eFinancialCareers

Was Joshua Persky ahead of his time?

Nine months ago, the laid-off investment banker made his pitch to passers-by in midtown Manhattan wearing a poster that read, "Experienced M.I.T. Grad For Hire." His out-of-the-box tactic brought encouraging words, worldwide media attention and many a contact - but few concrete job opportunities, and no offers. Persky found a new job in October, a full four months after his week inside the sandwich board.

Finance jobs are scarcer now than last June, while the number of applicants has exploded. To break through the clutter, job-seekers today are taking steps that might seem tacky in less desperate times.

Tricks to Advertise Yourself

- A Web site called damnineedajob.com sells T-shirts with the purchaser's resume printed on the back. Owner Larry Dinsmore of Lexington, Ky., says his product helped him land a job soon after its launch in 2005.

It's like Persky minus the sandwich board. You walk around wearing the shirt and strangers crane their necks to read your resume. In your dreams, at least. The person who hired Dinsmore noticed him not through a live encounter, but through a local TV segment about the resume shirt.

- In numerous LinkedIn groups, people are announcing they're available and delivering the cyber equivalent of an elevator pitch. After polling headhunters about this tactic, I wrote an eFC News story called, "Should You Billboard Yourself in Cyberspace?"

- Days after that headline appeared last week, a Wisconsin job-seeker "billboarded" himself in physical space. Mark Heuer, a sales and operations manager who returned home in October from a military contract in Iraq, rented a highway billboard to advance his search for employment. The sign directs traffic to his Web site, Mark4Hire.com, which sets out his work history, current objectives and a link to his resume. In a week's time the site has generated thousands of hits and four job interviews. But, like the resume on a shirt, the highway ad's success owes more to media coverage than direct viewing. Heuer already has been interviewed on local and national TV, including at least two CNN broadcasts.

- A recruiting firm's Web site is selling hiring manager names and contact information in bulk to job-seekers, starting at $100 for a packet of 10.

- The Financial Times' famed "Lex" column even proposed instituting a "negative sign-on bonus," inspired by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's attempt to sell a Senate appointment. "Some desperate out-of-workers trying to land a job might think about offering companies an upfront sum as an inducement," Lex wrote.

Pitfalls to Avoid

It's said that desperate times call for desperate measures. But no job-seeker ever profited from appearing desperate. If you go all-out for visibility to turbo-charge your job search, here are some things to keep in mind.

1. Never Sound Like You're Begging

Enthusiasm is good. But to be credible and avoid degrading your personal brand, you must project confidence - the opposite of desperation. Just as in dating, a job-seeker who comes off as desperate is sure to be either rejected or abused.

2. Respect the Culture

Many years ago I read about a job applicant who submitted a resume that was a photograph of himself in business attire, standing outdoors amid full-grown shafts of wheat. It contained just four words of text: "Outstanding in his field." He got the job, in an advertising agency's creative department.

I don't know whether the story is true, or whether it could happen in the Madison Avenue of today. I do know it could not happen in the Wall Street of today, or any day.

3. Beware of Rip Offs

Desperate people make easy marks. Before you lay out significant money or - perhaps still more important - release details like bank accounts or official identification numbers, do your due diligence. And remember that although information may be worth paying for, the only way to buy access to decision-makers is to enter a top-tier MBA program.

4. The Media are Fickle

Media exposure differs from direct exposure. The latter can be reliably assessed in advance. The former cannot, especially when copying an idea you read about. Reporters and editors are drawn to novelty. So, to get publicity for an idea that's been covered before, you must escalate.

That's what Larry Dinsmore overlooks when urging visitors to damnineedajob.com to "Call the news and let them know …you're walking around with your resume on your shirt. I DID!!!" But precisely because Larry did, anyone else who seeks media attention for the idea will have to take it to the next level.

So if in the Hamptons this summer you spot a laid-off banker with her credentials tattooed on her back, you read it first here.