TheEmployable love highlighting the wackiest and cleverest jobsearch stories from across the globe. Over the last few years, with a global recession in full swing, it appears that jobseekers are getting increasingly silly yet savvy with their job search tactics – from the Dear Lisa Rudgers campaign, to the two BuyMyFace graduates, to the recent story of a Jamie Fox chasing pheasants away on a farmers field for cash; stories like this do appear to be getting mainstream press on a regular basis.

So it was with interest that we watched the media frenzy that followed Adam Pacitti and his London based billboard advert asking for a job. There is nothing necessarily new in using a billboard to ask for a job, with one of the most famous being Jobless Joe and his “Save me from Emigration” billboard which gained notoriety a year or two back.

The Twitter response was quick however  and Adam’s “Help me find a Job” Tweet was retweeted hundreds of times. What was interesting was the diverse feedback that Adam received – from the really positive to the overly critical, with even down to the typeface he used in the ad being criticised! The story of Adam Pacitti and his billboard did however appear on national TV and also received extensive press coverage from papers including The Sun, Mirror, Independent and the Daily Mail.

Perhaps its was rather cliche and perhaps some of the criticism that it was a media stunt (Adam was actually fair. Adam was no stranger to the media as he had already made the press a few years ago in relation to his search for a girl he had dreamt about! That aside however, this recent example of being clever with your job search is another lesson for us all in that when it comes to initially getting noticed by employers, presentation and appearance can often trump content and quality. Adam will now hopefully go on to get the type of job opportunity he wants, or at least get his foot in the door. This however is where actual ability, as opposed to simply a publicity stunt will start to count.

Perhaps we should all consider what we are doing to get noticed by prospective employers as well. Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean necessarily creating billboard ads! However, it does mean thinking a little more innovatively about how your job application or job interview makes you stand out compared to the hundreds other job seekers that an employer could potentially see.