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ob hunting with beer and cupcakes: the wackiest ways to stand out from the crowd
Today's job seekers are ditching the standard job search approach and finding unusual ways to grab the attention of employers
By Piper Terrett | Yahoo Finance UK – 23 hours ago
RELATED CONTENT
Struggling to find work? Forget just trotting out the same old boring CV and covering letter to send to employers.
Enterprising job seekers are going above and beyond the brief in their mission to find a job, from sending personalised cakes to companies to brewing a special job application beer.
Here are some of the more unusual ways job hunters have tried to impress potential bosses.
Ply them with beer
New graduate Brennan Gleason has caused a stir in Canada with his unusual approach to job hunting. The graphic designer, who recently graduated from the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia, decided he needed to do something drastic to get the attention of potential employers.
So he went to the effort of brewing his own craft beer to send out to marketing agencies in Vancouver and printing his CV and a description of himself on the packaging.
[Should you be sacked for being too fat?]
"I’ve always been inspired by those wacky resumés, and I recently got into home brewing,” the 22-year-old told Yahoo. “And I thought: Why not put the two together?”
The Resumé-ale – a 6.9% blonde ale described on the bottle, like Brennan describes himself, as “visually pleasing, smooth and elegant, with a bit of a wild side” - went down a treat with employers and secured Brennan three job offers. Thanks to his home-brewing efforts he is now creative director at Techtone, a digital marketing agency.
Each bottle cap featured Gleason's personal logo, with the letters b and g. Photo: Brennan Gleason"They were definitely kind of thrown off at first," Gleason said of his new employers. "They were like, ‘What’s this?’ But when they actually saw it, they thought it was great and really liked the idea."
Get baking
Fancy a job at Cosmopolitan? Then roll your sleeves up and turn on the oven. Katie Oldham was worried that her CV would end up in a forgotten pile with thousands of other graduates’, so she turned to her baking skills to get noticed.
To prove her digital credentials, the Mass Communications student at the University of Hertfordshire had a batch of eight cup cakes made by a firm in St Albans. Each cake included a digital QR code in the edible icing that linked to her website and which the magazine's staff were able to access via their smartphones. Cosmo’s editor Louise Court was so impressed that she posted photos of the cakes on Twitter – as well as offering Katie a summer internship.
[At least England has one World Cup winner...]
Hire your own bill-board
An unemployed Irishman was so desperate to find work during the financial slump that he decided to take a big gamble – he spent his life savings on hiring a bill-board in Dublin.
(Photo: AP) Féilim Mac An Iomaire stands next to a billboard he paid for in Dublin, Wednesday June 1, 2011. Tens …
In 2011 Féilim Mac An Iomaire from Galway paid £1,170 to use a hoarding to advertise himself and plead with employers to offer him a job so he wouldn’t have to emigrate like thousands of other Irish workers each year.
The gamble paid off – 26-year-old Féilim secured 20 job interviews and a number of job offers. Aptly, he ended up taking a job with Irish betting firm Paddy Power.
“In my mind Féilim is a true rock star,” Ken Robertson of the betting firm told The Guardian. “I'm so happy he decided to come and work for Paddy Power. I have no doubt his energy, creativity and never-say-die attitude will be a massive plus to the brand."
[Ireland 'most entrepreneurial country in Europe']
Last year Adam Pacitti, an unemployed media production graduate, launched a similar campaign in Shoreditch in London with his last £500. The ad linked to a site hosting a video he’d made, advertising his skills. The video quickly went viral, racking up 1.5 million hits, and the 24-year-old, who got 60 job offers, landed a job with Keo Films, behind many of chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s programmes.
(Photo:Yahoo Finance) Adam Pacitti stands next to his job advertising hoarding in Shoreditch
Take to the streets in a sandwich board
It’s not just young unemployed graduates who are turning the search for work into an art form. Older workers who find themselves out of work are also being forced to try a new approach.
After being made redundant and struggling to find a new position, 50-year-old Geraldine Spiers was inspired by Adam Pacitti’s efforts in advertising himself, but she decided on a more traditional approach.
She paid £90 for a sandwich board and began advertising herself at London railways stations, such as Victoria and on London Bridge.
[Why this Scottish brioche is selling like hot cakes in France]Geraldine, who also visited companies door-to-door handing out her CV, hopes the media attention will help her find work.
“Maybe someone is an employer thinking of hiring and hasn’t got around to doing it yet and they see me and think, ‘Oh right that’s the type of person we need someone who is determined and professional going the extra mile instead of sending out CVs, as that doesn’t always work’,” she told the Evening Standard.
While job interviews had yet to transpire in May this year, the stunt helped generate Geraldine some useful leads.
Today's job seekers are ditching the standard job search approach and finding unusual ways to grab the attention of employers
By Piper Terrett | Yahoo Finance UK – 23 hours ago
View PhotoYahoo Finance - The ultimate CV - Résum-ale. Photo: Brennan Gleason
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Struggling to find work? Forget just trotting out the same old boring CV and covering letter to send to employers.
Enterprising job seekers are going above and beyond the brief in their mission to find a job, from sending personalised cakes to companies to brewing a special job application beer.
Here are some of the more unusual ways job hunters have tried to impress potential bosses.
Ply them with beer
New graduate Brennan Gleason has caused a stir in Canada with his unusual approach to job hunting. The graphic designer, who recently graduated from the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia, decided he needed to do something drastic to get the attention of potential employers.
So he went to the effort of brewing his own craft beer to send out to marketing agencies in Vancouver and printing his CV and a description of himself on the packaging.
[Should you be sacked for being too fat?]
"I’ve always been inspired by those wacky resumés, and I recently got into home brewing,” the 22-year-old told Yahoo. “And I thought: Why not put the two together?”
The Resumé-ale – a 6.9% blonde ale described on the bottle, like Brennan describes himself, as “visually pleasing, smooth and elegant, with a bit of a wild side” - went down a treat with employers and secured Brennan three job offers. Thanks to his home-brewing efforts he is now creative director at Techtone, a digital marketing agency.
Each bottle cap featured Gleason's personal logo, with the letters b and g. Photo: Brennan GleasonGet baking
Fancy a job at Cosmopolitan? Then roll your sleeves up and turn on the oven. Katie Oldham was worried that her CV would end up in a forgotten pile with thousands of other graduates’, so she turned to her baking skills to get noticed.
To prove her digital credentials, the Mass Communications student at the University of Hertfordshire had a batch of eight cup cakes made by a firm in St Albans. Each cake included a digital QR code in the edible icing that linked to her website and which the magazine's staff were able to access via their smartphones. Cosmo’s editor Louise Court was so impressed that she posted photos of the cakes on Twitter – as well as offering Katie a summer internship.
[At least England has one World Cup winner...]
Hire your own bill-board
An unemployed Irishman was so desperate to find work during the financial slump that he decided to take a big gamble – he spent his life savings on hiring a bill-board in Dublin.
(Photo: AP) Féilim Mac An Iomaire stands next to a billboard he paid for in Dublin, Wednesday June 1, 2011. Tens …In 2011 Féilim Mac An Iomaire from Galway paid £1,170 to use a hoarding to advertise himself and plead with employers to offer him a job so he wouldn’t have to emigrate like thousands of other Irish workers each year.
The gamble paid off – 26-year-old Féilim secured 20 job interviews and a number of job offers. Aptly, he ended up taking a job with Irish betting firm Paddy Power.
“In my mind Féilim is a true rock star,” Ken Robertson of the betting firm told The Guardian. “I'm so happy he decided to come and work for Paddy Power. I have no doubt his energy, creativity and never-say-die attitude will be a massive plus to the brand."
[Ireland 'most entrepreneurial country in Europe']
Last year Adam Pacitti, an unemployed media production graduate, launched a similar campaign in Shoreditch in London with his last £500. The ad linked to a site hosting a video he’d made, advertising his skills. The video quickly went viral, racking up 1.5 million hits, and the 24-year-old, who got 60 job offers, landed a job with Keo Films, behind many of chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s programmes.
(Photo:Yahoo Finance) Adam Pacitti stands next to his job advertising hoarding in ShoreditchTake to the streets in a sandwich board
It’s not just young unemployed graduates who are turning the search for work into an art form. Older workers who find themselves out of work are also being forced to try a new approach.
After being made redundant and struggling to find a new position, 50-year-old Geraldine Spiers was inspired by Adam Pacitti’s efforts in advertising himself, but she decided on a more traditional approach.
She paid £90 for a sandwich board and began advertising herself at London railways stations, such as Victoria and on London Bridge.
[Why this Scottish brioche is selling like hot cakes in France]Geraldine, who also visited companies door-to-door handing out her CV, hopes the media attention will help her find work.
“Maybe someone is an employer thinking of hiring and hasn’t got around to doing it yet and they see me and think, ‘Oh right that’s the type of person we need someone who is determined and professional going the extra mile instead of sending out CVs, as that doesn’t always work’,” she told the Evening Standard.
While job interviews had yet to transpire in May this year, the stunt helped generate Geraldine some useful leads.