4 Unusual Ways to Land Your Dream Job

Getting a job has never been easier than it is today. Thanks to the Internet and other amazing technologies, you can turn the tables on your job search. Instead of being the one soliciting jobs, you can have companies begging to hire you.

This requires a little creativity, though. To help inspire you, here are some of the most unusual ways people have landed their dream jobs:

1. Get Creative With a Video

Video resumes are a thing now!

Pretty much every employer loves and wants to hire a creative person, and video resumes aren't for the weak of mind. Creating a video resume reveals so many things about you, including the following:

- that you're creative;

- that you're confident (not everybody can stay cool in front of the camera);

- and that you're organized (it takes more than just owning a camera to make a good video).

If you can whip up a really creative video resume, you'll have dozens of companies begging to hire you. These people have done it:

- Graeme Anthony decided to get creative with his video resume by making it interactive. His video quickly went viral, garnering hundreds of thousands of views and more job offers than he can handle.

- Matt Epstein really wanted to work at Google, so he decided to create a video resume in which he asked Google to hire him. His video went viral, got millions of views, and resulted in Google contacting him. While he didn't get the job at Google, he did get dozens of offers from other companies.

2. Creatively Advertise Your Need for a Job

Now, this one is especially unusual. How many people have thought about advertising the fact that they are on the job market?

You can certainly count Alec Brownstein in your answer to that question. Brownstein wanted to work in advertising, and in an attempt to get on the radar of major advertising agencies, he ran a Google AdWords campaign using the names of major advertising executives. When these executives Googled their names, they saw Brownstein's ad. This eventually led to an interview opportunity, Brownstein soon landed his dream job.

Brownstein's isn't an isolated example. Another notable job seeker who got his dream job through advertising is Adam Pacitti; Pacitti graduated with a first-class degree in 2012, but that didn't help his job prospects. He was still unemployed after sending out 250 job applications!

Pacitti decided to get creative. He put up a billboard with the message, "I spent my last £500 on this billboard. Please give me a job."

The result? More than 60 job offers after his campaign went viral.

Online advertising channels are exploding in popularity, and they can serve as more than just marketing channels for organizations. You can use Google, Facebook, and other ad networks to target potential employees. At the very least, your creativity of means should impress people!

3. Let Employers Apply for You

For a long time, the job-seeking dynamic has been candidates lining up to convince employers to hire them. But what if you could turn this model on its head?

Andrew Horner did just that by building a website that allows employers to apply for him. Horner received several applications through his site, and he ended up working for a startup that liked his creative approach.

4. Start a Blog

When we hear the word "blogging," we instantly think of the super successful examples (Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post; Michael Arrington of TechCrunch; Pete Cashmore of Mashable) or the small solo bloggers who are able to make ends meet through a lot of hard work. Rarely do we think about the role blogging can play in our job searches.

Time and again, blogging has proven to be a great job-landing tool. There are several notable examples, including:

- Allison Hitz, who was able to land a job through her blog, The Book Wheel. According to Hitz, employers were more interested in her blog than in her master's degree.

- Kevin Espiritu snagged a job thanks to his blog, Supreme Strategies. According to Espiritu himself, his job interview was "awful" but he was hired nonetheless because he had an online presence in the form of his blog.

- Anna Rice was able to break into the PR industry because an interviewer was impressed with her blog, The Blonde Banana.

There are many more of these blogging success stories, and the best part is that setting up a blog is not complicated at all. This guide by Robert Mening should get you off on the right foot.

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Regardless of how tough the job market may be, a little creativity will put you in charge of your destiny when it comes to the job search. If you're not sure where to start, try one of the strategies outlined above!

John Stevens is the founder and CEO at Hosting Facts.