Joblessness is a major problem all over the world, especially with the current pandemic that has forced millions if not billions of people out of employment across the globe. While getting a job depends on qualification, sometimes you are not the only one qualified. This means you have to go a step further to impress the employer or better still, prove yourself better. Sending mails and emails with your resume may just not be enough to tell the employer how good you are. To get the employer’s attention, some people go out of their way to make acrobatic job applications, some of which may not work.
Creating a Google ad For Your Dream Executive
Big company executives also google their names, right? Well, if they do, then having your job request next to their name may be exactly what you need to get your dream job. Alec Brownstein, a marketer, was the pioneer of this experiment. He picked his favourite marketing firm then bought an ad space next to the executive’s name. The experiment did work as one executive was really impressed by a whole google ad with his name at the top asking him for a job. While Brownstein got the interview in this case, that experiment can be very risky because the executive may not google themselves for a long time, meaning you have to continue paying for the ad until they do.
Please Eat My Resume
You know, most resumes end up in the trash anyway, so why not create one that tells the recipient to eat it instead? Many people do this; Come to San Francisco and start walking from tech firm to tech firm delivering resumes, and sure enough, most of them end up in the trash without even being looked at. Lucas Yla, a tech guy from Lithuania, decided to do things differently. He bought doughnuts and hid his resume in each box then wrote the words, “most resumes end up in the trash. Mine, in your belly,” inside each box so his chance executive would read it before eating the doughnut. It landed him at least 40 interviews, which is a great pay off for the leap of faith, especially if you don’t know anyone in the city.
Creating A Video Game Resume
Now, this takes time, and by time, we mean a whopping 2000 hours meaning if it lands at the manager’s table or screen at that, it is self-explanatory. Alexander Velicky, a gaming lover, enjoyed playing Falskaar, which is owned by Bethesda Gaming, so he decided to improve on their best product. He created more features on the game and created extra missions extending the original game by a whole 25 hours of play. He had friends help with some aspects, but he basically proved himself by making the company’s game more palatable to the fans. When he presented his 2000hr resume to the company, he didn’t need a college degree to land the job.
Employ Me Or I Leave This Country
That sounds like a threat, but it wasn’t so in Ireland in 2011 when there was high unemployment and everyone there was talk of mass emigration from the country. The news was Grimm, and many employers were trying to do everything to save the country’s talent from leaving by offering them jobs. One Commerce graduate decided to capitalize on the raging emotions by renting a billboard on a busy street in Dublin with the words “Save me from emigration,” at the top. In the background was a picture of the statue of liberty, suggesting that he was threatening to move to the US if no one in his country gave him a job. He then put a photo of himself, dragging a huge suitcase and his contact details at the bottom of the billboard. One employer driving by saw the billboard and gave him a job.
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The Voodoo Doll Job Hunt
Resorting to a higher being when everything else doesn’t seem to work is what many people do, but Mindy took it to a whole new level. She had a voodoo doll bought for her by a relative from New Orleans, so when she lost her job, she decided that a Voodoo ritual was exactly what she needed to land another one. She lit candles and sat with her doll for three minutes every day instead of chasing job adverts and polishing interview skills. This requires a lot of courage, and of course, total faith in your voodoo doll. After a few months of sitting with her doll every day and imagining herself in the office doing her dream job, she got a job as an office manager.
The Chocolate Bar Resume
Everyone loves chocolates, right? Nick Begley, who later got a job as a columnist for Sportsviste in NYC, tested this theory to land his dream job. He bought chocolate bars then wrapped them in papers containing his resume. His most famous line was “credentials to satisfy every organization’s appetite.” It is not clear how many interviewers enjoyed his $30 treat, but it seems he had to buy lots of chocolates because he presented them to every potential employer he could think of. His gamble finally paid off, with both a job and a huge online following that was definitely an asset in his line of work.
The Deal with The Almighty
This was another next-level job hunt by a woman called Jill in New York. She started with the regular job hunting methods of applying early to job openings, following LinkedIn and Facebook adverts, and dropping her resume in offices, but that didn’t get her a job for years. She then started using the Do As I Say cleaning products to clean her house and shower, hoping to gain psychic powers that would help her compel employers to give her a job, but the magic cleaners didn’t work either. She finally decided to tempt the almighty by dating a guy she didn’t like just so he would be pissed off and give her a job, but that didn’t work either. Finally, she quit drinking, hoping God would finally look nicely on her, and that finally worked.
The Lego Resume
Sometimes you have to be able to literally build your resume to impress your employer and Legos make the perfect construction material. Leah Bowman was a student at Southwestern University and needed a summer internship. The agency required marketing interns to advertise themselves to the employer by packaging themselves as the product.
The only method Leah thought of was a Lego image of herself to accompany her credentials. She created a miniature Lego version of herself then mailed it to the company with a cover letter reading, “your company needs a Lego loving intern with excellent marketing skills.” Her application got her lots of positive reviews online and the job.
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Beer Bottle Resume
How do you explain to an alcoholic drinks company that your design lessons at school turned you into the exact creative designer their company needs? Turns out, you have to send them bottles of your home brewed beer with your resume as the bottle label. That is exactly what Brennan Gleason, a final year student at the University Of The Fraser Valley in BC, Canada, did. He created a label for each bottle and also designed a six-pack box for his beers adding his resume labeled Resume-Ale on both the box and the bottles. Gleason then sent each pack to a company he hoped to work for. He got many job offers, and it was up to him to pick his preferred employer.
Throwing Your Phone Into a Wall
You walk into an interview for a marketing job, and the interviewer asks you the same old question; “Sell your phone to me.” All you have is an old Nokia brick phone which is definitely not marketable to your interviewer who is clasping an iPhone. So what does David Germanico do to land the job? He smashes his brick into the wall of the interview room, creating a small dent while his Nokia survives without a scratch. “Can you do that with your smartphone?” He asks the interviewer. Of course, he got the job.
