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He Really Needs a Job

ningcontent Avatarningcontent
January 27, 2011


Recently, I heard from a guy named Larry, who got a job by putting a cover letter on the back of a T-shirt that had the “Damn I Need a Job” logo you see here on its front.
Now he sells them for $25, customized with your cover letter. (No, I don’t get an affiliate cut — or do I, Larry?)
Here’s his story:
I found myself unemployed. “No big deal” I thought. “I’m a pretty smart guy with some pretty marketable skills and this shouldn’t be a problem,” I told myself.
I got on all the big job boards, feverishly scanned the classifieds, hooked up with employment agencies, called all my contacts and considered moving. I even opened up the Yellow Pages, started with the “A”s and sent resumes to every listing that had an e-mail address or web site.
I couldn’t help but feel like my resume submissions were getting lost in stacks of other applicants and getting “filed” without ever being read. It was totally freaking frustrating and I thought “If I could just get some face time.”
I was walking around downtown one day and realized that everywhere I looked there was someone who was either hiring or knew of someone who was and they might even be looking for someone exactly like me.
So I started thinking about printing a stack of resumes and handing them out like flyers to passers by or putting them on wind shields. Pretty shameless, I agree, and I’d probably have to change my phone number after that. Also no guarantee people would even read it.
But . . . no bones about it, no way to dispute it, if they can read, people WILL read what’s on your shirt!

Put something about yourself on your shirt and not only will they read it, they will strain to see it. They will position themselves for a better look. Stand in line at a fast food joint and at any given moment someone will be checking it out. I’m telling you, people can’t help it.
So how did Larry’s job search end?
He called the local TV news department, and they did a story about Larry and his shirt, spinning it as a story about a guy who “wears his credentials like a badge of courage.”
Next thing he knew:
A lady, home sick from work, was watching the noon news when my story aired. She saw it and called the I.T. manager of the company she worked for who she knew was looking for someone like me. Call it Karma or whatever you like, but things fell into place, and I landed a great job.
The TV interview is viewable from Larry’s site. In the same spirit, Larry links to job search engine findafreakingjob.com.
One reason I find Larry’s story quite interesting is that I had just about convinced myself that Americans pretty much ignore whatever we see on someone’s T-shirt, though many T-shirts could be great conversation starters.
My experiment has been wearing a “Blogger” shirt quite regularly throughout the astronomical boom in blogging. At first, when few people even knew what a blog was, I though people might ask “what’s a Blogger?” Nope. Then, as “blog” and “blogger” rapidly became household words, I figured people might ask “so, what’s your blog about?” So far, it’s happened only once.
Article by George Lenard, the originator of George’s Employment Blawg, has over twenty years of experience in all aspects of labor and employment law, including preventive law as well as litigation. His special interests include employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and noncompetition agreements. He is currently a managing partner with Harris, Dowell, Fisher & Harris, L.C., in St. Louis, Missouri, and lives in the suburb of University City with his wife and family.

Originally posted by Candice A

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