Job candidate poses as delivery guy to get his resume into offices: The sweet world of recruitment stunts

There’s fierce competition for jobs at the world’s biggest technology companies – and when it comes to showing initiative, one eager marketing professional has outdone himself by sneaking into San Francisco offices disguised as a courier to make a pitch for employment.

Lukas Yla recently moved from Europe to the US and has been posing as a Postmates delivery man, bringing boxes of doughnuts to prospective employers and hiding his resume in the top of each box, according to Business Insider.

Lukas Yla delivers his #resume by delivering it with doughnuts #jobhunt #Marketing https://t.co/ePEN225jLt pic.twitter.com/nWmob5sHES

— Formerly TMR (@Bori206) October 5, 2016

@LukasYla Just read the article about how you applied for jobs. Very creative and out of the box, pun intended. Best of luck!

— Danny LuVisi (@ETwithawigon) October 6, 2016

The resume was emblazoned with the message “Most resumes end up in trash. Mine – in your belly”, and the search has garnered Yla large amounts of praise on social media from fellow job searchers and employees in the industry.

The process involved Yla dressing up as a courier from the logistics company Postmates. Rather than angering the business with his cheeky move, the chief executive of Postmates invited the job hunter to have coffee after seeing a news story on the campaign.

This is fantastic! @LukasYla: https://t.co/s1bysfBuG8

— Bastian Lehmann (@Basti) October 4, 2016

Yla’s approach is just one of many creative recruitment pitches – and both employers and employees are looking to disrupt the hiring process.

For instance, in 2012 Ikea Australia needed to fill a number of positions after launching a new store, so it placed “Career Instructions” leaflets in flat pack furniture boxes. The company hired 280 staff members from the campaign, after receiving more than 4000 applicants and spending nothing on recruitment ads.

In 2014, Canadian designer Brennan Gleason landed a job out of uni by designing packaging for his home brew beer with his resume on the outside, then sending the units out to potential employers. The product was known as “Resume-ale”.

Psychologist Eve Ash says that these kinds of stunts work well because they show the creativity of the candidate.

“For a start I think [Yla] is really creative – and it’s unusual, so people are going to be entertained and interested,” she told SmartCompany.

“I think because he’s not hurt anybody, the postal company is impressed with his ingenuity and his creativity.”

Provided such campaigns don’t involve anybody getting hurt, these approaches can break through traditional hiring procedures by actually demonstrating what an employee is capable of, says Ash.

“In recruitment people are looking at work tests and all sorts of ways for people to demonstrate all sorts of skills. If somebody goes and demonstrates something creative, then that’s great.”

It doesn’t hurt when a recruitment campaign gives good advertising to another brand, like Postmates, Ash adds.

“If that company has one of its values as innovation, they’re going to then appreciate that.”

Reventure managing director Lindsay McMillan told SmartCompany that to date it’s actually been employers that have not done a great job of tackling the modern challenges of the workplace head-on, and it’s up to companies to sell themselves to employees in a high turnover context.

McMillan’s recent research for Reventure revealed about half of Australian workers were looking for new opportunities in the coming year.

While stories of eager job hunters often float to the surface, in Australia some businesses have actually struggled to find any applicants at all. 

“Employers must be focussed on creating more rewarding, engaging and productive work cultures that provide incentives for employees to stay,” McMillan says.

SmartCompany contacted Yla via email for an update on his job search. He says he’s still looking for opportunities and hopes his pitch will be show employers a good example of his capabilities.

“I see donuts as a good way to cut through competition and grab potential employers attention by showing my problem solving and decision making skills,” Yla says.