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Permalink Reply by John W. Ferneborg on December 11, 2011 at 11:13pm

Nicest gift I've received was a full sized New England Patriots Helmet with QB Tom Brady's signature .  The gentleman wasn't even a candidate.  Obviously I gave him an hour on the phone talking about his career and the best way to tackle going about a job search.  This was about 4-5years ago.

Funniest was big packet of beef jerky... very odd gift, but luckily I do love me some beef jerky!

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Share on December 12, 2011 at 3:35am

How creative. Thanks for sharing, Tino

Valentino Martinez said:

Hello Jacob,

Glad you asked.

I should point out that I was recruiting “creatives” for an advertising group within the Ralston Purina Pet Product Company.  A résumé accompanied some dog biscuits which were uniquely designed and packaged —demonstrating this particular candidate’s take on how dog biscuits could be marketed.

While getting dog biscuits along with a résumé for employment consideration for Purina was not surprising it was strange and a bit out of the normal when one thinks about what recruiters experience with job applicants.

BTW--as a recruiter I have no scruples about using dogs or cats to help me recruit engineers…  Seeing the example I’ve added below gave many an engineer, and others, pause that I would use paws get their attention.  It worked very well.

This may inspire your next forum discussion question as in: “What is the strangest thing we as recruiters ever used to attract interest in a job from potential job candidates?”

Tino

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Share on December 12, 2011 at 3:37am

Wow! Not that's a gift! The helmet's pretty cool too.

Just kidding, obviously the helmet is the bigger deal. Why did he send it in if he wasn't even a candidate? And what that?

And why the beef jerky from the other candidate? I'm trying to understand the method to the madness.

John W. Ferneborg said:

Nicest gift I've received was a full sized New England Patriots Helmet with QB Tom Brady's signature .  The gentleman wasn't even a candidate.  Obviously I gave him an hour on the phone talking about his career and the best way to tackle going about a job search.  This was about 4-5years ago.

Funniest was big packet of beef jerky... very odd gift, but luckily I do love me some beef jerky!

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Permalink Reply by John W. Ferneborg on December 12, 2011 at 3:51am

The gentleman that sent the helmet worked for one of the baseball card companies.  So sport memorabilia was something he had plenty of access to, and in turn used it to his advantage for networking.  He had been given my name as someone he should contact, hence he sent the helmet as a "foot in the door" as you say.  Very nice guy, unfortunately at the time we didn't have anything that would have been a great fit. 

The beef jerky was from a candidate that I had a nice meeting with for a search.  It was on a Saturday and after the interview he was taking his son to his local state fair.  We had joked earlier in the interview that you could always find someone selling great beef jerky and the latest wonder mops.  Being witty, he sent me a few packs of jerky.  It gave me a big chuckle!

My most memorable of all gifts was at an interview with a Controller for a cake company.  He brought me 4 large beautiful cakes as a gift.  I brought them back to the office and my team was loving this guy for the generosity and great flavors!

We'll have to start another thread on the most memorable client meetings... good and bad.  I'm sure there are some doozeys!  I know I have a good handful plus.

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Share on December 12, 2011 at 4:40am

Thanks for the details. Good stories all of them.

4 cakes is a lot, what a sweet guy :)

John W. Ferneborg said:

The gentleman that sent the helmet worked for one of the baseball card companies.  So sport memorabilia was something he had plenty of access to, and in turn used it to his advantage for networking.  He had been given my name as someone he should contact, hence he sent the helmet as a "foot in the door" as you say.  Very nice guy, unfortunately at the time we didn't have anything that would have been a great fit. 

The beef jerky was from a candidate that I had a nice meeting with for a search.  It was on a Saturday and after the interview he was taking his son to his local state fair.  We had joked earlier in the interview that you could always find someone selling great beef jerky and the latest wonder mops.  Being witty, he sent me a few packs of jerky.  It gave me a big chuckle!

My most memorable of all gifts was at an interview with a Controller for a cake company.  He brought me 4 large beautiful cakes as a gift.  I brought them back to the office and my team was loving this guy for the generosity and great flavors!

We'll have to start another thread on the most memorable client meetings... good and bad.  I'm sure there are some doozeys!  I know I have a good handful plus.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa A, Doorly on December 19, 2011 at 11:13am

I had a candidate send me their resume in a Chinese food delivery box - they folded the resume in the shape of a fortune cookie - they were applying for a marketing job and wanted to show how 'clever' they were - I have to say it stood out in uniqueness but the resume susbstance did not live up to the clever packaging.

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Permalink Reply by Samantha Lacey on December 19, 2011 at 11:20am

I once had a resume sent to me with a tea bag stapled to it. There was a note attached saying something like "take the time to make yourself a cup of tea before you read this. This will be the most important document you read all day." 

The guy was very arrogant, both on the phone and on paper and did not get the job. Also, the fact that the tea bag was stapled meant it was unusable, it ripped when I tried to get it off! 

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Permalink Reply by Darryl Dioso on December 19, 2011 at 12:24pm

I got a GI Joe action figure from a candidate proclaiming to be "The fighter of clean and usable code (Java)".

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Share on December 19, 2011 at 3:51pm

Hey everyone,

The article has been posted and your stories and others' make it a great read!

27 Wackiest Gifts Sent By Job Seekers To Recruiters

Please visit it, retweet/Like/+1 it, and if you have any followup comments or other stories, share them there too.

There will also be a longer version on JobMob in late January.

Lisa, Samantha and Darryl- thanks for your stories too, which came too late for the first version, but will be in the JobMob followup.

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Permalink Reply by Suzanne Levison on December 21, 2011 at 10:47am

My niche is the creative world, so my "gifts" are eccentric! The nicest logical type of gift was a gorgeous designer candle sent fed ex overnight by a candidate I had just placed. @619Suzanne (twitter)

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Share on December 22, 2011 at 4:13am

That does sound nice, Suzanne. What was the most unusual gift though?

Suzanne Levison said:

My niche is the creative world, so my "gifts" are eccentric! The nicest logical type of gift was a gorgeous designer candle sent fed ex overnight by a candidate I had just placed. @619Suzanne (twitter)

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Share on February 15, 2012 at 4:05am

Just posted the followup on JobMob - with pictures! - including all the stories from the first article, and adding the recent responses from Suzanne, Darryl, Samantha and Lisa:

33 Most Unique and Funny Items Sent To Recruiters

Please share it with at least one other recruiter who is guaranteed to find it funny

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