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&lt;p&gt;Rules exist for a reason. But granted, David Crandall is more likely than most to be successful at breaking them. As a marketing and business design pro, it&#39;s essentially his job to reinvent the wheel in an eye-catching, attention grabbing fashion.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;That&#39;s just what he did with a 61-slide &quot;Anti-Resume Manifesto.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With sweeping, inspirational statements from Steve Jobs and splashy, all caps red and grey text, Crandall&#39;s &quot;manifesto&quot; reads more like an ad campaign pitch than a plea for a job. But maybe that&#39;s the point.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He wants a job as a marketing designer. Creating marketing materials for that purpose makes sense.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But what about the rest of us? Can we get away with alternative job search materials?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Maybe. It&#39;s clear that traditional resumes alone aren&#39;t really cutting it anymore. In the good old days, a list of qualifications and your alma mater were enough to get you on the short list for a suitable job. Now, with companies too scared to commit—either by refusing to hire externally or making unrealistic qualification and experience demands for outsiders—simply listing a matching job history doesn&#39;t seal the deal anymore.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the spirit of &quot;anti&quot; resumes, here&#39;s a quick &quot;anti-hiring&quot; list of what companies aren&#39;t looking for:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Someone they have to train&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Someone they have to motivate or direct&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Someone they need to find a place for&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Someone who&#39;s going to crack under the pressure, workload, or boredom and quit in six months—necessitating yet another long, expensive recruitment process&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;When you understand companies hiring fears, it makes it easier provide the right information.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Take Crandall&#39;s manifesto. He shrewdly fills in all the right blanks for recruiters. Sure, he may be smart—but does he know how to apply himself to a company&#39;s problems? Yes: he&#39;s saved a company two million dollars, he notes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He also proactively confronts any questions about, well, his proactive-ness, touting his ability to &quot;Analyze a system, Identify opportunities, Improve the system.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;He also shows a comprehensive understanding of what his role means&#160;(as a marketing designer) in terms of the big picture: communicating &quot;complex&#160; ideas,&quot; designing them in &quot;unique ways,&quot; and influencing an audience those ideas.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Perhaps most importantly, his experience isn&#39;t bracketed by years at different companies or with job titles, but measured in &quot;over 10,000 hours of designing.&quot; That&#39;s tangible.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There&#39;s a pattern at work here: Crandall, the job seeker, is doing the critical thinking for the company--not expecting them to know where they want to put him, to tell him what his job is, or to motivate him.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Rather, Crandall knows what he&#39;s good at, and what makes him happy at work: &quot;I&#39;d like to do these 3 things: Solve problems that are interesting and expensive, Lead others and teach them how to solve problems, Continually improve my ability to do the prior 2 things.&quot; [sic]&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Imagine how seductive that might seem to a burnt out recruiter.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You don&#39;t have to abandon your resume, but take note of what&#39;s working here: having a tangible, well-thought out plan--for yourself, for the company, and for a mutually beneficial future.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Have you seen any other interesting job search materials? Agree or disagree with non-traditional methods of hunting for work? Let us know in the comments below!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;--Cathy Vandewater, Vault.com&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read More:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slideshare.net/davidcrandall/my-antiresume-manifesto&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;My ANTI-Resume Manifesto&lt;/a&gt; (Slideshare)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/resumes-cover-letters/why-you-shouldnt-lie-on-your-resume-and-what-happens-to-those-who-do/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Why You Shouldn&#39;t Lie on Your Resume (and what happens to those who do)&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/networking/call-me-maybe-4-rules-for-business-cards/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Call Me, Maybe? 4 Rules for Effective Business Cards&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/blog/workplace-issues/cursing-at-work-yay-or-nay/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Cursing at Work: Yay or Nay?&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Cathy Vandewater

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