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Sparkle (0)
Millions of people are looking for jobs these days, flooding the world with a sea of resumes. The good news is that there are companies that want to hire. Companies are showing some sparkle when it comes to standing out from the crowd and attracting the right applicants.
For instance, Etsy is hiring. Like any good web-based company, they are advertising the job openings on the Internet.
If you aren't familiar with Etsy, you need to know that it is a marketplace for handmade and vintage items -– a community of creative people. That's important to keep in mind because Etsy is advertising for coders, programmers, and database gurus who fit in with the company's mindset, which is a creative, handmade, vintage mindset. In other words, a code-as-craft mindset. Here's the ad that announced they were hiring:
I could watch that video 20 times and still find it hilarious. All the sacred cows of web standards and programming best practices -- really, anything Internet-related -- turned on its head in a creative twist that is just plain funny.
It's a brilliant bit of job posting, because it tells you about the company and the kind of people with whom you'd be working. Plus, it's practice: it links to this staid listing of all the jobs available at Etsy.
Which one would tempt you to apply? The perfect-for-you job title, say "Interaction/User Interface Designer," or the video?
A lot of companies need Interaction/User Interface Designers and similar workers these days. And a job is a job, right? Etsy found a way to make their jobs look like more fun than any other job. Brilliant, I say again.
A Box of Crayons is taking applications, too. Check out their job application form for being Michael's assistant. The form for A Box of Crayons lets you explain what you're awesome at and asks you what "great work" is for you.
The application form leads me to believe that being Michael's assistant could actually be a job where the right person could shine, learn a lot, and make important contributions. So much more interesting than the "upload your resume" kind of job application. This is personal. It's asking you to reveal yourself a bit. It's unique, which makes it stand out.
In a world where face-to-face work interaction may never happen -- you could be anywhere and do many Internet jobs -- this type of job application form actually makes good sense. It comes close to giving the person reading it a feeling that they are getting the personal attention that comes from a face-to-face interview.
Do you know any creative ways employers use to find the right person for a job?
Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer CE | Web Teacher | First 50 Words
