Guerrillas in the midst: Stand out from the crowd, get the job

From wearing a sign around the neck reading "Entry level job seeker" to paying $1,000 to rent a billboard with "Hire Me!" plastered on it, job seekers are trying less conventional ways to get their name and resume out in the marketplace.

On Wednesday I wrote about how to pump up your resume with standard methods, such as proofreading it often, and less traditional methods, such as sending a coffee cup to an employer and asking to have a cup of coffee with them to discuss your job hunt.

"The coffee cup caper," as described by guerrilla job-search authors Kevin Donlin and David Perry, yields phone interviews 100% of the time and an in-person interview about 30% of the time, according to a Christian Science Monitor story.

The story reports that after 18 months of looking for work, a woman express-mailed a coffee mug with her application to three prospective employers in September, asking each if they'd meet her for coffee. Two ignored her but a third agreed, and a month later offered her a job as executive director for a nonprofit organization.