Billboards, breakfast and foot massages.... As the job market tightens, job seekers are becoming more creative in their efforts to attract the attention of potential employers. In fact, 12% of hiring managers surveyed by CareerBuilder.com reported that they are seeing more job seekers try unusual antics to capture their attention in 2008 compared to previous years.
Hiring managers told the survey team that applicants had recently done all of the following:
- Advertising on a billboard.
- Carrying around a sign reading, "Will work for paying bills."
- Bringing a broom to an interview to “clean up the waste and corruption in the office.”
- Parking outside an office building and holding a sign that said, “Seeking employment.”
- Wearing a shirt to an interview that said, “Please hire me.”
- Showing up with breakfast for the employer every day until a job offer was forthcoming.
- Approaching a hiring manager in a lavatory.
- Sending a giant cookie with "Hire Skip" written in frosting on it.
- Including a poem about why the candidate wanted the job in her cover letter.
- Promising to give the employer a foot massage if hired.
- Persuading a restaurant to put the candidate’s name on the menu after noting that a prospective hiring manager had written a blog entry about the eatery.
- Creating an electronic résumé with Flash animation and a musical score.
Have any of your applicants gone to such lengths to land a job with your organization? Share the details—or your horror stories—on the HR Weekly Forum.
