Yesterday afternoon I pressed refresh on Facebook for the 14th time that particular hour and was greeted by a little advert that caught my eye. The ad block was from a young PR Pro in London, looking for a job, according to his advert at Ogilvy (my old employer).
The link from this ad took me to his online CV produced using Visual CV which further explained he was looking for a job at Ogilvy & Mather as he respected the agencies work and wished to move his career towards marketing and advertising in particular.
Out of interest I gave the bloke a ring (his phone number was on the CV – not necessarily something I would advocate for privacy reasons, but each to their own). He asked to remain anonymous as he was still currently employed at another London based PR agency – A risky strategy I pointed out to him as he may have little idea if any of his fellow colleagues had worked at Ogilvy (I seem to bump into someone on a daily basis that has) at some point or another – and therefore, due to the nature of Facebook’s advertising system, see his ad.
With the exception of the slight issue of being caught touting for work by your current employer, I think his use of the platform was ingenious. Is this something we will see more of? I hope so.
Here at Lexis we have just launched our Grad Scheme, and this year we have changed the application process – asking grads to try their hand at getting the attention of our recruitment team – so if you think you’ve got what it takes check out the Lexis Website for more info.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Gordon MacMillan, James Poulter, James Poulter, James Poulter, John Crozier and others. John Crozier said: RT @jamespoulter: Bloke trying to get a job @ogilvy using facebook ads! More here: http://bit.ly/h3oFCA [...]
Nice! I’m not a grad but would love to send you my CV James – I’ve been stalking you and we connected via LinkedIn a few weeks ago. Cheers, Ben
I saw that too! I also noticed the printed CV sitting on our head of HR’s desk this morning…good effort!
[...] James Poulter posted a blog this morning about a PR candidate that had grabbed his attention via a Facebook ad. It’s a timely post. We recently closed the application process for the 2011 intake of Speed graduate recruits. [...]
High-risk but quite an initiative!
Much in the same vein as the guy who bought Google AdWords for some top Ad Agency Execs ‘cross the pond last year – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FRwCs99DWg
Hey James,
Thanks for pointing this out. I think it’s a fantastic example of somebody using social media to stand out in the search for a new job. It certainly beats the rather staid A4 CV which in my opinion is the least effective method to showcase creativity.
Over the last couple of months we’ve seen graduates (mostly US based) using Facebook ads to target Edelman staff and hats off to them. It certainly gets people talking and it’s great to see people taking a risk, trying to make a name for themselves and land a job.
Thanks,
Ben