Now, another unusual way to grab hiring managers attention is going viral: Sneaking your resume into a box of donuts.
Back in 2016, when Lukas Yla uprooted to San Francisco from Lithuania to chase his big tech dreams, he quickly realized landing a job in Silicon Valley was easier said than done.
Lightning struck while taking a bite into a freshly baked artisanal doughnut. Who could resist opening a box of the tasty treats?
So just like that, the millennial marketing specialist with five years experience under his belt, got to work making a Deliveroo-style uniform, a list of his dream employers and a secret memo for inside the donut boxes. Yla then spent more than a week hand-delivering the donuts to every company on his wish list in the disguise.
The marketing hopeful scored at least 10 interviews. However, he tells Fortune that he failed to secure a work visa and so continued growing his career in Europe and has since worked as a director at Uber’s rival, Bolt.
Years later, Yla’s stunt is going viral all over again. A sign of just how bleak the job market has become, social media users are reviving his resume-in-a-donut-box hack as inspiration for desperate job seekers.
The Gen Zers who are winning the war for work are thinking outside the box with hacks like Yla’s to gain a competitive edge.
“The market is so saturated with such incredible talent that it takes some creativity in order to stand out from the crowd,” Ossowski told Fortune.
