Speechwriting help wanted: Finally, a little honesty in advertising

A job listing this week issued from the firm managed by veteran headhunter Smooch Repovich Reynolds (yes, her real name) included this sentence: “the talent who will be considered for this role must have a proven track record working with CEOs and senior management team members working across all executive communications and speechwriting platforms, with little or no direction from those leaders.”

How much speechwriter grief could be spared if more help-wanted ads contained such candor? A lot. Of course, now they’re only going to get applications from the most cynical speechwriting mercenaries, but maybe that’s what they’re looking for anyway.

This is not Smooch Reynolds’ first rodeo. —DM