Job seekers are resorting to some unconventional methods to stand out from the crowd to combat the increasingly competitive job market, a new survey of the US job market reports. (Source: CNN)

One candidate sent a hiring manager a shoe with a resume to “get my foot in the door.”

Another wrapped his resume as a present and said his skills were a “gift to the company.”

A third handed out resumes at stop lights.

Almost a fifth of hiring managers report seeing more unusual tactics this year, compared with 12 percent who said so last year, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.com, an online jobs site.

Some 601,000 people filed initial jobless claims in the week ending June 6, the Labor Department reported. That number of new claims was lower than expected and was down 24,000 from the previous week. At the end of May, continuing jobless claims reached 6,816,000.

The online survey quizzed about 2,500 hiring managers and human resources professionals.

“The search for employment is taking longer and is more competitive than it has been in past years,” Jason Ferrara, senior career adviser at CareerBuilder, said in a statement.

But, he added, “While unusual job search antics may attract the attention of hiring managers, they need to be done with care and professionalism so that candidates are remembered for the right reasons.”

Among the candidates taking a creative route was Eric Jacobsen, a twice-laid-off IT professional in Austin, Texas. He rented a billboard featuring his photo and the words “Hire Me.”

And in San Francisco, California, Robin Stearns created a Web site for her unemployed spouse: myhusbandneedsajob.com.

Tags: how to find a job, unusual job hunting tactics

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