“The Google Job Experiment”

Hey Team,

This story was pretty big last week but I was so busy trying to get Résumé Padding off the ground I didn’t have much of a chance to write about it.

Here’s the deal: clearly I’m not the only one who has come to the realization that, between an economy that’s on suicide watch and an online job posting system that is better suited to hiring robots (literal robots…that wasn’t some figurative jab against people who don’t think for themselves), job hunting in 2010 is fundamentally broken.

How did this guy solve the problem? Did he spend months building a website around a twisted job competition concept thereby creating not only a means to an end but also a mirror into society and a marketing coup for some lucky winner? Did he spend further weeks of shooting and editing a weekly web series dedicated to padding his résumé, adding awareness and interactivity to his site and proving he can produce a top quality show on time and under budget?

No.

He spent $6 on a Google AdWords.

Here’s the clever part though: The dude bought ads, not for generic search terms, but for the names of Creative Directors in New York City. So, when these guys vanity searched themselves, lo and behold, here was a clever guy asking for a job. I’ve heard of people playing similar games with facebook ad buys so it’s not without some precedent but still…brilliant, right?!

There it is folks, stand out and make an impression. Let’s call that Life Lesson #11.

I’m done.

Brett.

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