When Jimmy Works, Everyone Wins

I suppose there may be less conventional ways to go about finding work, but offering $500 to whoever helps get you a job rates pretty high on the counterintuitive scale. Then again, even with a deepening recession and unemployment at its highest rate in 25 years, this is still America, and if that means nothing else, money still talks.

This was apparently Jimmy Cybulski's conclusion after months spent fruitlessly searching internet job sites and passing out hundreds of resumes. Out of work since last October after being fired from his job managing the stock room in a Chicago-based manufacturing plant, with a newborn son and his family potentially facing bankruptcy, Cybulski finally decided that something had to change. And so, a desperate oxymoron of a slogan for the Great Recession was born. Bet you never thought you'd hear the phrase "Will Pay For Work," but that's essentially what Cybulski has offered on a Craigslist posting promising $500 to the person who can help him find a job.

Can't say we ever thought of this method before, and even if we had, I doubt we would have advised you to try it. Still, it seems perfectly logical coming from Cybulski. "In this economy, something's got to stand out," he said.

Cybulski insists that there's no catch to the deal, and is even willing to sign a written agreement to pay the $500 after six months of of stable employment at his new job. So far he has only received responses from scam artists, but Cybulski remains hopeful that the right person will come along and help him find the next opportunity to get back to work and care for his family.

"I might just get a foot in the door, show my resume and say, 'hey this is who I am, this is what I do, I'm confident that I'm an employable person,'" he said.

So there you go, Pink Slipped fam -- you haven't thought of everything yet. Now will somebody please go help Jimmy find a job?

--Posted by Steven Schiff, Vault News & Commentary