For the vast majority of jobs out there, the only way to get them is to apply in the standard manner. Having a polished CV, great covering letter and selling yourself the traditional way. However, if you have niche skills, there are other ways of being noticed.
Here are some examples of people who took their fates into their own hands and got themselves noticed.
First up is a video game enthusiast who got himself noticed by one of the largest video game companies in the world. He created a new game from editing tools from Starcraft 2 in his bedroom. The game is owned by Blizzard Entertainment, which is one of the best known names in gaming.
His game was so good, that it got picked up by other enthusiasts and spread over the internet. Blizzard were so impressed that they have offered to meet him to discuss his working with them on game development.
A girl in Swindon, UK was so fed up with being unemployed that she walked around the town centre with a billboard asking for work. She also included her mobile phone number as well as other details.
After walking round for a couple of hours she had calls from agencies, employers, and even the Employment Minister for England called her after she was featured on the news.
Another woman from Birmingham used to run a cake business that went bankrupt. She couldn’t get work so she decided to take matters into her own hands. She baked dozens of cupcakes, decorated them and put her name and phone number on the bottom of the case.
She then camped outside the Guildhall when they were having business conferences and gave the cakes out for free. Shortly afterwards, she was recruited into a commercial catering company and given a full-time job.
A recent cooking school graduate was so fed up with not working that he decided to create his own website featuring cooking techniques and recipes. The content was of such a high quality that it soon gained a following and was bought by a large online publishing company.
Not only did that graduate now have money, the company offered him the job of maintaining the content on it. So he was bought out and given a job in one go.
The purpose of this article isn’t to tell you what to do. It’s more to let you know that while the traditional ways of looking for work are still king, they aren’t the only way to do it. If you have a marketable skill that can help in any way, use it.
By using a little imagination and doing something to set yourself apart from the crowd, it’s entirely possible that good things will come of it. If looking for work is getting you down, it’s well worth thinking about alternative ways of finding it.
