I suppose I can now officially declare my test a failure. My “Zoli 3.0 Launched” post resulted in a spike of traffic, but few responses, and some of those were quite surprising.
Inspired by a Scoble post and a few cases where I’ve seen it work, I wanted to test how effectively I can find a job by posting it on my blog, vs. the traditional route of sending out resumes. (More then just a test, I am actually looking for a job or consulting gig). Trying to stand out, I announced my availability as a mock product launch. I thought it was a humorous approach, that still left my intent clear – especially since the detailed product specs pointed to my professional profile.
Apparently some (many?) of my readers took it literally. Imagine my surprise receiving responses like these:
- “Would like to get invitation” signed by X.Y,, VP Business Development of and ERP/CRM type Consulting firm based in the US and China. For the sake of US Business, I hope these guys stay with technical work and don’t get into a lot of business process consulting.
- “Would like to know more regarding your ERP software and I am interested to implement it for organization.” Nice, I’ve just sold an ERP system I don’t even have.
So, other than it did not really work, I’m not sure what conclusion to draw:
- I won’t ever get a job
- Resumes are still a safer bet
- I don’t have a sense of humor
- Business and Humor don’t mix
- I can sell any ERP system – even non-existent ones. Vaporware. (thanks, Vinnie)
- All of the above
Update (4/20): Tom Raftery tries the same: (good luck, Tom!)
- Gis a job – seriously!
- The Power of the Blog
- Job seekers and blogs
- Somebody hire Tom Raftery, dammit
- Hugh says give Tom a job, Shel does too. I just want to hurt a puppy
- Will Someone Please Hire Tom Raftery?
- Vendor messaging and Tom Raftery
Tags: blogs, blogging, resume, jobsearch, humor, product launch
My (ex) Gartner analyst prediction (0.1 probability)
Next time you go to a Chinese restaurant you will get a Fortune Cookie which says “Vaporware release 3.0”!
I’m not sure your target audience knows how to use BableFish to translate Humor into English. Or they’re just too lazy and reject applications in languages they don’t speak.
In my experience, if you break from the traditional cookie cutter resume, you will fare better with small, young startups looking for creative people. Not so with companies that have HR departments, or businesses that think like companies that have HR department.
Hi Assaf,
Thanks for your comment – I absolutely agree with you, startups are my focus. “Companies that have HR departments, or businesses that think like companies that have HR department” and myself are quite incompatible 🙂
Btw, Assaf, Congrat’s to the long overdue TechCrunch writeup:-)
Thanks 🙂
I don’t know how it managed to stay under the radar for so long, but I’m so glad it did. I needed that grace period to make sure it can deal with the load.