Jersey Job-Seekers Get Creative To Be Interviewed [AUDIO]

In these difficult economic times, just getting a job interview can sometimes be as challenging as getting the job itself.

For that reason, a growing number of Jersey job-seekers are getting creative when it comes to making contact with perspective employers.

Some of them are creating video resumes, and sending them to targeted companies, while others are mounting social media campaigns to promote themselves on Facebook and Twitter.

Phil Kirschner, the President of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, says, "It depends on the size of the company - if it's a huge company, then trying to send something directly to the President is probably not going to help you as much as sending it to the Vice President of IT or the department where you want to work."

He says, "In some situations, there are job seekers who have gone to the workplace where they wanted to work day after day after day trying to meet some people in the company…There are a number of creative ways that you can get noticed, but I still think the best way is if you can get your resume to someone who works in the place where you want to work and see if there's someone who can look at it up the line."

Kirschner adds, "What you really want to do is distinguish your resume from, unfortunately, the hundreds of resumes that the people who are hiring get - little things like color, little things like graphics. I've known people who have sent along examples of their work or sent along, you know, a product, whether it's candies or lucky charms, anything to sort of get a little laugh from somebody…I've seen people wear sandwich boards to try to get noticed, billboards."

He points out some employers may like it, a lot probably won't.

"But I don't think you have a lot to lose in trying to be very creative. You can't lose something you never had, so it's important to try to be creative. But first and foremost, it is important to stick to the basics, to have a very professional resume. If you know anyone in the firm, they can probably get it in internal mail…It takes a lot of time and effort and persistence because it can take a great deal of time, it can be discouraging at times, but those are the people that I find get jobs in a few months, and get good jobs, and the jobs that they want…I think it's very important, employers are looking for determined people, committed people."