Companies generally receive a number of resumes a day and if it's a giant like Nike, the number may run into hundreds (if not thousands). How then can a candidate stand out. A woman's answer to this was by printing her resume on a cake and getting it delivered to the Nike office when the team she wanted to be a part of was throwing a party.
Karly Pavlinac Blackburn wanted a position with Valiant Labs -- a startup incubator for Nike ideas -- but knew that there were no vacancies. Nevertheless, to let the team know about her, she sent an "edible resume on top of a cake".
In a LinkedIn post, she wrote, "They are not currently hiring for any positions on that team, but I wanted to find some way for the team to know who I was. What better way than to send a cake to a big party. I was brainstorming with my former colleague Trent Gander. When he said, 'Karly do better, this is a creative place, show up in a creative way!' He was right. And then the brainstorming began."
Blackburn then finally decided upon the cake and also ensured that it reached the right hands instead of just the front desk.
Read her full post here.
While she is yet to hear back from Nike, social media users seemed impressed by the creativity.
"I love the creativity of this! I see some marketing experience on there and wanted to let you know that I'm currently hiring for a marketing lead!" wrote senior recruiter Kayla Martin.
"If you’re not willing to take risks sometimes then you’ll never get a result, period. I commend her for trying anything outside the box. As a career salesperson, not everything works but the more shots you take outside the box the greater your chance of success," wrote LinkedIn user Casey Dupuis.
But, not all were impressed with the gesture.
Layout artist AJ Winter wrote, "While this is a creative idea, I think the part that went wrong was the lack of research/relationship with the hiring manager. Based on the lack of results from Nike, my idea is that this did not go over well and was not celebrated. I've heard stories from recruiters that have received food with resumes and it's often an unwelcome gesture. This tends to be overstepping boundaries - especially if they have no idea who you are and you're providing them food."
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