Between companies ghosting job applicants and companies advertising that don’t exist, it can feel harder than ever to find a job. And so job seekers trying to land a new role will sometimes do just about anything to try to grab an employer’s attention.
While some applicants might send in a curated portfolio of accomplishments, a personalized cover letter, or a direct message to anyone who will listen via LinkedIn, one Melbourne-based designer, Felix Toohey, is taking a more dramatic approach.
The Australian hand-delivers his CV directly to companies he is interested in working for—the old-school way. But he also takes it a step further, reimagining what a CV can look like in its physical form.
In one instance, he constructed a coffee tray with paper cups, each featuring paper “latte art” that labeled each section of a CV, such as “education” or “experience.” Inside each cup was a printed-out paper with the relevant information for each section.
In another, a box that looked like it held lunch instead contained fake sandwiches made of foam, with his résumé replacing the lettuce and tomato.
“I wanted to be impossible to ignore”
These are all part of Toohey’s “Ghosting Busters” series in which he makes “increasingly unhinged résumés” to stand out to employers, and shares them on Instagram. To date, he has created 10 different sculptural résumés.
Although the project bleeds into his discipline as a designer, Toohey says he came up with the idea while struggling to find his footing in an increasingly competitive industry.
“When I graduated from uni, I was not prepared for how tough the creative industry was going to be,” he tells Fast Company. “I originally worked in a design agency as a barely paid intern before being let go unceremoniously.”
He has since worked in several design agencies and even started his own sustainable clothing brand, but landing a stable job as an art director has been a challenging path, often filled with silence.
“At first, I was applying online, but after over 200 applications and one interview, I knew I needed to switch up the way I was thinking about getting a job,” Toohey says. “I wanted to be impossible to ignore.”
Hyper-specific applications
Each résumé is tailored to a specific agency, which he researches before even beginning the design process. For instance, he will figure out what the agency specializes in as well as pick up cues from the agency’s name, eventually landing on what medium to use.
“The key thing is to 100% commit to the bit, no matter how stupid it is,” Toohey says. “Using the name of the agency as a springboard for ideas is always where I start, but most recently I’ve ended up with robot arms or laser cutting my cover letter into a tombstone.”
Toohey’s additional efforts haven’t landed him a full-time job yet. However, Canva partnered with him for a sponsored “Ghosting Busters” video to promote its platform. It features a giant résumé printed on a large canvas using one of Canva’s templates. (In the video, the company also playfully gives him the title of “Chief Standing Desk Lowerer.”)
Nevertheless, he has attracted quite the view count on social media. His sandwich box video has more than 386,000 views on Instagram, while another résumé based on an evidence dossier—in which he printed out “evidence” of his qualifications as if he were being followed by a private investigator—has reached over 181,000 viewers.
But beyond the fun projects, the résumés have been an exploration into an increasingly challenging landscape for job seekers. Toohey himself shared concerns about the hoops he has had to jump through and the common corporate practices that often work against incoming talent.
“The prevalence of ‘ghost jobs’ has been shocking to experience firsthand,” he says. “Another thing I have experienced is that so many businesses change a role after filling it. I have lost many opportunities due to this. This wastes so much time and has been a real knock to my confidence.”
While some job seekers worry that having to go the extra mile raises an already unreachable bar, Toohey views it as a necessary step to secure his dream role.
“The jobs I’m going for are hard to get because they’re a privilege to do,” he says. “Naturally, you do get people seeing my résumés and feeling like they have to go to the same lengths, but this way of doing things is just my conclusion.
“I don’t have to get my dream job,” Toohey adds. “But I’m going to give it my absolute best shot.”