Most clever stunt you've pulled to get a job/experience

Hi all,

I was discussing all the war stories on finding a job with my co-workers and figured it was an interesting
thing to post here.

What is the most devious, creative, or cunning stunt you've pulled trying to find a job? have you paid a stranger to provide you with a reference, worked for free at a business to gain experience, "adjusted" your resume to include more skill, e.t.c

I suppose even recruiters and managers sometimes encourage people to do some of these things and not everything
during jobsearch is black and white. Feel free to talk it up.

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Comments

si20

For me, it was getting my BSc and then the OSCP cert. I was on 18k, working for local government doing 2nd line support. You could say it was a dead end job. There was 0% chance of getting promoted - it simply didn't happen. I needed to earn more money somehow. I got my BSc which moved me up to 26k in digital security, and then got the OSCP, which bumped me up to 40k.

For me, certs are about 2 things (I consider the BSc a cert as well...one that takes 3 years to get

): 1) learning and 2) giving you a talking point. When you go to an interview, you talk. If you go to an interview and don't have anything to talk about, you wont get very far. However, if you can talk about your experiences, tie them into why your experience is suitable for the job role and how you've slaved away in your spare time whilst your friends were out getting drunk, I feel that you give yourself a far greater chance.

UncleB

I got an interview at the European Central Bank back in 2000 where I heard about a position through a guy I had chatted with occasionally on a financial discussion board and he told me about a position that was opening at his work.

I asked him which agencies they used, spoke to them to get put forward for the role and had an interview a few days later where I flew from London to Frankfurt on the off chance I could impress them.

The interview consisted of the head of IT talking at me with 2 Scandinavian girls also in the interview (no idea why) for almost an hour, with only token questions of "can you do XYZ?" - I left more than a little bewildered but heard I got the job before I even reached the airport.

It turns out that the Head of IT was best drinking buddies with the guy I chatted with online (never spoke to him until I started work) and he gave me a glowing recommendation in spite of knowing nothing about me.

I ended up contracting there for 3 years, making a load of cash and becoming best mates with the guy who introduced me.

Not a clever stunt as such, just an odd story.

Iain

SGIT

UncleB wrote: »

It turns out that the Head of IT was best drinking buddies with the guy I chatted with online (never spoke to him until I started work) and he gave me a glowing recommendation in spite of knowing nothing about me.

I ended up contracting there for 3 years, making a load of cash and becoming best mates with the guy who introduced me.

Not a clever stunt as such, just an odd story.

Iain

I was looking for a "like" button like on Facebook.

bpenn

After I joined the AF Reserve, I was placed on a 3 month active duty stint doing desktop support for a fighter wing. I ran into a guy there who was a contractor and always having computer issues. He declared to the office that he would hook up whoever could fix his issues (he was on a completely seperate domain than the rest of us). I fixed his issue and he asked me what I wanted. I told him I wanted a job after my orders were up so he called the lead help desk manager for his contract and recommended me. I started 2 months later.

Oh, and I bought that guy a fruit basket for enabling my career. Never forget you, Calvin!

egrizzly

oh my god, I guess I'm asking people to confess their sins (lol). should have known people would give innocent stories. well, I'll start with mine

my last job I had to pay a coworker who I wasn't to acquainted with $50 to give me a reference. He would pose as the "manager". So with his name I now had a managerial reference as well as a one from a coworker. Those are the kind of devious stories I meant..

Kinet1c

As per si20, I educated myself.

markulous

Not sure how clever it is, but I worked at a call center that did extremely basic browser troubleshooting. I used that and some volunteer experience with protonic to lobby for my first IT job. Made it sound like I'd been doing it for a year or so when I really didn't have much at all. No certs and was still a month away from my Associate's.

Iristheangel

Hmmm... My first couple of jobs come to mind:

1) Got my first IT job and wanted to get certed up so I worked a second full-time graveyard job as a security guard just to pay for certifications and training materials.
2) On my second job, I didn't feel like I was getting a variety of experience so I signed up for Onforce, Workmarket, etc and was working in so many crazy places and so many hours that I'd get out of my day job to sometimes drive 1-4 hours just to do a different IT gig
3) Took an internship at an MSP and didn't want to get rid of my current IT job but needed experience. I got a special exception from management to change my hours to graveyard at the normal job and would leave there at 6AM to start at the MSP at 8AM-5PM
4) On my start in networking, I left a comfortable FTE role with good benefits to become a contractor at a large enterprise for a 6 month gig. There was no talk or promise of it turning into an FTE role since it was only supposed to be during the course of the project but it ended up working out and I became an FTE 8 months later.

I guess it's not so much "clever" in my case as it is working my butt off and taking risks.

scaredoftests

Bringing a professional notebook to take notes/ask questions from. Alot of interviewers like that and some have commented on that. Also, sending a fast thank you note after interview.

E Double U

Saw an analyst position with a bank in Holland so I used LinkedIn to look up members of their security team. Found one manager that is also a member of the local security association. Went to the association website to find his email and found the email address of the president (turns out to be the same manager I saw on LinkedIn). Sent the president an email and also applied for the position on the bank's website.

Received an email from the gentleman asking if I was interested in a position with his employer and I told him I just applied for the analyst position. He reviewed my background and said he would check with the hiring manager. Received a rejection from HR because I don't speak the local language, but I responded with a request to get feedback on my technical background which led to HR forwarding my CV to the hiring manager. I mentioned this to the association president and he said he would speak to HR.

Received another rejection from HR and the association president said they wanted Dutch speaking candidates. The next day I received an email from the hiring manager saying he didn't consider me because my cover letter didn't include the details that he wanted to see, but he received some additional details that made him change his mind (he didn't specify). I had a phone interview with him and his 3rd tier analyst a week before Christmas. They invited me for a face-to-face so I flew from Los Angeles to Amsterdam the day after Christmas (Saturday). I landed Sunday morning, had a 2.5 hour interview Monday morning where they made an offer, and flew back Tuesday morning.

Now we're going through the process of getting the contract and work permit.

Chev Chellios

egrizzly wrote: »

oh my god, I guess I'm asking people to confess their sins (lol). should have known people would give innocent stories. well, I'll start with mine

my last job I had to pay a coworker who I wasn't to acquainted with $50 to give me a reference. He would pose as the "manager". So with his name I now had a managerial reference as well as a one from a coworker. Those are the kind of devious stories I meant..

Haha the same here, I was let go from a place previously with a few colleagues when the brown stuff hit the fan and getting a reference was painful. Let's just say we all acted as each other's managers with references for a job or two afterwards and all got good gigs, much better than where we left too, now that's karma!

Everyone on here seems very innocent unless people misread your post OP.

Chev Chellios

UncleB wrote: »

I got an interview at the European Central Bank back in 2000 where I heard about a position through a guy I had chatted with occasionally on a financial discussion board and he told me about a position that was opening at his work.

I asked him which agencies they used, spoke to them to get put forward for the role and had an interview a few days later where I flew from London to Frankfurt on the off chance I could impress them.

The interview consisted of the head of IT talking at me with 2 Scandinavian girls also in the interview (no idea why) for almost an hour, with only token questions of "can you do XYZ?" - I left more than a little bewildered but heard I got the job before I even reached the airport.

It turns out that the Head of IT was best drinking buddies with the guy I chatted with online (never spoke to him until I started work) and he gave me a glowing recommendation in spite of knowing nothing about me.

I ended up contracting there for 3 years, making a load of cash and becoming best mates with the guy who introduced me.

Not a clever stunt as such, just an odd story.

Iain

Haha brilliant

egrizzly

UncleB wrote: »

I got an interview at the European Central Bank back in 2000 where I heard about a position through a guy I had chatted with occasionally on a financial discussion board and he told me about a position that was opening at his work.

I asked him which agencies they used, spoke to them to get put forward for the role and had an interview a few days later where I flew from London to Frankfurt on the off chance I could impress them.

The interview consisted of the head of IT talking at me with 2 Scandinavian girls also in the interview (no idea why) for almost an hour, with only token questions of "can you do XYZ?" - I left more than a little bewildered but heard I got the job before I even reached the airport.

It turns out that the Head of IT was best drinking buddies with the guy I chatted with online (never spoke to him until I started work) and he gave me a glowing recommendation in spite of knowing nothing about me.

I ended up contracting there for 3 years, making a load of cash and becoming best mates with the guy who introduced me.

Not a clever stunt as such, just an odd story.

Iain

drinking buddies? that's totally cool dude! I think that's the strongest connection you can have in a workplace, lol

shodown

I built a pretty large cisco voice system in my home lab, and talked about multi site redundancy and all the cool features I added. Not once did they ask me about the customer or if it was a lab. They were just asking why I choose to do things this way instead of that way, and commands I typed in. I got the job, and nobody was the wiser.

gespenstern

E Double U wrote: »

Saw an analyst position with a bank in Holland so I used LinkedIn to look up members of their security team.

I also always research ppl on linkedin and their other connections when researching for a certain position, it's more of a common sense I think because sometimes they just suck and I end up dumping them...

But your Holland story is just nuts, I wonder how come that a guy from Cali can be hooked up with something in Netherlands? Did they publish their position in English on a US oriented job-board or something? Or some old ties to this country? Any plans to learn how to speak dutch?

mart541

Promotions in my office seem to be based almost solely on who your drinking buddies are and who you sleep with. So much so that there are multiple comments about it on glassdoor. Infuriating.

fmitawaps

I just updated my resume, and I made a few "adjustments" to some of my previous desktop support jobs. Nothing major, I just stretched my employment dates a bit. For example, instead of a job starting in June and ending in August (because the job was legitimately finished), now it began in May and ended in September. Makes it looks like less of a short term assignment, while reducing my unemployed time.

I just applied to a small local computer center, and by sheer coincidence, a person I worked with at my most recent job used to work there, so he's #1 on my list of references. I'm hoping they call him and he stands up for me, because I don't really want this place to formally do the background check. Due to some inattentiveness on my part last year, there might be a slight blemish on my record that would raise concern if people didn't understand it in the proper context. It was no big deal, I paid a few hundred bucks in a fine and it was all over with, but the original charge is still on the initial forms with some scary words, and my lawyer is getting it expunged now, although my background check could come back hot for the next month or two until it's totally cleared.

And since the application had a spot for it, I gave myself a $4 an hour raise from my last job. This way, when this place is deciding how much to pay me, they will be basing it off a higher number, so I get more money.

atorven

@showdown - Bloody brilliant! If they don't ask then there is no need to tell them.

dustervoice

All I will say is this; My resume includes Experience, Job Titles & Certifications - When i'm asked a question in an interview, i'm free to say whatever i want and to make any claim

..Its the job of an interviewer to prove me wrong! so to answer your question i've pulled many stunts sucessfully.

E Double U

gespenstern wrote: »

But your Holland story is just nuts, I wonder how come that a guy from Cali can be hooked up with something in Netherlands? Did they publish their position in English on a US oriented job-board or something? Or some old ties to this country? Any plans to learn how to speak dutch?

I went directly to their site and the posting was in Dutch, but the title Information Security Analyst was very clear lol. My Dutch is very basic, but I will learn it better once I live there. I think they like how determined I was. Being married to a Dutch citizen doesn't hurt.

gespenstern

E Double U wrote: »

I went directly to their site and the posting was in Dutch, but the title Information Security Analyst was very clear lol. My Dutch is very basic, but I will learn it better once I live there. I think they like how determined I was. Being married to a Dutch citizen doesn't hurt.

You definitely left no stone unturned there. Having been rejected twice and still managed to insist and land a job in the end, that's some dedication there, man.

techfiend

Like scaredoftests mentioned, bringing a professional folio to take notes and have questions has worked great for me. I saw it mentioned as a suggestion on TE weeks before landing my first position. For that first position, the A+ and my knowledge of passing there lab is what worked. Turns out after the interview when I was walking out I noticed my fly was down, haha, guess that went unnoticed or didn't hurt. Turns out my boss, the one who interviewed me, was fairly clumsy as well so maybe that even helped.

Second position, I really think VCP-DCV helped immensely since I'm using that knowledge for a majority of the job. I've been told by my current boss that it was my generalist experience and interest. Nothing embarrassing happened during this interview.

Expect

Mine might be a unique one...

some background about me, I work for a very known vendor in the Application Delivery field.
Life complications made me feel that I needed a change in my life, perhaps exploring other countries (or continents...) so the situation has opened a new opportunity window for me to potentially fulfill my dream, so I have decided this is the right time to go for that relocation, without going into too much boring details, it was a life changing decision I took, but the only thing that was left is to find a way to do it through my employer.
So naturally I went to my manager asking if there's any way I could relocate (or do an internal transfer) overseas and the answer was immediately no, and I kind of accepted it.
At that time, there was a QBR meeting in our company's offices, one of the attendees was a Vice President at my company.
So there was a pub night planned for all the executives and the rest of the company, so we all went to a local bar for a company night out. so he was in my sight most of the time. I decided I will reach out to him because I honestly have nothing to lose, so I simply went to him and introduced myself, we talked for a bit and due to the loud noise, it was a little hard to make a conversation, so he told me we will talk at the office the day after.
it is worth mentioning that several key people threw in a good word for me to him that night, because at that time, I had actually resigned from the company in order to go for that relocation without the help of my company (there was no other choice at that point).
So, one day later, I was working... having a few days left until my last day at work thinking he would probably forget about me and our talk, so I didn't put much thought into this during that time.
close to lunch time, he came looking for me and asked if I had time to talk. So we discussed my plans...fast forward, 4 months afterwards, they cancelled my resignation with my approval in order to be moved to a new role, today I'm in a completely new country in a new position, all fixed by my company. I guess it was all worth it, today I highly appreciate my company, not only they make terrific market leading products, they really do care for their employees. who would've thought it would end up like this for me? lol

olaHalo

For my first paid IT job I offered to work for less then they were advertising just to get the experience.
They hired me and I used that experience to quit 3 months later for over double the pay

Justin-

olaHalo wrote: »

For my first paid IT job I offered to work for less then they were advertising just to get the experience.
They hired me and I used that experience to quit 3 months later for over double the pay

Hahaha, that gave me a good laugh. Those guys must have been pissed!

NetworkingStudent

I went to school and received my A.A.s degree in IT.
While I was when in school, I started attaining Comptia certifications.. A+, Net+, sec+
I started volunteering a lot via the Volunteer Match website. (check this out as it is nation wide)
I added the volunteer experience to my resume.

I finished my degree, but I couldn't find any full time work.
I took on computer repair jobs via the work market platform.
I started fixing other people's computer outside of work market as well.

I added all this to my resume.
I started getting more interviews.

I started working as a intern at a computer shop.

Two months after my internship I was hired at another company.

dustervoice

olaHalo wrote: »

For my first paid IT job I offered to work for less then they were advertising just to get the experience.
They hired me and I used that experience to quit 3 months later for over double the pay

well done ..

olaHalo

Justin- wrote: »

Hahaha, that gave me a good laugh. Those guys must have been pissed!

dustervoice wrote: »

well done ..

It wasnt as cold as it sounds.
I did put in my notice and left on good terms.

But I definitely took advantage of the circumstance

alan2308

Justin- wrote: »

Hahaha, that gave me a good laugh. Those guys must have been pissed!

They had to know it would happen.

Kai123

Before my current role, I harassed the HR assistant for a NOC Engineer role.

After a dodgy internship, I sent her a big long e-mail, selling myself extremely well asking for an internship (I even gave them links to forms to get govt aid for taking me on). An interview was lined up and I cancelled the day before, pretty much saying I cant afford to do an internship and I'm off to retail.

They wanted the interview anyway for customer support which went ok. They asked me technical questions which I aced. They hired me on the spot.

I then harassed the NOC Manager for a NOC role, which I got 3 months ago

Moral of the story: harass the right people. I think overselling myself for an unpaid roll got their attention, and was lucky that they had something going at the same time.