Standing out from the pack for the right reasons

When I graduated from university, I moved to New Zealand to work for a few years and literally began knocking on doors looking for a new job and this process ended up helping me meet a recruiter who helped me get a job that turned into a fulltime role that I held for 3 years.

Before I managed to get this job though, I spent many weeks (months actually) beating my head against a brick wall frustrated by my inability to get a job. One day I read a story in a newspaper clipping that my mum had sent me from home, about a guy who decided to print his name, resume and phone number on coffee mugs and deliver them to potential employers. His premise was that it was a novel idea, might help to keep him name top of mind when a job came open and besides, the person using the mug would presumably use the mug over and over again and would keep seeing the guy’s name.

It worked. He ended up getting a decent job a few weeks after first handing out the mugs. Plus he got a newspaper article written about him.

This was back in 1994 when the economy was suffering and when the Internet was still in its infancy – at least compared to what we have access to today – and physical resumes and cover letters printed on paper and mailed or faxed to hiring managers was still the norm.

It was a pretty good idea and after mailing out dozens of resume without much luck getting a new job, I figured I’d try something similar. Instead of using a mug, I decided to put my resume on a one-page color calendar that someone could hang on their office wall. That way, the recipient could potentially keep it hanging for the whole year and in terms of delivery, I could roll them up, tie them up with a nice ribbon and hand deliver them, which is exactly what I did.

A local printing company helped me design them and printed up a few dozen of them for me and although I don’t recall the exact cost, it was less than $100 from memory. It might have been a lot less actually. I think the sales person cut me a break since she knew I was a recent grad!

I went door to door handing them out to selected companies and in some cases I got to speak directly with the HR manager or similar and and them the calendar. In these cases, most seemed to appreciate the idea and what I was trying to do.

Often I had to drop the calendars off at the front desk and wasn’t allowed to see anyone personally but it did also result in me getting an interview with a major brewery. Unfortunately, it didn’t result in a job but at least I had a shot.

I did also hand out the calendar resume to my recruiter buddy that I mentioned above and he did direct me to a company that I interviewed with and got hired by, as I mentioned above.

Did I get the job because of the resume calendar?

No.

In fact in hindsight I’m not sure if made any difference although the recruiter did smile when I gave it to him and thought it was pretty cool.

But sometimes being a bit different, a bit clever and standing out from the pack can help certainly when it comes to job searching.

Especially during a global downturn in the economy when jobs are scarce and standing out from the crowd – the people you’re competing with for jobs – just might help.

Tags: Job Search, recruiter, standing out