Woman Put Her Entire Resume On A Cake & Delivered It To A Company Event But Still Didn't Land The Job
She was applying for a job at Nike and lived up to their slogan "Just Do It." And though they didn't take the bait, she got her happy ending!
Instagram / LinkedIn The measures job candidates have to take to ensure they get even the possibility of being hired are astronomical. Employers often require those interested in their job positions to go way above and beyond what is expected of them in order to land a position.
One woman stood out from the competition after she ensured that her resume would be one to remember.
She put her resume onto a cake and sent it to the company she hoped to get hired at.
Like many people on the job hunt, 27-year-old Karly Pavlinac Blackburn from North Carolina was struggling to find a long-term position. So, the marketing consultant was looking for creative ways to get her resume out to companies that were hiring. In September 2022, Karly formulated a plan that would surely leave her resume on the minds of job recruiters.
She decided to have her entire resume printed on a sheet cake and send it to the companies she was looking to get hired at.
Her dream job was at Nike’s new business incubator, Valiant Labs in Beaverton, Oregon. Nike was holding a celebration for their annual “Just Do It Day” where mega stars including Lebron James and Colin Kaepernick would be attending. And Karly knew that no good celebration is complete without a cake!
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“They are not currently hiring for any positions on that team, but I wanted to find some way for the team to know who I was,” Karly wrote in a now-viral LinkedIn post. “What better way than to send a cake to a big party.”
Aware that there was a grocery store with a bakery near the Nike campus, she ordered the cake and had it Instacarted to the correct location. Luckily for Karly, her Instacart delivery driver, Denise Baldwin, was a go-getter just like she was.
“I talked to Denise on the phone and she said to me, ‘Karly I know this is important to you, and I will do whatever IT takes to get this cake to where it needs to be,’” she wrote. The single mother of three navigated Nike’s 300-acre campus with the sheet cake in one hand and her sleeping infant in the other.
“When Denise was asked to leave the cake on the table at the front desk she said, ‘No, I need to see this go in their hands. I promised Karly I would get this cake to the right person,’” Karly shared.
She admitted that even if she did not get the job at Nike after all of the hard work that was put into it, she was grateful to the dedicated Instacart driver.
“The best thing to hear that day was Denise saying, ‘You have inspired me. This was meant to be. I am a mom and I am tired of doing Instacart. I know I have more abilities and qualifications to get something better. I'm so glad this worked for the both of us,’” Karly wrote.
She hopes to inspire others seeking better job opportunities with her story.
“Delivering the cake that day inspired one person. And maybe this post will inspire more,” she wrote. “Helping people realize their potential is what I love to do. At the end of the day, it’s not about the cake at all. It is about making things happen and taking a chance outside of the box.”
The LinkedIn post received over 132,000 likes and many people were indeed inspired.
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“I think what you did shows not only what kind of an employee you are but what kind of person you are. That speaks volumes!! I think very highly of you,” one person commented on both Karly and Denise.
“Great effort and idea!” another person wrote.
Others pointed out the brutality of the current job hunt candidates are forced to go through, feeling as if their only option left is to bride employers with bakes goods just to get a job.
Unfortunately, Nike did not appreciate Karly and Denise’s efforts as much as others and she was not offered a position at the company. However, other recruiters came across her story and were interested in interviewing her.
A couple of months later, she was offered a position at CureMint.
"I will be the director of growth marketing at a software startup called CureMint—we make software that helps dental companies automate their business," she told “Good Morning America.”
"To be on the other side of the job hunt feels good. It has definitely been a roller coaster with the virality of the LinkedIn post."
Karly encourages those still on the job hunt to brainstorm their own creative ideas to make their name stand out.
"Don't be afraid to do something out of the box and never give up on what you really want,” she says. “Because it will happen, you just have to keep going."
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.