Hack Your Next Job Interview
Howdy, it’s Bob. Remember me? I used to be pretty active on this blog, but then lots of things in life started making things crazy. I’m not complaining, because I’m happy to announce that I’m getting married this August and I’ve also taken a new job. The job part is what brings me to the topic of this post – getting your foot in the door at companies which may otherwise not give you the time of day.
Working and doing a lot of online marketing, you find some loopholes, but there are also some drawbacks. The bad thing is that its hard to actually openly search for a job while you have an active blog and social profile. The things you rely on heavily to communicate with and get the word out, can’t be used as they should when lots of ‘different’ people could potentially be reading it. You almost have to do it ninja style, sending cryptic DM’s and communicating under the dark of night.
Thinking to myself, I wondered how could I show off my skills to those few ‘dream job’ type of companies. I didn’t really expect I’d get the job or even take it if I did, but it was more an experiment on my own to see if it would work. So here’s how I got interviews with 2 of the most influential web companies in the country.*
You’ll kick yourself for not thinking of this yourself and come to find out, I’m not even one of the first. But all I did was buy a couple of Facebook ads and directly target folks that worked at those few companies I was interested in. In the ad, I mentioned who I was, my specialties and if they could introduce me to a hiring manager. The ad featured my picture which led the user to my resume** located on my site. Boom, I had 2 calls within 4 days for a grand total of $12 spent and less than a hours worth of time.
If you’re new to buying Facebook ads, check out my 101 presentation from Social Camp
That’s it. I wish there was some magic formula to it. Have you seen creative resumes or ways that people are getting interviews? If so, share them in the comments below. I promise I’ll work on posting more often too.
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*I’ll keep their names a secret, but the first interview came from a company whose name combines a utility that a man shaves his face with and an aquatic animal and the second interview came from a company which combines a word that defines a market consisting of a street lined with shops common in the Middle East with the the distinctive quality or pitch/condition of a person’s speech.
**Much love for all the time and hard work that Jay put in on my comic. He took my vision and blew the doors off of it. With his help and a little time with Comic Life, my resume really stood out in a crowd.
