Letters: The two-minute pitch, student athletes
TEXT OF STORY
Tess Vigeland: Time to dip into the old inbox and hear from you. This week, we learned about the two-minute pitch, in which you apply for a job with a short voicemail message. We talked to some experts who thought it was a bad idea.
Julia Pfaff of Alexandria, Va., welcomes it.
Julia Pfaff: It would provide me, I think, the opportunity to stand out in front of a crowd. rather than just submitting my resume to a giant database that uses some strange algorithm to cull out whether or not I am a good candidate for a position.
But Mike Warns of Lombard, Illinois detected something more sinister, if unintentional — using those voicemails to detect the race of an applicant. He wrote, “Barack Obama would make it past this bar, but would Tracy Morgan?”
Last week, Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim told us it was economically rational for high school athletes to ask universities and alumni for money in exchange for play.
Quinn Ballard of Sacramento, Calif. was less than sympathetic.
Quinn Ballard: I still think athletes get an incredible value from attending college. How many are prepared to leap straight into professional sports from high school? The vast majority of college players get invaluable experience playing against top caliber peers until they are ready to join the pros.
He went on to suggest that maybe colleges should charge athletes for all that useful training they get.
And speaking of charging, this week, Netflix introduced an online-streaming-only plan for subscribers. Kevin Gumienny of College Station, Texas says our piece left out an important detail.
Kevin Gumienny: The story doesn’t mention that Netflix is raising its rates on all other plans. So if you don’t stream movies (either because you have no interest, or don’t own one of the appliances that Netflix streams to), you’re basically subsidizing those who do.
And finally, Herb Gaskill, a retail investor in Rodanthe, N.C., Disagrees with UCLA law professor Stephen Bainbridge’s contention that insider trading has minimal negative effect on investors. Gaskill calls that “absurd,” and says retail investors like him would make huge profits if they knew about changes in stock ratings in advance.
We’re always interested in hearing your ratings of us.
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