Gimmicks get you noticed, but skills get you hired

Tired of firing job applications into cyberspace — and receiving no response — information technology specialist Michael Zubiak decided he had a visibility problem.

So he rented a billboard.

“Hire me! I do . . . computers, accounting, office management, teaching. I will be grateful, outstanding, 110 per cent,” reads Mr. Zubiak’s billboard at the intersection of Front Street West and Spadina Avenue, on the edge of Toronto’s sports and entertainment districts.

With the national unemployment rate now at 6.4 per cent — “the lowest rate in over three decades,” Statistics Canada reported yesterday — Mr. Zubiak believes the hardship faced by Canada’s 1.1 million unemployed has dropped below the radar.

“It is a very powerless feeling to send something out and not know if you are one of 1,000 or 2,000 applicants,” says Mr. Zubiak, who hopes the billboard will make employers come to him for a change.

He scouted locations, negotiated a rate that is “well below” the $7,000 or $8,000 that billboard companies generally charge for a month of space in downtown Toronto, and had a professional portrait taken.

“I sat through something like 30 photos. I actually tried on three different suit jackets . . . I wanted to present in a professional way.”

Since the billboard went up on Monday, Mr. Zubiak has received a few expressions of interest — including telephone calls from people asking if he could find them work, too.

For the past two years, Mr. Zubiak, who specializes in the creation and management of electronic documents, has scoured the on-line job boards and corporate and government websites for opportunities, sending off 10 to 15 applications a week.

However, he soon realized that hundreds of other applicants were chasing the same jobs. “I had to find a way to stand out from the crowd,” he says.

“I’m hoping someone out there will say ‘here’s a guy with some marketing skills, some ingenuity, who is willing to put himself out there,’ ” says Mr. Zubiak, who has worked as an independent contractor for the past 20 years but now craves the stability of a full-time position.

“Hopefully, it will work. If it doesn’t, I’ll be the biggest fool in Toronto.”

Career coach Marge Watters says gimmicks sometimes backfire. And the billboard strategy is probably too off-the-wall for most employers. “I certainly wouldn’t recommend it to my clients,” says Ms. Watters, a founder of Toronto-based career management firm KWA Partners Inc.

However, she agrees with Mr. Zubiak that it takes a lot more than an on-line application to get a foot in the door. Most jobs are still won through contacts — “you have to network, network, network,” Ms. Watters says.

Marketing executive Tony Chapman of Toronto-based promotional marketing agency Capital C says Mr. Zubiak’s approach is certainly attention-getting. But will it work?

“As an employer, I don’t buy off the résumé, I don’t buy off a billboard. I’m looking for something much more customized,” he says.

Patrick Sullivan, president of Workopolis.com — a partnership of Bell Globemedia, Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. and Gesca Ltd. — says applicants will not stand out if they “spam.”

Job seekers often make the mistake of applying for too many postings, rather than targeting the few that “they have a high degree of interest in” and customizing their cover letters to convey what value they can take to those employers.

Mardi Walker, vice-president of people at Toronto-based Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd., says sometimes a novel approach — such as a résumé tucked into a hockey skate — causes her to take a second look at an applicant.

One enterprising applicant attached $5 to his résumé, Ms. Walker adds. He didn’t get the job. “But we all had coffee on him.”

Mr. Sullivan got a chuckle out of Mr. Zubiak’s refreshing approach.

“I think these things are exciting and interesting and they certainly get you noticed,” he says.

“But ultimately, at the end of the day, I’m not going to hire somebody because they have a singing telegram. I’m going to hire somebody because they have the skills to do the job.”

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