Reviews

Overqualified

Marisa Chandler

Overqualified by Joey Comeau (ECW Press) is a collection of satiric cover letters handcrafted to make any HR worker cringe and every job seeker smile. Ranging from pithy and heartwarming to darkly funny and bizarre, the letters sparkle with the inappropriate use of unabashed personal honesty in a traditionally dry and humourless form. and I’ll be honest—I read this entire book online before it ever went to print. But Overqualified is better than just another internet fad or office diversion; it’s beautifully executed satire, perfect for anyone who needs a good laugh (like the unemployed). As someone who is perpetually hunting for work and rewriting her resumé to eliminate jobs like “cat sitting” and “landscaping,” I like these offbeat cover letters. They appeal to my own passive-aggressive desire to give employers the finger or blurt out something insanely personal during an interview, instead of claiming that being a “perfectionist” is my worst trait and creating fictional scenarios where I “resolved workplace conflict.” Comeau is also one-half of the duo (with Emily Horne) that creates the bittersweet online comic A Softer World (asofterworld.com), which is composed of photographs and cut-out captions.

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