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Getting your foot in the door of any given industry these days is harder than getting your mittens on a Coachella ticket. This, of course, means that the more popular sectors are even harder to crack into (#SherlockHolmes).
So how does one go about getting the cutting edge on the competition? Sure, methods like interning and networking are ace, but they’re not what you’d call “showstoppers”. To make a splash, you’ve gotta go nek-level.
We’ve compiled a few hectic ways fellow humans have gone about getting a job – hopefully you can learn something that’ll help fast track your career, because let’s face it, the usual job-securing suspects ain’t what they used to be.
MAKE EMPLOYERS TOAST TO YOUR BRILLIANCE
This might come as a bit of a shock, but most people respond well to free booze. Canadian graphic designer Brennan Gleason used this knowledge to demonstrate his skills, going on to create a home brew whose labels and packaging acted as his CV. He dubbed the small run batch RÉSUM-ALE, which we reckon is as offensively brilliant as it comes.
Photo: Brennan Gleason / Dribbble.
What a man.
IF IT’S BROKE, TELL ‘EM HOW TO FIX IT
For large organisations, it’s insanely easy to lose sight of everything that’s happening at a grassroots level. For instance, a business could have a huge flaw with their mobile app that wasn’t picked up by developers. Unless a lot of people kick up a stink about it, it probably won’t ever be on their radar.
If you’re looking to crack into an industry, have a look at the top organisations within it (that you’d like to work for) and hunt down any mistakes they’ve made. “We once hired someone who simply spotted a problem on our website and showed us how to fix it without any prompting,” Sandip Singh, CEO and founder of fundraising website Go Get Funding, told CareerBliss.
It’s time consuming, but if you’re able to offer a company a way to drastically improve themselves, you’ll impress ’em straight off the bat.
GRAB A JOB HUNTER’S ATTENTION IN A BIG WAY
“Hello, I’m Adam Pacitti. I’m looking for work in the media industry. Unfortunately finding a job is more difficult than I expected as everyone seems to want to work in the media industry too. I blame YouTube.”
There’s a good chance you would’ve seen Pacitti’s attempt at landing a job back in late 2012, because it was pretty damn disruptive. Although he was at the top of his class at uni, not one of the poor guy’s 250 job applications were successful. So, rather than being devo about it, Pacitti spent his last £500 on a billboard ad.
Photo: Adam Pacitti / YouTube.
Pacitti, who copped 60 job offers, used his first pay cheque to rent another billboard to thank all those who had helped him.
STROKE YOUR FUTURE BOSS’ HUGE EGO
Back in 2010, advertising executive Alec Brownstein understood that us humans are an extremely vein mob. He also wanted a job at a top ad agency. Using this insight and desire for a new gig, Brownstein did something pretty damn explosive – he bought six ads on Google that’d pop up when specific names were searched for (simply saying, “Hey [PERSON’S NAME], Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun too.”).
The six names the ads were targeted to were the six creative director’s he was gunning to work for. Guess what? They all Googled themselves (lol, how embarro), saw the targeted ads with a pitch and a link to Brownstein’s website. The genius copped four interviews and two offers – one of which he accepted at global firm Y&R.
As you can see, there’s heaps of ways to grab the attention of folks high up in the industry you’re gunning to get into. It’s important to remember that there’s being crazy in a smart / creative way and there’s just straight-up crazy. Avoid being the latter.
While outlandish employment strategies are fab, the best way to get your foot in the door of that over-crowded industry you wanna crack into will always boil down to being qualified for the gig. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean spending three-odd years at uni. Why wait to make great? Fast track your soon-to-be explosive career by enrolling with TAFE Queensland HERE.
Photo: 30 Rock.
