Job Search Sign of the Times
By Kevin Donlin | December 31st, 2008
Haven’t we seen this sort of thing before?
From the WFAA-TV web site:
Here’s a sign of the times: A Dallas woman has taken her job search to a billboard over North Central Expressway.
Juli Sarpy paid $1,200 for a three-day ad promoting a “savvy chick stylopolitan fashion guru.”
“I’ve never had anything like this,” Sarpy said. “I’ve always been able to find something fairly quickly, and it just shows you how everyone is suffering.”
Sarpy has a masters degree in public health and a bachelors degree in political science.
She has been out of work for six months.
My observations/rants, in no particular order:
1) Do you know what a “savvy chick stylopolitan fashion guru” does for a living? Neither do I. Do you think many potential employers know what this woman could do after they put her on the payroll? Neither do I.
2) The highly trained professional journalists from WFAA mistook the word “chic” on her billboard for “chick” in this story. Now imagine people driving by at 65 miles an hour. How many of them are misreading the sign, and not just that one word?
3) For $1,200 she could have paid for a direct-mail campaign of letters mailed to about 500-1,000 local employers. I could write a letter on tree bark that would draw a response from at least one in 1,000 employers. I’m sure she could do even better, given her obvious desire to make a splash.
Now. Having said all that, this story does have a happy ending. From the Dallas News:
After seeing a media report about a man using a sandwich board to hunt for a job, Ms. Sarpy decided she needed to do something to draw attention to herself and her abilities.
“I thought, ‘Let’s give this a shot and see if it works,’ ” she said.
Ms. Sarpy got two job offers — one as a fashion consultant and another as a concert promoter — among the more than 50 phone calls and e-mails she received on Tuesday.
So, why am I griping about this clever-looking tactic?
My main concern is this: I would hate for someone to spend their last $1,200 on a billboard that may or may not work, or spend nearly 6 months parading around in a sandwich board looking for a job, as the man who inspired her did.
The only reason she made the news with her billboard is because she was the first to try it. The second and third persons who rent a billboard won’t find themselves in the news. Instead, they will likely find themselves anonymous, unemployed … and out $1,200.
If Ms. Sarpy had acted like a true Guerrilla Job Hunter, here’s what she could have done in just 7 days …
1) Researched 20-100 target employers where she really wanted to work. Cost: $0 (it’s all on Google, LinkedIn or in the local library).
2) Mailed a photo of herself holding a picture of a fake billboard with a message customized for each employer. You can create your own billboards and signs at www.says-it.com – for free. Make a color print of each and Shazam! Instant impact. Cost: $250 for postage and printing, max.
3) Called each employer 48 hours after mailing her letters, to follow up. Combining contact methods (in this case, direct mail and telephone follow-up) always increases conversions in marketing. And that’s what your job search is — a marketing campaign. Cost: $0 for local phone calls.
I estimate such a three-step campaign of targeting and contacting 250 employers would produce a minimum of 12-25 employment leads and at least one job offer, at a total cost of about $250.
All told, it took Ms. Sarpy 6 months and $1,200 to get about the same results she could have enjoyed in 1/24 the time and at less than 20% of the cost, had she thought and acted like a Guerrilla Job Hunter right from the start.
P.S. — Below is my own sign generated on says-it.com. It took all of 20 seconds. Can you tell?
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