We’ve heard from a Gen Zer who waitressed at a significant tech convention simply to get her CV into the arms of hiring managers and a graduate who chilly emailed her dream employers with the topic line, “proposal to hustle”.
Now, one other uncommon method to seize hiring managers consideration goes viral: Sneaking your resume right into a field of donuts.
Again in 2016, when Lukas Yla uprooted to San Francisco from Lithuania to chase his massive tech desires, he rapidly realized touchdown a job in Silicon Valley was simpler mentioned than carried out.
Lightning struck whereas taking a chew right into a freshly baked artisanal doughnut. Who might resist opening a field of the tasty treats?
So identical to that, the millennial advertising and marketing specialist with 5 years expertise beneath his belt, set to work making a Deliveroo-style uniform, a listing of his dream employers and a secret memo for contained in the donut containers. Yla then spent greater than per week hand-delivering the donuts to each firm on his want checklist within the disguise.
“I ended up delivering 50 boxes, addressed to the heads of marketing,” he advised the BBC on the time. “Often, the receptionist would immediately pass the doughnuts straight to the recipient. Sometimes, they were called to reception: I could hand over the doughnuts and explain why I was really there.”
After they’d finally open the field, they’d be greeted with the message: “Most resumes end up in trash. Mine—in your belly,” alongside his resume and a hyperlink to his LinkedIn profile. To extend his possibilities of success, he even leaked the intense measures he was taking to the press.
The advertising and marketing hopeful scored no less than 10 interviews. Nevertheless, he tells Fortune that he didn’t safe a piece visa and so continued rising his profession in Europe and has since labored as a director at Uber’s rival, Bolt.
Years later, Yla’s stunt goes viral over again. An indication of simply how bleak the job market has turn into, social media customers are reviving his resume-in-a-donut-box hack as inspiration for determined job seekers.
“Brilliant marketing, and a reminder that sometimes breaking the rules (with style) is exactly what it takes,” one Fb publish, which has racked up round 90,000 likes, writes.
Bagging an entry-level function has by no means been more durable—so Gen Z must get inventive
Millennials are essentially the most educated era in historical past, with Gen Z intently following behind. But their monetary prospects and possibilities of getting employed are considerably dimmer than these of Gen X graduates.
And athough the panorama of internships has modified, with some providing six-figure salaries—a far cry from the unpaid espresso fetching days millennials (myself included) will keep in mind. Really touchdown a foot within the door after college or faculty is trying more and more not possible.
Simply 10 years in the past, 94% of scholars had both landed work or gone into additional training within the one yr after graduating, in line with information from the U.Ok. Division for Schooling. In 2024, simply 59% of grads had full-time jobs 15 months after graduating. Many are turning to unemployment advantages to survive.
Likewise, over 4 million American Gen Zers are at present jobless. In China, the federal government has mentioned that as of February, 1 in 6 younger folks are unemployed.
It’s no marvel over half (57%) of the category of 2025 studies feeling pessimistic about beginning their careers, in line with a survey for 1,925 members of the cohort from job platform Handshake. That’s a rise from 49% the prior yr.
Gen Z job seekers are getting inventive—and it’s working
The Gen Zers who’re successful the battle for work are considering exterior the field with hacks like Yla’s to achieve a aggressive edge.
After six months of failed efforts to land a gig, one younger job-seeker named Basant Shenouda advised Fortune she tracked what conferences recruiters had been going to, and volunteered at them to have an opportunity handy out her résumés. She ended up touchdown an internship at LinkedIn.
One other Gen Z candidate, Ayala Ossowski, wore her college’s baseball cap at her pizza joint job, and pitched her expertise when prospects requested about it. She wound up securing a gig at Cisco.
“The market is so saturated with such incredible talent that it takes some creativity in order to stand out from the crowd,” Ossowski advised Fortune.
