Tips for getting creative with your job search
Jay Beech, Marketing Creative at Crowdfunder UK, joins Yahoo Finance Live on the latest segment of career control to discuss what it takes to stand out when applying for jobs.
Video Transcript
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Millions of people who lost their jobs have been turning to LinkedIn to let recruiters and their networks know that they're open for work. So what does it take to stand out? We have Sibile Marcellus here now with the latest installment of "Career Control." Sibile.
SIBILE MARCELLUS: Taking risks can have its rewards. And if you've already lost your job, what have you got to lose, right? Well, our guest today did exactly that. He took a big risk, made a music video, posted it on his LinkedIn profile to broadcast to the world that he's open to work. The way he did it went viral. Watch this.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
- I lost my job. I want the world to know, redundancy's a-- ah, probably can't say that on LinkedIn. So if you have a job that I would suit, shoot me a DM and I will get back to you.
Maybe I can create content just like this to help your friends succeed and pay my bloody rent. The time has come for me to ask for help, I have to shout that I am open for work.
I lost my job, I lost it. Oh. I lost it.
SIBILE MARCELLUS: And joining us now from London is Jay Beech, the creator of this video. Jay, welcome. What a video. So, Jay, you lost your job in May. What inspired you to make this video the very next day-- to channel your inner Diana Ross? Were you worried at all that this might backfire?
JAY BEECH: Absolutely. I would be lying if I didn't say I was sat in complete panic for a good hour thinking, do I post this? But after the past year, I've seen so many of my friends go through redundancy and take five months to find a job.
And I just didn't have that option. I needed to find something soon, and I knew I needed to stand out. So that's how this all kind of came about.
SIBILE MARCELLUS: And what was the reaction among actual employers and recruiters when they saw that video?
JAY BEECH: It was beyond what I could ever expect. I put it out thinking, OK, maybe I'll get 100 likes. You know, I'll get some interactions-- that's great for my LinkedIn. It was quite quiet at that time.
But the response I got was thousands of people reaching out, offering me freelance work, offering me interviews-- just more than I ever could have imagined coming from a video that was just a bit of fun.
SIBILE MARCELLUS: And when did your current employer, Crowdfunder UK, actually get in touch with you and offer you a job? And how was that job interview?
JAY BEECH: So that was about a week after the video went out. I saw a lot of people come through, and I had a lot of conversations going on at the time. And someone tagged the creative director into this video.
And straight away, he got into my inbox and was like, when can we chat? And it was probably one of the best interview experiences I've ever had. It completely changed the dynamic of me kind of going into an interview, selling myself as much as possible to two people having a conversation about how we can mutually benefit each other, and how that partnership was going to work.
SIBILE MARCELLUS: And now that you work for Crowdfunder UK, what do you actually do there? Do you get other people to try to sing like Diana Ross in videos?
JAY BEECH: Maybe at the summer and Christmas party, we'll give that a go. But at the moment, my role is marketing creative. So my job is to look at everything going on, and figure out how we can make video, and how we can make video social-focused.
SIBILE MARCELLUS: When people lose their job and have to find another one, there's a lot of emotion that goes into that. What gets lost when people are not willing to put themselves out there and take a risk?
JAY BEECH: I think you come at risk of becoming just another CV in a pile of CVs sitting on some recruiter's desk, especially in the climate that we're in now, where there's so many people competing for jobs, you've just got to do something to get your CV off that desk and not let it collect dust.
SIBILE MARCELLUS: Well, Jay Beech, joining us all the way from London, it was great to have you on. Thanks so much.
JAY BEECH: Thank you.
