See some of the best ways people have managed to get jobs – ranging from wearing a sandwich board to placing yourself on ebay, to building a retro-style CV and building a sales pitch for one company.
a) Wearing a sandwich board and walking the streets
David Rowe – a 24 year old graduate from the University of Kent resorted to walking the streets of London with a sandwich board on asking for companies to interview him, and offering to work for one month for free. He did a great job with a professional looking message, dressed in a suit and very quickly got an interview which went really well.
According to the story he carried on wearing the sandwich board for 5 days as he didn’t just want to take the first thing that came along.
b) Sell yourself on Ebay
How about auctioning yourself? Josh Butler did exactly that – advertising himself on eBay for £16,000. He had apparently applied for over 600 jobs without any success, and said that the fact he didn’t have a degree was counting against him. After going on Ebay and auctioning himself he received interview offers from John Lewis and two call centres.
c) Retro CV
How about building a CV which is a bit different? Yep – most of them are in Word, and nicely typed up. But Zef Narkiewicz did something a bit different. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he built a ceefax esque online CV – neatly called “Zeefax”. You can see it here, and apparently it got him a job
d) Build a website
Just to appeal to the company you want to work for. This could be a great idea – if you’re looking to work for a particular company you can build a webpage or design your CV to fit in with their branding. You can of course take this too far, so be careful! An example of a CV built for a company that the candidate wants to work for is Matthew Epstein’s – see it here for inspiration!
e) Offer A finders fee
This might be more relevant if you’re going for a higher paid job – but Michael Checkoway seems to have successfully done this. He worked in public relations and event management, and offered a free travel package or cash as a finder’s fee for anyone who can get him a job. The fee or prize size also depended on the salary that he was offered, to try to persuade people to sort him out with a well paid job!
f) Anticipate the company
We think this is great – think about who you want to work for and then try and do something that’s completely targeted. Alec Brownstein shortlisted five companies that he wanted to work for and and then set up a google adwords advert for five of their creative directors. They appeared when they ran a search for their own names, and the advert said: “Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too,” with a link to his CV. He got four interviews and 2 job offers apparently!
g) Social Media – spread the word!
We don’t have an example of this – but more an more people are letting people know through Facebook and Linkedin, that they are looking for a job. Ask your contacts to let their contacts know as well, and before you know it, you’ll be advertising yourself to whole range of people
h) Something that’s even more different!
When Alex Kearns – an unemployed graduate, was thinking about how he could get a job, he got quite creative! It was around the time that people could book hour slots to stand on top of the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, and Alex took this as an opportunity to advertise himself, and get some press coverage chucked in.
Once on top of the plinth he unrolled a 10 feet CV, and a placard asking for a job. He stood there for an hour, and was offered a job as a direct result of doing it. Awesome!
i) Getting your foot in the door.
We’ve heard about this from Folio – and it’s a pretty old story, but it’s good one. Instead of just posting a CV, someone posted a shoe along with the CV and a note that said “now that I have my shoe in the door, how ’bout an interview?”. The story goes that the jobseeker didn’t get the job, but I’m sure it made him stand out from the crowd!
What about you? Have you done something a bit different or creative to get a job? And did it work – which is the most important thing! Let us know in the comments below!
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to comment on this article.