As a senior in college, and a current intern at Exakt I know first hand the pressures of the competitive job market and the stresses of trying to get a foot in the door. With over a thousand students graduating from my university this year alone, the biggest question on my mind is: How do I make myself stand out? Just having a degree in hand no longer seems like enough. I believe the answer to this question lies in creativity and personal branding, which might be able to take a resume from the middle of the stack to the top of the pile.
With the modern explosion of social media outlets such as LinkedIn and Twitter, there are more opportunities then ever before to get in direct contact with potential employers. Some innovative individuals are using these opportunities to break away from the conventional resume and cover letter in order to get themselves hired.
One great example is Philippe Dubost, a Web Product Manager from France who was interested in finding new career opportunities abroad. He made himself stand out by turning his online resume into a strikingly accurate mock Amazon webpage, which allows potential employers to read his ‘ratings and reviews’ or contact him by clicking ‘add to cart.’ This resume speaks for itself as it bursts with creative potential and expresses Dubost’s unique personality. Rather then being dull and overlooked, his resume went viral and resulted in more then 1,000,000 page views and over 100 job offers throughout Europe and Asia.
Another creative job seeking effort comes from Steven Severn who used social media to go after his dream job at Saatchi & Saatchi. Severn used Facebook advertisements titled ‘Saatchi Hire me!’ to promote his personal LinkedIn page and targeted the advertisements to show up on current Saatchi & Saatchi employee’s newsfeeds. Spending only $3.43 in advertising costs, the technique scored Severn an interview with his dream company.
It seems that in order to compete with the high number of people searching for jobs today, one may need to think outside the traditional resume and cover letter box to get noticed. With interactive social media and other new developing technologies, the possibilities for inspiration seem endless. Especially when looking to work in a creative field it may be helpful to let your resume truly showcase your talents and personality.
Have you seen any interesting, creative or outlandish resumes? Would you hire someone who used a creative approach or do you believe traditional methods still reign supreme? Leave a reply and let us hear your opinion!
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