I’m reading Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s book, Trust Agents, and I just finished the second chapter. It’s about making your own game—through playing, then hacking, then programming. It’s definitely starting to inspire me. To make a move. A change in the way I’m approaching the game. Right now, I’m looking at the game of finding a job.

I had a networking coffee the other night with a new(ish) Twitter contact, Karl Sakas. He told me the story of this guy who took out a series of Google AdWords featuring the names of six heads of advertising companies he wanted to work for. His idea was that people (especially the big, important ones) like to Google their own names. When these individuals did that, the first thing they saw at the top of the results page said something like, “Googling your own name is great, but hiring me is better.” It took him about six months, but he heard back from four of them, and was offered a job by two. How much did it cost him financially? Roughly six bucks. He made his own game.

Now I have a way for looking for jobs; sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I generally search on the internet, rewrite my cover letter and tweak my resume countless times, and then hear back from a tiny fraction—if any. But after reading this chapter, I’m inspired to think of a new approach. What can I do differently? What will make me stand out? What will make me more appealing as a future employee? Maybe it starts with this blog post. I’m going to think about these things and get back to you.

Photo by motionblur