Yahoo Finance 30-second brilliant way to get a job
Job seekers looking to stand out from the crowd are adopting unusual measures like singing, and according to a careers expert, it’s working.
Founder of jobs platform WorkApp Shane Wallace said he’s seen more job seekers “put themselves out there in a creative way”, using funny videos and bold taglines to snag potential employers’ attention.
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And it’s something more job seekers should consider doing, he added.
“When you’re an employer, you’re going to pick the best one, so people need to find a way to stand out,” he told Yahoo Finance.
WorkApp, which allows users to upload videos of between 30 seconds and five minutes to their profile, has seen its downloads increase from 140,000 pre-Covid to 220,000 today. However, the most exciting part to Wallace is seeing jobs appear and disappear quickly as they’re filled.
Here’s Wallace’s advice for finding work.
Get used to video
He said video marketing has become a big thing.
“People putting a video of themselves, I think is a good way to stand out because it shows confidence and it shows that you can work together,” he said.
He gave the example of one woman who used the tagline ‘I love whipper snipping’, instead of her name or job description.
She combined that with a picture of herself holding a whipper snipper and video of herself on WorkApp describing her skills.
“She got inundated straight away. She stood out from the crowd and she did the right thing - rather than just being another worker who would take a picture of their face and say, ‘I can do this and that,’ she got creative with the tagline, and put a video of what she was able to do,” he said.
“I know that won the race for her at the end of the day because I saw it come up on WorkApp and thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty clever’, then I got word through the grapevine that she started to get heaps of work.”
Wallace said he hopes WorkApp would help bridge the technology gap for older users and help them to begin to include videos in their profiles.
The secret is that while it doesn’t need to be a highly polished production, care does need to be shown.
“What you’re doing is you’re showing someone your personality in 30 seconds of dialogue,” he said.
“I would say just get out and have a go. If you stuff it up, you go, delete, try again. You might have to have six goes before you’re happy with that. If you’re going to try video, jot down bullet points, memorise the bullet points, press the record button and have a go.”
And think about your background: no potential employer wants to see a dirty bedroom. If you can make your background specific to your goal, that could well score you extra points, Wallace said.
For example, if you’re a florist, you’ll want beautiful arrangements of flowers in the background.
Get creative
Wallace said another WorkApp user, a 34-year-old single mum, posted a video of her and her four-year-old dancing to Baby Shark while offering her services in hospitality.
She’d been stood down as a dental assistant prior to joining the app, but the job offers quickly rolled in after posting the funny video.
“She got jobs straight away, and her tagline - instead of her name Chelsea, her tagline was ‘Pick me’,” Wallace said.
“It’s got all of these shots of her and information on what she can do and it’s what people really need to do these days, get creative.”
Don’t give up
Finally, Wallace said it’s important to try to stay positive.
He predicts the jobs market is going to “explode” in 2021 as the pace of innovation continues to accelerate. Job seekers just need to be ready to ride that wave.
“There’s going to be so many jobs. So many new businesses are going to start - businesses that weren’t alive before Covid-19.”
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