Guerrilla Job Search Tactics - Michigan Edition

This past week, I gave two speeches to nearly 1,000 people in my home state of Michigan (including 500+ alumni at an event for Michigan State University, my alma mater) and did a TV appearance on Channel 7 (interviewed by JoAnne Purtan, another Spartan).

See that brown box in front of me?

I used it to illustrate the “coffee cup caper” that my partner David Perry and I teach to clients in our 10-week Guerrilla Job Search Bootcamp.

While in Michigan, I fielded dozens of questions from job hunters of all ages. Which is what you might expect, given that Michigan has been carpet-bombed with rotten economic news for about 78 straight months …

Since time and my attention span are short here, I boiled those job seekers’ questions down to one with broad appeal …

Question: “How can I stand out in a hyper-crowded job market?”

Answer: Try unconventional, “guerrilla” job search tactics to get the attention of employers. Here are examples of tactics used by creative job seekers to land interviews — and jobs.

• One Michigan man mailed cover letters with two aspirins taped atop each. His opening sentence: “Your customer service headaches are over!” This message resonated with employers, who called to interview him.
• A Las Vegas man mailed a paperweight and cover letter to an out-of-state employer. The paperweight was a miniature of the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign. His cover letter began: “Not everyone who lives in Vegas wants to stay in Vegas,” playing off the famous slogan, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” He was flown to an interview in California.
• One aspiring assistant basketball coach mailed the right hand from a store mannequin to the coach he wanted to work for. Rolled up and gripped in the plastic hand was his cover letter, which began: “I can be your right hand man.” He was hired.

Do any of these methods strike you as gimmicky or too offbeat to work in your industry? Fine. Don’t believe me.

Test and prove them for yourself. Try mailing something unusual along with your resume and cover letter to a company you have no intention of working for … like a sausage factory or a porta-potty cleaning service.

Then decide whether to go forward and use Guerrilla Job Search tactics when applying to ideal employers. 

Note: David Perry, Mark Haluska, and I will be leading our first (and last?) Guerrilla Job Search Bootcamp of 2009, beginning Monday, May 4.

You can learn more here. The deadline to apply is Friday, May 1. If the link is dead, that means we’re already sold out — sorry in advance, but that’s happened the last two times. Here’s the link again.

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 2:22 pm and is filed under job search tips. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.