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What do Gravy Wrestling, Pizza Box Lids and Batman have to do with Job Hunting?
Creative Job Hunting Tactics Learned from “The Extreme Job Hunter”
So, you think you’ve tried everything to market yourself and land a job? I bet U.K.-based Dan Conway, the self-branded “Extreme Job Hunter,” has done more.
Conway, a 28-year old advertising professional, husband and father of two young children, has not been successful finding work. But, it’s not for lack of trying.
Since being laid off in June 2012, Conway has concocted any number of attention-getting, oddball tactics, drawing from his social media skills and advertising background to push the envelope in the hopes of finding work. His job hunting efforts range from the traditional to the wacky, and include dressing up as Batman® to sending a pizza to a prospective employer with his hand-written cover note scribbled on the inside lid of the delivery box.
Denied an interview for a social media job at a local university, Conway tried again, this time applying for work in a way guaranteed to get him noticed.
After sending out almost 1000 resumés with virtually no response, Conway decided he had to do more to stand out from the crowd. He has chronicled his one-of-a-kind job hunting tactics on his personal website, Theextremejobhunter.com, where you can see all 17 of the “stunts” he has performed to-date, including:
– Attempting to auction himself off on eBay® (and being promptly shut down by the online auction house)
– Using Google AdWords® to surprise BBC’s Director Tony Hall with a targeted message, figuring that Hall would eventually google himself, and when he did he’d see Dan’s ad: “Hello Tony Hall – Please give me a job – www.theextremejobhunter.com”
– Recording a music video in which he croons, once again to Tony Hall, “Come on Tony, you need me, you need me at the BBC”
– Creating a video resumé, featuring his 2-year old daughter Lucy laying next to a series of chalked messages that enumerate the reasons to hire her dad, from his organization skills to “the most important reason of all… If my daddy gets a job he will take me to Peppa Pig World”
– Posting a photo of his daughter on Facebook® with a message he hoped would go viral. It said, “If this pictures gets 10,000 Likes ‘Bauer Media’ will give my Daddy a Job.” (He managed 4,500 Likes, but still no job)
– Resorting to outright bribery, from delivering a box of Krispy Kreme® donuts to one would-be employer, to sending Monopoly® money to another, and offering an iPad® to anyone helping him to find work.
His strangest publicity stunt of all may be entering the World Gravy Wrestling Championship wearing a shirt that said “Wrestle for Job” and displaying his website URL on a companion placard. He posted about that episode on his Facebook® page, saying: “I hope I get a job for taking a slimy beating.”
His comical tactics have resulted in the occasional interview. Even second interviews. But no job offers yet.
Perhaps it’s the goofy glasses. (I’d lose them.) And while his campaigns lack polish, he more than makes up for it in creativity. So, maybe he just needs better interview skills. Or, could be that as he points out, “The interview process doesn’t showcase someone’s skills properly or show whether they can do the job or not.”
Seems to me that had he been in the U.S., he would have been offered a TV reality show by now, focused on the difficulty of the job hunt and his crazy schemes to be hired.
To watch the videos, read his hilarious cover notes to prospective employers, or possibly to offer The Extreme Job Hunter a job, see www.TheExtremeJobHunter.com.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Dan Conway for permission to tell his story and repost his images. Being a creative services professional also seeking employment, I feel his pain and wish him much luck. Thanks also to the Patch.com for reposting Erik Sherman’s AOL Jobs article, Meet ‘The Extreme Job Hunter’ – where I first read about Conway’s extreme job-hunting antics.
Batman is a registered trademark of DC COMICS E.C. Publications, Inc. eBay is a registered trademark of eBay Inc. Facebook is registered trademark of Facebook, Inc. Google and AdWords are registered trademarks of Google, Inc. iPad is a registered trademark of Apple, Inc. Krispy Kreme is a registered trademark of Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation; Rohm and Haas Company. Monopoly is a registered trademark of Hasbro, Inc.
2 comments on “What do Gravy Wrestling, Pizza Box Lids and Batman have to do with Job Hunting?”
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Hear what Dan had to say himself, in a lively debate that erupted on Kathy Bernard’s Getajobtips LinkedIn discussion board: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/What-do-Gravy-Wrestling-Pizza-2943059%2ES%2E277513636?qid=f9e289c3-be46-4fee-8d32-f75a33721600&trk=groups_items_see_more-0-b-cmr.
Incidentally, Kathy Bernard of http://www.getajobtips.com is one of my all-time fav career coaches, with excellent advice and tons of great tips on using LinkedIn to land that next job.