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Bebeto Matthews / AP file
In this file photo of Nov. 18, 2008, Paul Nawrocki looks for work in New York City wearing a sandwich board reading "Almost Homeless.'' Nawrocki found a job, but two years later he was still worried about his economic stability.
Desperate times make desperate people, and that includes job seekers who have resorted to crazy antics to grab the attention of potential employers.
Who can forget the guy who walked around New York City with a sandwich board, or the man who posted a billboard plea for someone to please hire his wife? And most recently, we have the guy who offered himself for sale in a faux Amazon.com listing.
The gimmicks are getting the general public's attention. But before you start baking that huge cake with your resume written on it, experts say you might want to consider whether it’s the kind of attention you want.
“It’s like getting on a dating site and putting up a naked picture of yourself,” said Jane Cranston, a New York career coach with Executive Coach NY.
You’re definitely going to get hits, she noted, but you have to wonder if you’re going to find the love of your life.
“You could attract a lot of waste-of-time wackos,” she said.
That attention you garner may even lead to a job, said Alison Green, who runs the blog Ask a Manager. But even in the current environment – with the unemployment rate at 7.8 percent and 12.2 million people looking for work - you may find that you don’t want to work for someone who would reward theatricalism over performance.
“The big thing about them is that when they do work, they generally attract the exact wrong type of employer,” Green said.
Trying a crazy trick to get attention may even hurt your chances of landing a really good job, with an employer you want to work for.
“For most hiring managers, those things are a real turnoff. They reek of desperation or they reek of not understanding business norms or thinking they don’t apply to you,” Green said.
John J. Sullivan, a management professor at San Francisco State University, said you also risk making people feel uncomfortable. Recruiters may worry that finding a candidate via a billboard will put them in hot water with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which seeks to ensure that all candidates are given an equal shot.
Other tactics, such as presenting recruiters with gifts of food, may put hiring managers in an awkward position if they aren’t allowed to accept gifts, or just make them feel a little bit like they are being stalked.
“There’s a definite creep factor,” he said.
Even if you do get the job, he said another risk is that your new co-workers will resent your attempt to circumvent the usual hiring systems.
Experts say there are ways to get noticed even in the current environment, in which hundreds of people are submitting resumes for each job opening and many companies are relying on computers to weed out candidates. They just may be more boring than parachuting out of a plane with a sheaf of resumes.
“I think you can stand out without being a fool, you know?” said Cranston, the New York recruiter.
It may be not be as interesting, but experts say it’s probably more effective to spend your time on tried-and-true tasks like polishing up your resume, crafting a good cover letter and networking with potential employers.
Related: Are you struggling in the suburbs? We want to hear from you.
A good resume will be typo-free – that’s more of a rarity than you might think – and focus more on what you’ve accomplished than on the jobs that you’ve held, experts say.
Cranston also recommends an individualized cover letter that shows your excitement about the company and showcases the skills you could apply to that job.
She also says it helps to make a personal connection. If you attended the same university as the daughter of your potential manager, that’s worth mentioning. The same goes for any personal connection you have to the company, such as if everyone in your family uses the products it makes.
“It’s got to be true and show passion, rather than that you’re eccentric,” she said.
Sullivan said there are companies that might appreciate a daring or outlandish tactic, especially if you are the first one to think it up. That’s especially true of a gimmick that really showcases your skills, such as coming up with a new marketing campaign for the company or posting a YouTube video showing how you would improve something it does.
But he cautions that such tactics will probably only work with small startups, or in fields where the job is to garner attention, such as design or social media.
“Definitely not in Kansas,” he said. “Not in an accounting firm, certainly.”
Leave a Comment:
Call me old fashioned, but I think gifts (assuming you're not saying "I got you these rare flowers/fruits/candies because I know you love them") is far less creepy than knowing where the daughter of your potential manager went to college (assuming you don't know this because you actually know his/her daughter). I agree gifts are a bad idea because of ethics/conflict of interest issues they put on the hiring manager and the suggestion they give that you're attempting to bribe your way into getting hired, but I don't get the creepy factor on a general sense.
One of the biggest tips I heard (that I believe helped me land my current job) is sending a thank you note/email after your interview just thanking them for their time and consideration. This has to be done right (not too long, pushy, or over the top) of course to be effective.
Jobs are still being off-shored as politicians don't even address it with straight faces. It is always OUR fault that we didn't get a job...not the fact that decent jobs have been sent overseas and will continue to be as our depression deepens. Hope all of you looking enjoy your new career at Carl's Jr. or Wendys.
Very well put and dead on.
It's who you know, not what you know, that unfortunately counts in this world.
We know if your resume is well prepared, you present yourself in the best manner, your research is accurate, your interview skills are exceptional and if you have started with Letters of Recommendation from MomIGotaJob...your chances of employment are off the chart!
Want to increase your chances...see me.
Where?
everybody i know who has a GOOD job got it because he/she is buddies with the right person. it's absolutely about who you know. i know two people who got jobs that pay $70,000+ because of who they knew...and neither of them was even close to being the most qualified applicant. one of them didn't even have the basics like knowledge of Microsoft Office products. it's a damn shame but that's the way it goes these days.
Sorry, Reality, I beg to differ! I only hire the most qualified people for my team. I stay away from friends and family as that is a recipe for disaster.
i agree with -its not what you know but who you know nowadays
It's called Networking!!!
I have a FANTASTIC resume. I can't even get a rejection letter.
It's definately who you know.
That's your opinion ("fantastic resume"). I see a lot of resumes where the owner believes it's perfect. Unfortunately, most that I see are below par.
What is considered "a good resume"?
Sad when the article reflects the general approach to HR departments nowadays: complete laziness. All this started to be seen (gifts, antics, etc) in the first "jobless recovery" period in 2001-2003, so there's no research done here: the message is "stay traditional even if you're getting wrongfully excluded." The biggest news recently was something reported on "talent management software industry" that's become over a $2 billion industry. What does it deal with? Using alleged psychological profile and "proficiency" tests that sometimes have nothing to do with the actual job responsibilities AND designing custom email filters to screen resumes for certain keywords. In other words, HR, human decision making and people screening resumes are largely a thing of the past. I've done all the right things in the last 16 years and largely gotten nowhere: I bought 4 resume-writing books, read them all, used the tips to build/revise my own resume over 2 years and got nowhere. I then had a professional resume place write it for $155 and they had a 6-month guarantee I would get x number of interviews. Was that a joke! I submitted all my documentation and got that $155 back IN CASH. I've painstakingly researched each company, finding little-known interesting tidbits to put in custom-crafted cover letters...and for what? Nothing. Followed up with grateful emails or even brief phone calls where possible. Anyone impressed? Nope. I can throw a dart at a US map and have a 90% chance of hitting a state I've applied for jobs in. I've even had "people on the inside" in some really good places to work and what happened? Either the people I talked to about a job were so paranoid about "how" I found out about opening x or the people I had in my network were so afraid to say two words on my behalf because they were afraid somehow it might jeopardize their job. In short, the majority either don't care, are too lazy to do their jobs in HR or it's just plain amorality that's the problem. My experience has proven there's usually no real "standard," as I've got excellent letters of recommendation, pretty good acomplishments for the few chances I've had to do something (even in some of the worst places to work for in terms of bosses and how the places were run) but what happens? No one calls people as references in my letters of recommendation and I know because I check regularly. So the fact is the average Joe is now looking at a .5% response rate, down from the traditional 2-3% in 2000 and the chance of your resume actually being seen by a human is only God-knows-what.
Sad when the article reflects the general approach to HR departments nowadays: complete laziness. All this started to be seen (gifts, antics, etc) in the first "jobless recovery" period in 2001-2003, so there's no research done here: the message is "stay traditional even if you're getting wrongfully excluded." The biggest news recently was something reported on "talent management software industry" that's become over a $2 billion industry. What does it deal with? Using alleged psychological profile and "proficiency" tests that sometimes have nothing to do with the actual job responsibilities AND designing custom email filters to screen resumes for certain keywords. In other words, HR, human decision making and people screening resumes are largely a thing of the past. I've done all the right things in the last 16 years and largely gotten nowhere: I bought 4 resume-writing books, read them all, used the tips to build/revise my own resume over 2 years and got nowhere. I then had a professional resume place write it for $155 and they had a 6-month guarantee I would get x number of interviews. Was that a joke! I submitted all my documentation and got that $155 back IN CASH. I've painstakingly researched each company, finding little-known interesting tidbits to put in custom-crafted cover letters...and for what? Nothing. Followed up with grateful emails or even brief phone calls where possible. Anyone impressed? Nope. I can throw a dart at a US map and have a 90% chance of hitting a state I've applied for jobs in. I've even had "people on the inside" in some really good places to work and what happened? Either the people I talked to about a job were so paranoid about "how" I found out about opening x or the people I had in my network were so afraid to say two words on my behalf because they were afraid somehow it might jeopardize their job. In short, the majority either don't care, are too lazy to do their jobs in HR or it's just plain amorality that's the problem. My experience has proven there's usually no real "standard," as I've got excellent letters of recommendation, pretty good acomplishments for the few chances I've had to do something (even in some of the worst places to work for in terms of bosses and how the places were run) but what happens? No one calls people as references in my letters of recommendation and I know because I check regularly. So the fact is the average Joe is now looking at a .5% response rate, down from the traditional 2-3% in 2000 and the chance of your resume actually being seen by a human is only God-knows-what.
Three Ways For That 15 Minutes Of Fame:
1. Do something silly.
2. Do something fun.
3. Look for a job.
==========================
Time spent-
Going beyond walking that pavement.
It more has to know who you know than qualifications. Who you know can also hurt you. Jobs are few and far betwenn and when you reach 50 they get even fewer.I'm 59 and when potential employers dicover that I am off the list . I proved that with my resume when I was first layed off in 2010. I had my dates of employment on my expensive resume which started in 1971. I got no call backs . I removed the dates and in the first month i had 3 interviews and many call backs. Of course once my age was figured out the result was the same. Suddenly no interest.I got to playing games with them knowing what would happen once they found out my age. The would ask the same questions like " when did you start your first job ?" I would respond " right out of high school ", then they would ask/ "How long did you work there ?" I would say " A long time" So then they would try to get smart and say "When did you leave this job " and i would say " When i got the next one" Finally they would straight out ask " What year did you start your first job?" At that point i knew the interestin my skills were gone.