Almost every day I remind you that your job search will be more successful once you start thinking outside the box and hunting down those "underground" job opportunities. Last week I heard two out of the box job search stories that were so far beyond the average strategy that I consider them to be "out of this world". Today, I'll share both of these with you.

Karl
The first of these stories is bestowed upon you courtesy of my friend Karl, a lawyer. Karl had been searching for a position as an attorney for several months and so far had come up empty handed. One day he saw an ad on Monster for a position at a manufacturer. Karl read the ad and then gasped at the closing line. The company had written a statement that could be seen as discriminatory if read in a certain way.

Without thinking twice, Karl knew what he had to do. He climbed into his car and drove to the company's headquarters. He asked the receptionist if he could see the hiring manager for the position and then proceeded to describe the error in the ad. The hiring manager was so grateful, he invited Karl in for an interview.

Could Karl have just called the company? Yes. Could he have just addressed the error in his cover letter? Yes. Could the hiring manager have been disinterested or turned off by Karl? Yes. Sometimes you just have to take a chance in life. Courage has never been more important than it is in this economy with all the competition in your midst.

Rachel Gold
The second story is about Rachel Gold, blogger at KickedForward.com. I was so inspired by Rachel that I invited her speak with the job seekers on my Career Wake Up Call last week. Rachel's story started last year when she was laid off from a job as an Executive Recruiter. Rather than dwell on her downfall, Rachel developed new goals for herself and then began to blog about them. She ran a marathon, swam and fished in Central Park and toured the United Nations. All of a sudden, someone noticed Rachel's blog. That someone was a CNN reporter and Rachel's story ran on TV this past weekend.

If I had a job available for a recruiter, Rachel would be a top candidate on my list, before I met her. Seeing her story on CNN was inspirational and I am quite sure that there is a company out there who will be quite lucky to hire Rachel. Perhaps she'll get hired to blog about NYC for a magazine. Who knows? Regardless, what a super way to spend your down time