Bennett Olson, Minnesota Man With Billboard Resume, Hired For Marketing Job (VIDEO)

Bennett Olson needed a surefire way to get his resume noticed.

So, in April, the 22-year-old Minnesota resident purchased ad space near downtown Minneapolis and stuck his face on electronic billboard with a straightforward plea: Hire me.

And as it turns out, the sensational tactic led to job in the marketing field, KARE 11 reports.

The job hunt took about a month and several interviews, but Olson eventually was offered and accepted a sales and marketing position with a 3-D scanning company.

"It does take something perhaps unique to make yourself stand out from the crowd," Steve Hine from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, told KSTP in April.

While Olson's method might seem a bit extravagant, such tactics can certainly be effective in a competitive job market.

According to a recent eye-tracking study, recruiters spend only about six seconds looking at a resume before deciding whether or not to move forward with a candidate.

And that first impression might very well be crucial in today's job market, especially for recent graduates.

In 2011, nearly 54 percent of college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed, according to the Associated Press.

On May 4, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released data pinpointing the national unemployment rate at 8.1 percent.

Still, as the job markets mends, the nation has "regained only about 3.8 million, or 43 percent, of the 8.8 million jobs lost during and immediately after the recession," according to separate report from the Associated Press.

As for Olson, who lost his previous job at a casino in March, his billboard resume gave him the exposure he needed to make his way back into the job market.

And while Ad Week's David Kiefaber applauds Olson's efforts, he has one final tip for the young businessman: "Try not to draw water from this well again when you think you deserve a raise."

From our partners

• How To Get Away With Being Bad At Your Job - The Billfold
• The Sharing Economy - LearnVest
• Uninsured: How To Get Health Care Without Insurance - The Billfold

Comments

[hammerhead6154]

02:45 PM on 05/14/2012

hahahaha That brilliant!

[jamesw34677]

12:39 PM on 05/14/2012

The man did what was needed to do to get a job. Brilliant idea

[fashionizta]

05:49 PM on 05/11/2012

Brilliant dude!

[SLMVGKV]

12:16 PM on 05/11/2012

Ah, so this is what we need to do! I shall spread the word to all my friends now.

[sargentpepper]

11:32 AM on 05/11/2012

he gets a standing ovation from me. good job!

[JumpStreet1983]

11:01 AM on 05/11/2012

I admire him for his ability to think outside the box and land a job. That's a huge accomplishment in this stagnant economy right now. However, let's be truthful with ourselves: most unemployed or underemployed folks don't have the financial resources to purchase this. They are too busy trying to keep their heads above water to make it to the next temp gig or paycheck.

The real change needs to be the mass firing of so many outdated and useless HR managers who bypass quality workers because of personal biases and dumb screening practices. Not to mention that if you mention you're unemployed, they're already writing you off then and there. Get rid of these parasites, shake up the HR/recruiting world, and things will improve. Someone that's eliminating experienced job-seekers because of petty issues/slights should be the FIRST one in the unemployment line, if you ask me.

[trambusto]

10:28 AM on 05/11/2012

Gimme grant money. I want to do a study. I'm gonna take the same resume, with four different people's pictures attached to it, and buy them all billboards. We'll see who gets the most hits. I bet it will be the pretty, young, white male, and the more experienced and capable professional -- regardless of race or gender, will be ignored.

[J S Bee]

11:52 AM on 05/11/2012

Incredibly good point. To pretend that bias (age gender and race) aren't factors is convenient but a flat lie.

[trambusto]

10:23 AM on 05/11/2012

I'd be curious to know how hiring managers would react to this billboard if the face was that of a black man/woman or of a man/woman over the age of 50. Or someone fatter. Or if the person wasn't wearing a tie, or had a bad pair of glasses.

At 22 years old, Bennett Olson is lucky he's got youth and good looks on his side.

[JumpStreet1983]

10:54 AM on 05/11/2012

Truth!

[J S Bee]

11:54 AM on 05/11/2012

Not to mention the fact that he's 22 years old and can afford a billboard. I'm not negating your points for a second, but you have to factor that in, too.

[Last Progressive Texan]

10:22 AM on 05/11/2012

Having looked at billboard space in the past I would wonder where an unemployed man would get the money to not only buy useful billboard space, but to then wait months for said advertisement to enter the market. An even more amazing story would be how Ileana Llorens managed to get hired by Huffington Post and/or AOL with such sloppy reporting.

[Beebopaloula]

07:51 AM on 05/11/2012

An employer spends 6 seconds looking at a resume, and then they complain about the workforce they have?

Just because someone builds a resume about expertise, doesn't mean it's going to 'look pretty,' so when they hire a cruddy employee, it's all on them.

[Mr College]

08:11 AM on 05/11/2012

when you have 500 resumes just for a single job opening your mind can only handle so many resumes at a time! there are a few initial tricks you use to decide if they need a second more detailed review!

[trambusto]

10:24 AM on 05/11/2012

one of those tricks shouldn't be "how short is it".

[Dinosaur David B]

07:24 AM on 05/11/2012

Well played, sir.

[famullar]

06:53 AM on 05/11/2012

The best one idea that I loved today. It is encouraging to know that there youth who are desparte and will do anything for an employment. The bar , pie, Gant, ZEE charts are nothing this is real I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

[Meri B Kassner]

06:26 AM on 05/11/2012

My boyfriend moved from CT to NY (where I am located) when he was offered a job. Gotta go where the jobs are!

[dynasty8907]

07:21 AM on 05/11/2012

Yea, if you have the money to move. Which many unemployed don't and cannot just pick up their lives and go somewhere else.

[Meri B Kassner]

06:55 AM on 05/12/2012

he didn't have the money to move but the job that he was offered was at a much higher salary than the one he was working at in CT. We scraped the money together somehow and made the move possible

[trambusto]

10:25 AM on 05/11/2012

If there were no jobs in a town, then nobody would be there.

[mgrant33301]

06:21 AM on 05/11/2012

according to the romney campaign, he borrowed the money from his parents to pay for the billboard.

[zanzy]

05:51 AM on 05/11/2012

THat's wonderful! Hope is a good job for him.