Apple dispute (British music company Apple, formed in the early 1970s by the famous Beatles, is suing Steve Jobs now that Steve has entered the music business, using the Apple name: which Steve selected almost the same time as Apple music was formed).
Innocently, Mr. Goma went on-stage even as I sallied forth in March to be in a commercial for the Mandarin Oriental. Guy was asked several questions and gave excellent replies in perfect English, making, according to Tierney, all the proper noises in context about the "Internet changing things" and the need to "accept" today's Realities.
[Something which, if you ask me, there's entirely too much of: both reality and its (undt seinem) acceptance. The acceptance constructs the reality in a feedback loop. But, I digress].
So, the next time you go looking for a job, look sharp. White shirt (cotton or blend does not matter), regimental tie (I suggest the New Ashmolean Marching and Chowder Society's regimental stripes), shined shoes.
None of this nonsense about "yo, I am such a technical Studly Dudley, I know HTML (ooooooo), that I can show up in black blue jeans and a T-shirt with imprecations on it". Mr. Goma was as a member of the international proletariat a man of dignity who'd dressed soberly and as such he was locked and loaded, either for an ordinary technical interview with questions such as "is a Form a Control in .Net" (yes, dammit, and serves that misbegotten Object right: it needs to learn its place), or softball questions, much easier to answer, such as "do you foresee a technical convergence between the music business and software where they enjoy synergy".
[Answer yes and say "my take is that the consumer wants to listen to music on the same goddamn platform, not so much because he enjoys music, like Yogi Berra, but because music is a legal drug which shuts out the City, as Adorno said", or answer no and say "the two industries have radically different business models. For one thing, you can't code stoned, while Jim Morrison composed while he was like totally whacked out".]
[Just kidding, but you get the idea. String the buzzwords in a Chomsky Type 0 regular expression and you are "slinging the bat" and "talking the talk". Remove my digressions on Adorno. No, they aren't academic buzz words: Adorno meant what he said and I've read Aesthetic Theory and I don't got no tenure.]
[Dammit. Where was I?]
You never know, at least if you are at a media company, whether you might have to face Elizabeth Vargas or Katie Couric. You won't have to face Dan Rather. He got fired for speaking truth to power. You won't have to face Peter Jennings. He died of lung cancer.
I haven't found out if Mr. Goma got the tech job. He should since he has such grace under pressure.