How far would you go to land a job?
When you start job hunting, it usually involves shopping around your resume to your past or present work contacts, along with networking and applying for online postings.
U.K. resident Dan Conway took job hunting to a whole new level and it finally paid off when he landed a job as a marketing executive in the U.S., according to the Daily Mail.
The 28-year-old advertising graduate lost his job as a project worker at a youth center in June of 2012. He took on other odd jobs, but then decided to focus on breaking into the industry. He branded himself as the "extreme job hunter" and the young father of two put his skills to work for his most important challenge: marketing himself. He put up videos of crazy stunts he did, such as selling himself on eBay and even taking part in a gravy fight, all in an attempt to create a viral campaign. Well, it looks like he caught the attention of the right people.
This isn't the first time that people have pushed against the typical route to land a job. Another unemployed U.K. worker put up a billboard that was a part of his campaign to land a job in the media. After a month, he received 60 job offers in various positions, job hunter Adam Pacitti told AOL Jobs. His last 500 pounds (about $770 U.S.) was spent on that billboard it was well worth it.
Youth around the world face a similar problem, they endure higher unemployment rates than adults. Canada's youth unemployment rate recently dipped down to 12.9 per cent from 14.1 per cent in August, but that could be a result of youth going back to school and not searching for a job. This is just a little under double of Canada's unemployment rate of 6.9 per cent. In the United Kingdom, there's a grimmer picture with 21 per cent of unemployed youth compared to the country's 7.7 per cent unemployment rate.
It's no wonder the youth in this generation are being called the "lost generation," many of them are career wise. Job seekers have started thinking outside of the box and drifted towards creative, guerilla job hunting tactics.
There are many great resume examples that are very different from what you'd expect, but for every one person who successfully pushes the limit, there are other memorable resumes that are remembered by hiring managers for all the wrong reasons.
Job seekers have many more avenues to look into when they're hunting for jobs. While once upon a time you relied on job ads in the newspaper, many people are also turning towards social media, such as Twitter or Linkedin, along with browsing multiple online job boards.
It's a whole new world in some ways, but the basics of having a good interview, a helpful network and strong work references still count for a lot.
If all else fails, you could always apply for a job as a professional hipster, otherwise known as Hipster Randy.
What do you think of guerilla job hunting tactics?
Josephine Lim, MSN Money
Posted by: SP | Oct 26, 2021 6:09:11 AM
Shame he wasn't an attractive young woman. He could just turn to prostitution like so many do to cover their spiking university tuition bills.
I wonder what our nations 'leaders' would say, if they were required to explain their handling of the nations economy over the past 60 years to a diety when they died.
On the bright side, China's economy is improving nicely and our top 0.01% have never been wealthier