Crazy and great ways of getting a job

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 crafting 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 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 five 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? Most of them are in Word and nicely typed up. But Zef Narkiewicz did something unique. 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

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 the candidate wanted to work for is Matthew Epstein's — see it here for inspiration!

e) Offer a finder's 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 could get him a job. The fee or prize size depended on the salary he was offered to try to persuade people to help him land a well-paid role.

f) Anticipate the company

This one's clever — think about who you want to work for and then try and do something completely targeted. Alec Brownstein shortlisted five companies he wanted to work for and then set up a Google AdWords advert for five of their creative directors. The ads appeared when they searched for their own names and said: "Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too," with a link to his CV. He got four interviews and two job offers!

g) Social media - spread the word

We don't have a specific example for this, but more and more people are letting their networks know through Facebook and LinkedIn that they're looking for a job. Ask your contacts to spread the word to their own contacts and suddenly you’re advertising yourself to a much wider group.

h) Something even more different

When Alex Kearns, an unemployed graduate, was thinking about how he could get a job, he got pretty creative. Around the time people could book hour slots to stand on top of the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Alex saw an opportunity to advertise himself and get some press coverage too.

Once on top of the plinth, he unrolled a 10-foot CV and a placard asking for a job. He stood there for an hour and was offered a job as a direct result. Awesome!

i) Getting your foot in the door

We heard about this one from Folio — it's an old story, but still a good one. Instead of just posting a CV, someone posted a shoe along with their 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 it definitely made them 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!