Social media and creativity, enhancing the job search

For many years now...search for "employment" in hopes that immediacy of response and the sheer number of positions that can be applied to in the online environment will help them secure a job. The ability to respond quickly and to a diversity of listings has largely obsoleted the "Help Wanted" pages.

Job hunters have turned to the web and sites such as Monster.com and Careerbuilder to search for jobs and publicly post their resume in hopes that it will catch the eyes of recruiters. However, a stagnant economy creating the toughest job market in decades, web job listings have been deluged and are clogged. Job seekers are little better off than having submitting their resumes via snail mail. So how do job seekers in an online environment distinguish themselves?

As an example, Al Biedrzycki, a recent Bentley University graduate, was fed up with his job search. After sending out dozens of resumes and writing endless cover letters, and hearing zero feedback from recruiters and potentials employers, he decided that it was time to take on a new approach to his search. Al took to his guitar and wrote a clever song entitled "Hire Me" while playing his guitar and cleverly flashing his blog address and Twitter account name in the video. Al posted his music video to his Facebook, Youtube and Twitter accounts in hopes that it would be enough to finally get noticed.

Well it worked...kind of! Al is still searching for a job, but CNN found the video on the web and immediately contacted Al for an interview. It seems that opportunity has finally come a knocking for Al.

Al's story just goes to show that creativity, mixed with the tools of social media, can produce surprising opportunity-or now that Al's been noticed maybe even a new job!