How to hack the job hunt.
June 24, 2015 10:51 AM   Subscribe

For less than €3 per campaign, I’m able to get right in front of recruiters, drive them to my website and show them that I can be creative with a tool used in the day to day life of an internet marketer. posted by Cool Papa Bell (24 comments total) 35 users marked this as a favorite
 
That was really clever and interesting, and it actually used "hack" in a way that didn't mean "stupid life tip". Thanks!
posted by blahblahblah at 11:08 AM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Hm. I wonder if this would work well/at all for non-digital-marketing or indeed non-tech openings. It is clever, though.
posted by Skorgu at 11:11 AM on June 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


I hope the stalkers/harassers don't get wind of this technique, it could be pretty chilling.

That prank had a great audience, and in that context was hilarious. In other contexts, quite terrifying.

/still glad I don't have a facebook account.
posted by el io at 11:22 AM on June 24, 2015 [2 favorites]




We are rapidly approaching a future where the job market is "pay to win"
posted by hellojed at 11:26 AM on June 24, 2015 [11 favorites]


I hope the stalkers/harassers don't get wind of this technique, it could be pretty chilling.

Too late
posted by zabuni at 11:40 AM on June 24, 2015 [2 favorites]


And then those people who use AdBlock never see it and you're lost in the hole.
posted by msbutah at 11:48 AM on June 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


I'll point out he didn't get a job out of it.
posted by crazy with stars at 12:09 PM on June 24, 2015 [6 favorites]


We are rapidly approaching a future where the job market is "pay to win"

Approaching? I think it has always been that way.
posted by dfm500 at 12:59 PM on June 24, 2015 [7 favorites]


How did he build the personal job board, exactly? Where was he pulling the positions from?
posted by leotrotsky at 1:48 PM on June 24, 2015


This is pretty brilliant, given that the tactic demonstrates ample talent for the position. Unfortunately, it's hard to get ahead as a lawyer by suing prospective clients to demonstrate the need for one's services (legends about plaintiff consumer attorneys being bought off by their targeted industry nonwithstanding.)
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:02 PM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Leotrotsky, he was scraping company listings into a spreadsheet that kept them updated and sortable etc.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:04 PM on June 24, 2015


Great idea and well executed. Shows drive, initiative, talent, and a capacity for "thinking outside of the box" (we love that at TD Startup Enterprises Inc. and it is our company motto!). Candidate presented well in the interview and was articulate and clearly-spoken: luckily, vocal fry is a skill that can be easily taught. However here at TD Startup Enterprises Inc. we are looking for somebody with an extensive Nerf gun collection - candidate professed to not be a "huge fan" of Nerf guns. Was also overheard saying to one of the other fifty-thousand candidates for this unpaid internship that the Apple iWatch is "a neat enough idea, but first-gen technology is always problematic and I think I'll wait a couple of iterations before buying my own, especially at those prices". This is not the kind of attitude we like to embrace at TD Startup Enterprises Inc. and we will not be proceeding with his application moving forward. Perhaps in a couple of years when he was more experience but by then he'll be too old.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:00 PM on June 24, 2015 [8 favorites]


snuffleupagus: "Leotrotsky, he was scraping company listings into a spreadsheet that kept them updated and sortable etc."

Doesn't everyone keep job listing in a spreadsheet while they're job hunting? That seems pretty much just common sense.
posted by octothorpe at 4:42 PM on June 24, 2015


Great hack, I am always surprised what Google Docs can do. But if you did this at my work we would literally laugh at you when the door closed.
posted by miyabo at 4:43 PM on June 24, 2015


Doesn't everyone keep job listings in a spreadsheet while they're job hunting?

It's not that they were kept in a spreadsheet, it's that the listings were collected, imported and then updated by a script rather than requiring him to constantly check different companies listing pages, and update the spreadsheet himself. This allowed him to monitor a much larger pool of potential employers.
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:59 PM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


But if you did this at my work we would literally laugh at you when the door closed.

Why?
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:01 PM on June 24, 2015


"Doesn't everyone keep job listing in a spreadsheet while they're job hunting?"

peons maybe, the rest of use use org-mode
posted by idiopath at 8:13 PM on June 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


peons maybe, the rest of use use org-mode

SYNTAX ERROR

posted by snuffleupagus at 9:36 PM on June 24, 2015


/me snuggles trackball
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:13 PM on June 24, 2015


Creative, but completely against Facebook's TOS.
posted by Gordafarin at 4:15 AM on June 25, 2015


Do you really want to work for someone who not only fails to block, but actually clicks on Facebook ads?
posted by aaronetc at 9:21 AM on June 25, 2015 [5 favorites]


Also, do you really want to hire someone who uses phrases like "the amazing SEO community?"
posted by schmod at 11:01 AM on June 25, 2015 [3 favorites]


The job is in targeted digital/social marketing. If you're in social marketing, I'm guessing you might have Facebook ads unblocked. You know, so as not to be completely ignorant about what's going on in your primary market. And, yeah, I might click a Facebook ad if it demonstrated some competence that no one else I was interviewing had.

Also, do you really want to hire someone who uses phrases like "the amazing SEO community?"

You have to forgive marketing/PR people the use of marketing/PR jargon and its leakage into their regular conversation. Or more or less abandon the prospect of any conversation with them. My sister is in PR and likes to talk about how people 'engage' her socially, and is constantly expressing enthusiasm about a revolving slate of 'amazing' events and 'fabulous' people, whether she's working or talking about her personal life. She's still probably way more fun and interesting to talk to than her grumpy techno-legal brother.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:15 AM on June 27, 2015


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