40 HILARIOUS AND CREATIVE JOB POSTINGS THAT MANAGED TO STAND OUT FROM THE REST

 

In the world of business, the sense of competition is a vital part of the system. Whether it comes to competing for a job position or competing with other recruiters to get the perfect candidate, competition exists for both applicants as well as companies. To achieve success, it is crucial to stand out from the crowd. So as far as job postings go, it is essential to create something which will catch attention. Here is a compilation of 40 funny and creative job listings that were made to stand out and attract applicants.

Crack The Code

Dallas Restaurant and Bar were on a hunt to hire their next bartender. To test their applicants’ skills, they put a code in their ad, encouraging only those to apply who can read what it says. This eye-catching ad ended with a disclaimer which read, “Those lacking a great sense of humor need not apply”

Time Traveller

In the year 2013, an ad popped up in the newspapers around the Arizona region, searching for a “serious volunteer” who is willing to time travel. The employee will be paid $110 per day and they will have to time travel back to the midwest in 1985. The funny part was, that the ad requested the applicants to bring their own weapons and very kindly mentioned that the employer will pay for the rest of the services.

Paid To Eat

A bakery in the UK posted an ad for “part-time cake eaters”. Yes, there is a job which will pay you to eat cake. The employer mentioned that they have many big orders coming up and there will be lots of leftover cakes. The description of the ad read, “If you love cakes and desserts and want to get paid to eat as much cake and dessert as physically possible then this is for you!”

Love For Video Games

A Danish company named “Uncle Grey” was struggling to find developers for an open position. After doing some research, the company discovered that the typical demographic for this position plays up to 8 hours of video games every day. That is when they hired the best players of the game “Team Fortress 2” to promote the position within the game. Soon, they received over 50 applicants for the job opening.

Career Instructions

In the year 2011, Ikea accomplished to get thousands of applicants through their unique and creative recruitment techniques. They printed out and placed job listings inside their packed furniture. So every time they would make a sale, customers will take it home along with their new furniture. These job listings were printed out like furniture assembly instructions and were called “Career Instructions”, illustrating the steps to apply for the job.

Bus Driver Ad

This next set of job listings were put out in search of a school bus driver. The school decided to post the listings on the school buses themselves. Everyone on the roads caught a glimpse of these funny one-liners posted on the school buses, some of these were, “You’ll never take your work home with you. In fact, it would be illegal” and “Make $16.25 an hour doing what most parents do for free”.

Paid To Travel

In 2013, a New Zealand job listing went viral for a misleading but witty job advertisement. The sign asked, “Always wanted a corner office with a view? How about being paid to travel? Plus drive a $400,000 company vehicle?” Followed by the punch line which said, “Tony did, so he became a bus driver.” The ad was on point in terms of technicality and the witty punch line probably got them dozens of responses.

Solve The Equation

A campus job ad for computer engineers put up their listing on the main bulletin board of the college. The ad had paper slips with phone numbers on them that the students could take and contact them on. Sounds fairly simple right? Except when you take a look at the slip, it has a math equation for the students to solve and the correct answer is the phone number. Brilliant method to screen candidates at the very first step.

Do Not Apply

Vinnie’s Pizzeria posted a job listing on their window which had a rather strict set of rules to even apply for the job. The ad read, “DO NOT APPLY if you’ll need nights off because your band has a gig. DO NOT APPLY if you’ll need weekends off because you have a gallery opening. DO NOT APPLY if you just want to work a few weeks before you go to Europe.”

Don’t Mention The M

In 2017, Burger King sent out a witty job ad looking for a marketing manager. The ad mentioned they are looking for an “arketing anager” followed by a tiny text saying, “Don’t mention the M”. The design uses intentional misspelling to send out a message against burger king’s competitor, McDonald’s.

Brutal But Honest

In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton listed a job ad in a newspaper for his expedition to Antarctica. He knew the journey will not be easy so he kept it simple, brutal but honest. “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.” The expedition was not successful as Shackleton never made it to Antarctica, which makes this gloomy job listing utterly authentic.

Who Cares?

The Swedish Army live-streamed its recruitment process which lasted for 4 days. They invited strangers to voluntarily sit in a black box and they were only allowed to leave as long as some other stranger volunteers to take their place. The black box only contained a single chair and was locked with an airlock. The campaign, which translated to “Who cares?”, ended up having 74 participants and 9930 applications!

Evil Genius Looking For Minions

A job posting in 2014 read, “Evil Genius Beer Company is looking for outgoing and energetic people who are passionate about craft beer to be a part of our team!” The ad requested applicants to taste different samples of beers. And they will be paid with, “some free swag and cases of beer”. Overall, seemed like a pretty good deal for any college student.

No Political Studies Students

A restaurant in New Zealand, named Murder Burger, listed out a job ad that ended up becoming viral. The ad covered a list of students who will be perfect for the job and why, for example, the ad listed student nurses and the reason stated, “I’ve gone out with two nurses and two teachers in my short life and they were all awesome.” The hilarious ad also mentioned how political studies students should not apply, “Nothing personal, we just don’t understand you.”

Graphic Designer

A perfect example of ironical job listings, this job advertisement expresses the need for graphic designers. It is obvious given the flat quality of the job posting itself, followed by a simple mail where interested people can drop in and discuss the details which are, obviously, missing from the poster.

Drug Dealer

In the year 2006, a former marijuana smuggler posted an ad in a Toronto newspaper. The ad mentions that he is looking for a job now, after serving his ten-year sentence in jail for importing 75 tons of drugs.  In his skills and attributes, the man lists “executive level management of 120 people worldwide”, “an expert in all levels of security” and “references available from friends, family, the US District attorney, etc” The ad apparently received over 600 responses.

Illegal To Punch Your Boss

A company named Laazi got hundreds of responses on these eye-catching job ads. The ad stated in bold letters, “In most countries punching your boss is a crime” followed by in smaller text on the bottom, “but it’s totally legal to upload your CV on www.laazi.com” The campaign created several other ads with similar one-liners, “Want a new JOB to complain about?” and “Today’s forecast: stormy meetings, cloudy moods”.

Not For You

The company Social Talent posted an ad that proved human psychology. They played with words and wrote “This is not for you” in bold letters at the top of the ad, as a result, anyone who looks at it gets curious and looks further down at the bottom, where it says, “Unless you…” followed by the job requirements. They managed to attract many applicants with this trick.

Close Windows

 

This job ad from Apple mocks their competitor company, Microsoft, in an obvious yet witty manner. It creates a controversy that attracts applicants without being distasteful and ruining the experience. And believe it or not, it was one of the most talked-about job ads from Apple which ultimately meant more applicants and responses.

Racism? Nope.

This clever job ad from McDonald’s managed to set the perfect example of eye-catching ads. It starts in bold, with what seemed like offensive statements, only to clarify their intentions in fine print at the very bottom. The print said, “We hire individuals. We don’t care what your surname is. Because ambition and determination have nothing to do with your nationality.”

Use Your Skills Wisely

This job ad is from a job-hunting website called Career Junction. It is simple yet inventive, attracting those who may not be aware of their own skills and where to utilize them. It encourages them to explore and use their skills wisely.

Arrogant Salesmen Needed

A sales advisor job listing mentioned the required skills to be “arrogant”, “must have a high level of self-importance”, “desire to rip customers off to make a lot of money”. It also mentioned that the employer will state how the applicant could reach the managerial level one day but it is not true as “the same idiots have been managing the same branches for many years”. Amazingly, 80 people applied for it.

Don’t Wait

Speaking of job hunting companies here is another funny example of a job ad posted by Job.Ru. It urges people to use the company’s portal and search for the perfect job instead of waiting around for it to “fall” on them. At the corner, the ad talks about finding vacancies at their portal, which lures applicants to their website.

Is that Apple?

This job posting did the perfect trick to become eye-catching. It played with the famous company, Apple’s logo. So ultimately, whoever looks at this ad assumes it’s an ad from Apple which caught more attention than it would have normally. Then at the very bottom, it says, “Hungry designers wanted” attached with contact information.

Thirst For Creativity

This job ad uses image positioning and wordplay to create something really witty and attractive. The vampire teeth soaked in human blood are pencils turned upside down, which are the ultimate weapon for anyone creating content. The caption shows that they are aware of the creative ad they put out but they seek more “creative blood”.

Scarecrow Wanted

This employer’s theory is quite straight, why make a scarecrow when you can find a person qualified to stand up straight for hours. The owner doesn’t know he can easily find a dummy for free at any store instead of hiring a dummy and paying him to do the same.

Web Developer Wanted

This creative ad is from a software company who were in search of a talented web developer. The ad speaks for itself, as they put out the outdated version of windows explaining the urgent need they have for a web developer.

Test Or Ad?

This ad is another example of screening out candidates way before their first round. The ad itself comes with mistakes that the candidate has to find and then only they can contact the recruiter. It serves both the purposes, of being eye-catching plus attracting the right applicants.

Just Any Solution

This picture does not look like a job ad in the first look, it’s just an image of an object with some weird quirks. The pencils have an abnormally long eraser, which seems kind of…pointless. And then you zoom in to see what is written on the pencil, “We are looking for students who aren’t satisfied with just any solution.” And all of a sudden, it makes complete sense.

Don’t Be A Bully

This ad is from a school that is in search of a new referee for their soccer team. The post highlights all the responsibilities of the referee and at the same time it calls out those people who think it is easy being a referee and just sit back and yell from the benches.

Let’s Taco Bout It

This one starts with the question, “Need a job? Let’s taco bout it”. The famous fast-food chain, Taco Bell, put up this ad before their drive-through. It’s a classic wordplay with their brand, tacos and talking about the job interview. A clever ad, indeed!

Let’s Cook

To understand this one, you must be a fan of the TV series Breaking Bad. Heisenberg is a man who cooks crystal meth so again, its a wordplay on cooking food and cooking up drugs in a lab! “You don’t have to be Heisenberg to cook, now hiring for Kitchen Help.”

Create Jobs

This image illustrates some tiny figures in action, performing a variety of skilled jobs, using life-size donated objects. This attempt was made to encourage donations that can lead to job training and placement possibilities. It concludes with the tagline, “Donate Stuff. Create Jobs.”

Thinkers Wanted

This here is yet another creative example of screening out the candidates at the very first step. To not waste any time with people who are not made for this job. The ad puts in a wrong mail address and the candidate is supposed to think and correct the error and then send their CVs to it.

Sales Superheroes

This job ad talks about salesmen in terms of being sales superheroes, which is a catchy line, to begin with. It gets even better when they list their preferred skillset or “superhero power” to be a “Long flexible tongue”, the one which can sell anything.

Enough About You

A referral system is a great way to bring in more applicants. Almost every company uses this technique to get their employees to bring in applicants and give them monetary rewards as encouragement. This one, in particular, is a very smartly written eye-catching ad.

Sea Gangster

This job ad is more of a poster. It was designed for a sushi restaurant who was looking to restaff its business. An attractive and out of the box system, it makes the fish look like someone from the mafia and the slogan goes, “Go ahead and make me into sushi, punk!” The poster was such a hit they ended up receiving hundreds of applicants!

Uncomfortable Job?

This job ad from U.S. Express boasts about the perks of driving for them. The ad says, “Drive the most comfortable rides around. At U.S. Xpress, our teams drive newer trucks with bigger cabs and smooth, easy-riding suspension systems. So if you’re uncomfortable with your current job, call today.” Promising enough for any driver to come knocking at their door.

Prove Your Worth

This billboard puts out an equation that needs to be solved and the answer will give you a web address which in turn will take you to a recruitment page! Such an extensive method for people who may or may not even try to crack the code.

Hell…o!

Looking for all the reasons to not work for a company? Look no further because they have listed it down for you already. And if you think you are up to the challenge, then go ahead and apply. This ad may look like it didn’t attract any applicant because of it’s brutal honesty but the responses spoke for themselves.