Marketing Communication Ink
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“The Extreme Job Hunter” Finds Work, 1.5 Years Into His Search!
Success at last for Dan Conway, the self-proclaimed “Extreme Job Hunter.”
You might recall reading about Conway in my earlier posting, “What Do Gravy Wrestling, Pizza Box Lids and Batman Have to Do with Job Hunting?” Conway, a 28-year old, UK-based advertising and social media professional, who has already been “made redundant” six times in his young career, had turned to a range of creative as well as bizarre tactics in hopes of being noticed and hired.
One of his more creative attempts involved standing along a busy roadway dressed as Batman®, holding a sign that said, “HELP ME FIGHT EVIL UNEMPLOYMENT. WILL WORK FOR A JOB.” He sent a pizza box with a hand-written message scrawled inside the box lid to a potential employer, in the hopes of securing an interview. Among his most bizarre stunts was entering the World Gravy Wrestling Championship, for the publicity. (In case you’re unfamiliar, two guys go mano a mano in a pit filled with, yup, gravy.)
But it wasn’t just the exploits themselves that finally landed him work. He kept the message going through the website he created at www.TheExtremeJobHunter.com, where he chronicled his various tactics. It’s there that you can see more of his videos and off-beat humor.
Apparently, Conway’s antics and media coverage caught the attention of a U.S. company.
He has now been hired by Vitamins Direct, a Florida-based firm, which learned of his creativity and liked what they saw. They asked him to audition for a job as their Social Media Manager by creating a video for them. The resulting 2-minute YouTube video is visible at the link above or by clicking here.
According to Vitamins Direct president Glen Robinson, quoted in Marc Meneaud’s October 19, 2013 article appearing in the SundayPost.com, “We had been looking to hire a social media manager and all the people we were interviewing were just so boring. We wanted to hire the life of the party and share it with our customers. Dan demonstrated that so the choice was easy.”
Since being hired, Conway has created a couple of videos for the direct merchandising firm. He’s posted “101 Reasons to Outlive Your Children: Reason #48” on his Facebook page, with the caption, “Maybe, Just Maybe, taking one of our super multivitamins every day may help you live stronger, and last longer.”
And how’d I learn about Dan’s recent success? I received his LinkedIn message inviting me to follow the Vitamins Direct LinkedIn page, which he promised, “will be like an amazing trip to pleasure town, with regular humorous videos, inspiring quotes, and bizarre & funny pictures. So come on down to pleasure town.” And he included this video link:
The video is, indeed, heart-warming for the holidays. I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s worth viewing.
I wrote to Dan, to inquire if the video meant that he’d found work, as I actually hadn’t yet heard. He writes, “Yeah I’ve had a job for 2 months now at Vitamins Direct Online. It’s going well. I have even had a 2 week trip to Florida for training. So no complaints here.”
Way to go Dan!
About the Author – Suzy Kedzierski
For many years, I headed the Communications Department for a leading life sciences company. Today, I’m a freelance marketing and communications consultant and writer, specializing in B2B, with published articles on aptamers to elevators, bad translations to great marketing ploys, mobile marketing to out of focus images, and everything in between. The fun part is the diversity – web content, ads and literature, PR, newsletters, slogans, direct mail, technical papers, speeches, on-hold messages, and more. Whether light-hearted humor or a serious B2B brochure, travel writing, a corporate PowerPoint presentation, or a fundraising appeal, I’ve done it all.
Batman is a registered trademark of DC COMICS E.C. Publications, Inc. Facebook is registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.
2 comments on ““The Extreme Job Hunter” Finds Work, 1.5 Years Into His Search!”
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Wow, how wonderful that Dan was able to land a job where he can use his obvious comedic talents and video abilities to further the goals of the company!
Hi Kathy – Yes! Very exciting news for Dan and for Vitamins Direct! Thanks for reading.