Creative Job Search - Ego Surfing

Have you ever searched the internet for your name to see what's out there about you? If so, you would not be the only person to have done this. In fact, this practice has been given an official name that has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. The term is "Ego-Surfing" and is the basis for perhaps one of the most creative job search tactics ever.

So how can we creatively use ego-surfing to find a job? Like we mentioned before, many people are now searching for their name on sites like Google. Do you think prominent people who might have jobs to offer do this? I'll bet that they do. In fact, I'd say that prominent people are more likely to surf for their name than the average person. And even if these people don't search for their own name, their friends and family will probably do it. We can use this concept to find a job.

What do you think would happen if a person with a job to offer searched the internet for his or her name and finds someone reaching out to them for a job. Do you think it would get his attention? Do you think he might click on the link to find out more? Well, this tactic was actually used by a very creative job seeker looking for an advertising job. He put out 5 Google ads targeting 5 different New York City advertising executives. He got interviews with 4 of the 5 people he targeted. He ultimately got job offers from 2 of them.

So what is the key for making this type of strategy work? The ad agency executive that ended up hiring our innovative job seeker was interviewed and asked what made this tactic successful? He said that the approach was very creative and got his attention. It was the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that he felt would be valuable in his organization. He also mentioned that it was the portfolio in the link that actually convinced him to call the person in for an interview. Getting his attention in a creative way was great, but you have to be able to back it up with a great portfolio of work in order to complete the package.

This approach is probably most effective for those in a marketing or advertising field, but it can be adapted for other lines of work. Just remember that the key for this type of strategy (and just about any other one) is to get the person's attention, and then have some great examples of your work to convince the person of your abilities.

Extreme methods like this are often called guerrilla job search tactics. Learn more about guerrilla job search methods: Click Here