relevant resume - your failures, bad references, and non-skills

  • 0 replies
  • 1447 views
This guy came up with a brilliant way make his resume stand out and heard back from 8 companies in a month

It's difficult to stand out among hundreds of qualified applicants in today's competitive job market.
We know the importance of sending in a memorable resume and cover letter, but it's easier said than done.

How do you leave a lasting impression on a prospective employer?

Jeff Scardino, senior creative at Ogilvy & Mather and professor at the Miami Ad School in Brooklyn, may have an answer to this classic job seeker's dilemma.

He designed what he calls the relevant resume - a resume littered with your failures, bad references, and non-skills.

His personal one highlights several losing pitches during his time in the advertising industry, "missed honors," his inability to remember names, and even romantic failures from his time at Ohio University:

We spoke to him a few months ago when he launched this innovative strategy, and he was confident in its potential, despite its extremities. He believed it would be a creative way to stand out and get your foot in the door.

Since our conversation, he put his theory to test.

Scardino applied for 10 positions, all of which he was qualified for and genuinely interested in. Not all the positions were in the realm of advertising, his expertise. "I kept it within my skill set," he tells us of his application process. "But I did expand outside of advertising by applying for writing roles."

He sent in two separate applications to each company, spacing them out over a week and using a different name and address on each one. He also wrote separate cover letters to pair with the different resumes.

The results were surprisingly lopsided.

The regular resume received one response and zero meeting requests, while the relevant resume received eight responses and five meeting requests....



I love this idea and I wish it could work in China. All the super-serious puffed-up shit that goes into making up a resume has always bugged me, and I would totally, completely love to send out resumes of all the things that didn't quite work out. I mean, duh, listing failures is the new answer to that old interview tagnut, "Tell me about a time you failed", and it allows you to, in fact, list experience, but, well, oh god, I've just lost interest in this idea.
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0