Posted by Brian McCullough
Wadda ya know? Two job search hacks in two days.
This one was emailed to me this morning. Watch the embedded video. It’s only about a minute long.
So, from what I can gather, this Alec Brownstein dude is in advertising. There are specific creative directors in the industry that he knows he’d love to work for. So, how can he get his name in front of them as a possible hire?
Simple. Diabolically, brilliantly simple.
It looks like he bought some Adwords for those creative directors’ names. Surely, someday they will google their own names to see what the internet is saying about them. And when they did? They’d see this:
Hey Ian Reichenthal! Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun too.
And the ad linked to his own personal website, where I’m sure he had his resume. And where, I know (cause you can check it out here) he had samples of previous work he had done.
As he said in the video: the idea worked. It landed him interviews. It landed him jobs. He got his name out there in a very clever way.
And notice… he only spent a couple of bucks to do it! Imagine if I told you you only had to pay $6 to land a new job!
So, how could you replicate something like this in your own job search? I’ll suss it out after the jump…
Well, I have a couple of thoughts initially:
- This probably works best in a creative or media type industry where you would get extra points for being clever and using media in an inventive way.
- It really only works best if you have a name of the someone who can make the hiring decision. If you don’t know a name, then this probably won’t work. If you want to work at Proctor and Gamble, simply buying ads around the keyword “Proctor and Gamble” and hoping Mr. Proctor or Mr. Gamble google themselves ain’t gonna work. Same for Steve Jobs. Also, it might not work if the someone doing the hiring has a common name like John Smith.
Having said that, I do think it’s doable. And here’s how you could replicate it.
- Anyone can set up an adwords account. Anyone with a credit card anyway. And you can bid really cheaply for certain keywords on google. Like, pennies a click.
- Before you do anything though, make sure you have something you can point the ad to. You need your own website, or at least a LinkedIn profile (or even just your resume on a website somewhere) that you can link to. I think Google MIGHT let you advertise your phone number or email address… but a web page is probably better. If you can get your resume up on the web at all, then you can link to it.
- If you’ve a specific hiring person in mind, set up a google adwords account and give it a go. Be SURE to monitor it daily so you don’t spend too much money accidentally. Don’t worry, google can set it up so you can cap what you’d pay.
- If it IS a common name, then try to differentiate it. If there’s only one Larry Black at Crispin Auto Body, then try the keywords “Larry Black Crispin Auto Body” in conjunction.
- It is very likely that someone is googling themselves if they’re in an industry where they care about what their reputation might be. So, think of folks like the local car dealer or hotshot local real estate agent.
- BONUS: Maybe you don’t need a name after all. If the company is small enough or local enough (but big enough to have a website) then maybe you could advertise around the company name. Especially in their local google ads. For example: there’s a great Italian restaurant in my neighborhood. Not a chain. One location only. But they have an extensive website, and they advertise on goggle locally. So if I was looking to get their attention, I might advertise using their name, or even use the same keywords they advertise on and buy ads underneath theirs.
Bottom line? I think this is a PHENOMENAL job search hack for the right sort of job seeker. Even if you don’t think this would work in your situation, spread the word!
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