Graeme Anthony created something he called a Curriculum vitae Interactive Video – CVIV for short.

I call it brilliance.

Watch the video below.

Did he get a job?  Oh yes, he did.

Notice he didn’t ask anyone for a job.

If you are uploading resumes to corporate HR sites, you might as well be trying to empty a swimming pool with a gravy ladle.

It’s like buying a quick pick for the lotto – yes, you don’t win if you don’t play, but your chance of winning is about the same as getting a job by posting a resume to a corporate HR site !

Almost every company and small business in America is always hiring.

They aren’t looking for “people”, they’re looking for you, the Person Who Solves A Problem.

Think about how much time we spend playing paddy-cake on social media. I do it, you do it. We post silliness and sports and fashion and purses and cupcakes and politics and pictures of wacky cats.

Maybe investing some of that time trying to climb life’s ladder would be time well spent.

As you steer your reinvention path, consider asking potential employers to contact you – not the other way around.

My colleague Cory Black at Academy of Art University told me the other day that 80% of career positions are unadvertised.  That’s a huge number.

78% of hiring managers and HR departments use social media to screen applicants. They do this because they want to know what kind of person we are.

Consider; they know what we want – we want a job. Our agendas are transparent. What they really want to know is:

1) Can we do what you say we can do?

2) Can we show examples of us successfully performing these tasks?

and

3) Will we fit in?

If you can do steps 1,2, and 3…you’re in.

The immense power of social media is not just for celebrities and companies; it’s available to us, too.

Andrew Horner decided that asking companies to hire him was a fail strategy. He created a reverse job application.

Did he get a job? Oh yes, he did.

People who want to hire you are on the same networks you are. Companies are looking for you, even though you haven’t applied for a position with them.

Consider; you’re a motion graphics wizard. You are a master/mistress of Premiere and After Effects. I’m picturing a 90-second video on Vimeo, featuring a stunning array of visual candy, with the soundtrack similar to something Explosions In The Sky would create,  and the power of a few select words: “I’m (you), and this is what I do.”

Boom.

People see and share. Some of the sharing is done by people who are looking for a motion graphics pimp.  1,2,3…you’re in.

Our friends at YouTube tell us that videos go viral thanks to three elements:

1) Tastemakers.  Someone who has a truckload of followers sees your content. They tweet a link to your video. Here we go.

2) Participation. People love your content, so they remix it. They make parodies. They make alternate versions.

3) Unexpectedness.  Graeme Anthony, our video CV master, surprised us. He’s got his resume embedded in his video! 

200,000 + views on YouTube alone. That is twice as many people as Anthony will ever meet in his entire life.

You can do this.

Consider using the turbocharged power of self-publishing and broadcasting to tell the world you’ve got skills. Show us you’ve got game.

Watch the work come to you.

John Scott is a media studies instructor and the career services manager at the School of Multimedia Communications , Academy of Art University, San Francisco.  

Check out John’s book, “Destination: Reinvention”, on sale in the Amazon bookstore.

Follow John on Twitter @johnscottsf.

Follow John on Twitter @johnscottsf.