Is this the way it's going to be?

I can accept that most people, most of the time, have to go to work. Honestly, that's fine with me. I even plan on doing it myself sooner or later. But no one has to like it. Sure, sure, it's better to like what you do than to dislike it. And it's probably healthier for you to work for some cause you believe in than it is to support something you'd oppose on the weekend. But interviewing people to try to uncover real passion - unless you're hiring for the Peace Corps - just seems like exploiting the job shortage. For all our talk of respecting people who love love love their job, don't you make fun of the guy who can only talk about work? People , we don't really want this.

A programmer friend just went on a job interview. After he had met with all the engineers, the CFO came out. "The engineers tell me they think you can do the work," he said. "No, no, they know you can do the work. But they don't think you want it." After listening to my friend try to convince him that he wanted the job - and how much does it affect the CFO if the new programmer is a little bored, anyway? - he sent him away with an assignment: Prove you want it. The guy went home and wrote the code to finish the project the team had said they really wanted to do. He's still waiting. To sum up, free work that goes beyond what the current employees are able to manage may not be enough.

Another guy is looking for law jobs after a long involuntary sabbatical. At a recent interview for a contract position - that's temp work, essentially - they said, "Well, you haven't worked divorce before, but you'll pick that up quickly. What we really want to know is, Why do you want this job?"

Believe me, if I were hiring someone for something, I'd want to know what they were doing there. But asking this of an employee to whom you don't plan to pay any benefits or offer any job security seems a little much. They want work, he wants to continue paying his rent. Is that so wrong?

And don't even get me started about the magazine that asked me if I really was comfortable starting in an entry level position. "I'm changing careers," I said. "I expected to work in entry level jobs when I started." "Well," they said. "We're sure you can do the work, and we like your writing samples, but...it just seems beneath you." No, watching MacGyver every day is beneath me.

Of course, it could be that all employers have just gotten exceedingly polite and don't want to tell any of us how underqualified we are. I'd prefer not to explore that.