Ashton Kutcher Startup Wants an English Major, According to Leaked Job Posting

Impact

Your parents always warned you against getting a degree in English, but Ashton Kutcher seems to think that degree is more lucrative than anyone might have thought. 

This is a leaked job posting from Kutcher's undisclosed tech startup:

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Ashton Kutcher is looking for a writer to join a small team of designers and engineers who are cofounding a consumer-oriented technology company. This job will require relocating to LA, and will provide an opportunity to be a part of the tech company’s founding team. Your writing will be a centerpiece of the company's product and will reach millions of people.

A successful candidate will be an excellent and versatile writer with strong project management skills. This individual should have experience in creative descriptive writing and be capable of conducting research/curating content.

Responsibilities

- Write daily creative pieces that will form a core part of the product

- Work closely with founders to curate content for application's homepage

- Begin to screen and hire a larger editorial team

Requirements

- 3+ years experience writing in college (English major or equivalent)

- Ability to take the initiative and complete a project, regardless of scope or complexity

- Meticulous attention to detail

- Creativity and taste for aesthetic beauty

How to apply

- Please send your resume along with samples (or links to samples) of your writing to [redacted]@gmail.com

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Kutcher is no stranger to the technological realm: he plays a billionaire who got his start in technology on the show Two and a Half Men, and has a stake in a myriad of startups that do technological work. But apparently Kutcher is expanding his technological work to include a more interdisciplinary approach: his company is looking for an Ivy League English major to help do technical writing for an unnamed technical start up, one that has an appreciation for beauty. This plan demonstrates a new world in technology, one that focuses on the full experience and aesthetic of running a successful startup in the digital age. 

What does it mean that the Two and a Half Men star is looking for a writer with an appreciation for aesthetic beauty? The writer that Kutcher’s team hires will work on “daily creative pieces that will form a core part of the product” and support “a larger editorial team.”

What the job description demonstrates is the future of technology: in order to be competitive in a global market, companies must pay attention to the details of every facet of their business, from the “hard” developing and programming side of their work to the more aesthetic and impermeable. As design company Mule Design knows, “Writing is design,” and fierce competition means that the writing for your company must be more than solid, but as attractive as your design and as serviceable as your product. Ashton Kutcher’s job description is not only an enticing prospect for the struggling English major graduate, but a beacon of the future, demonstrating the need for an awareness of beauty and attractiveness as part of the services a company provides. 

This departure is not foreign. “Hard” sciences have had much in common with writers since the beginning of their development. Computer science professors will distinguish between good and bad code in ways similar to the way English professor denote good and bad writing: lack of flow, improper terminology, vagueness. What makes Kutcher’s job description innovative is not only its glimpse of the private sector’s future, but also the implicit awareness that writers, like designers, programmers, mangers, and engineers, must be cognizant of the need for beauty in a product to be the best member of a business team they can be. 

So English majors, bust out your cover letters, and digital entrepreneurs expand your recruiting processes: as Kutcher’s ad shows us, the future of technology is interdisciplinary, and about excellence in every facet of design.