Career Hustler 2: How Jeremy Rieunier Used Facebook Ads to Get a Job
This is the second interview in our ‘Zealify Career Hustlers’ series. To learn more about the series and why we are sharing these interviews, have a read of the series launch post.
Note: This post was originally published on 24th August 2015.
Our second interview is with Jeremy Rieunier. Jeremy is a product / marketing guy at Spoke. We first found out about Jeremy’s hustle from his post on Medium, “How to Hack the Job Hunt”. We thought it was such an awesome hustle and are really grateful to Jeremy for letting us share his story!
In this interview we talk about what Jeremy did to hustle his way to a job, his recommended steps for someone currently looking for a job, and we find out if adding ‘sausages’ to your LinkedIn skills does anything for your career.
Hi Jeremy. Let’s start with a bit of background about yourself?
Bonjour, I’m Jeremy, all the way from France and doing some product/growth marketing things at Spoke, an ecommerce startup company in the fashion industry. Our offices are located in West London. I’m the type of marketer who laughs at a spreadsheet and lines of code. Previously I did the Startup Institute programme in London.
Can you give us a brief outline of what you did to hustle your way to your job?
Actually, I did two things to hustle my way.
The first thing was applying for jobs through Facebook Ads. I looked at people working in the companies I wanted to apply for on Linkedin, stalked them on Facebook to get their user IDs and served them ads with the logo of their company. Creepy huh?
It was quite effective to land job interviews and they were really excited to meet me. But at the end of the day, they wanted someone with more experience than I had at the time.
The second thing was writing a post on Medium where I talked about my process and how I hacked the job search with Google Drive and Facebook ads. I wasn’t the first one to write about using Facebook ads to get job interviews, but I took it a step further. I did some content promotion 101 (ie: reaching out to people who might like it). It went viral and got more than 18,000 views. And eventually it got me job offers.
Why did you do it? Where did the idea come from?
A lot of startups say they hire on culture fit, not experience. That’s BS, they don’t. I’m fairly junior on paper so I had to stand out from the competition and prove that I was ‘the’ guy. But it was not possible to show it through a CV or a cheesy Linkedin profile.
The idea came during the Startup Institute program. George Jurgens — one of the students — talked about companies in the US that stalked people on Facebook and scraped their user id on a massive scale to serve them ads. Apparently they were really successful at it, but it was against Facebook’s TOS. I thought the idea was freaking genius, so tried to use it to get job interviews.
Were there any unexpected outcomes from your hustle?
Thanks to the Facebook ads, I’ve met a lot of founders and CxOs in the London startup scene. So I heard a lot of pitches and eventually it has allowed me to develop a BS-o-meter. A lot of entrepreneurs overestimate their idea.
What’s the top skill that you have learned outside of education, that will help you in your career?
Curiosity. It’s our biggest asset. My favorite questions are 1) ‘how does it work?’ and 2) ‘why?’
Why do you think it’s important to hustle your way to a job?
People don’t know what they are doing, neither do I. That’s especially true in startups. You should be comfortable with that. It’s the same when they are looking to hire someone. They don’t know what to look for. You have to prove that you’re the guy — but you can’t do that with the traditional job hunting process.
Have you started any other projects or initiatives that might help your career in the future?
I put ‘Cassoulet’ and ‘Sausages’ as skills on Linkedin, but it did not work.
Do you have a plan or a strategy for future career growth?
Learning something new every day. Oh, and making fun of myself.
What tools / apps do you use on a daily basis?
Google Sheets. I love it. The possibilities with apps like Supermetrics and Blockspring as well as custom scripts are awesome.
What is the one best tool you would recommend to a job seeker?
I’d say Streak, an app on Gmail. It allows you to see your job search as a sales pipeline.
What are the steps you would recommend to someone currently looking for a job?
Clean and own the results in Google for your name. How? Create an account with your first and last name on Twitter, Linkedin, Medium, Quora, Product Hunt, Angel.co as well as websites related to the job/industry you’re looking for (inbound.org, github, dribbble and so on). But don’t leave those profiles empty.
Do your home work. Search about the company, its employees, culture, the words they use and so on. You should mimic it.
Be good at finding email addresses to avoid the gatekeepers (the HR guys) — the majority don’t know what to look for. Here’s a guide on how to find someones email address.
Read Influence, by Robert Cialidini. Apply it to your job research process. Especially during the job interview.
Regarding the job interview, you should stalk the hiring manager. Find what he/she likes, talks and writes about. Find common interests (book, people, sports, etc) and talk about those interests during the interview. Twitter, Followerwonk, Slideshare and Quora are the tools/websites you should use.
Finally, ask yourself this question: do I truly think this company will still be here in 20 years? You’re not here to join a startup, but to build a company and its brand.
And remember that you’re not here to sell yourself, but to build a relationship with the hiring manager and its company.
Who is the one person that inspires you most?
I’d say Mark Manson (http://markmanson.net/). He talks about psychology, relationship, honesty and so on. Oh and Bored Elon Musk.
What’s the one book or piece of content that has shaped your thinking about your career?
It sounds cliche, but The Lean Startup shaped a lot of things in my professional and personal life. If I’m doing what I’m doing now — it’s because of this book.
What would be your biggest piece of advice to someone starting off in their career journey?
Don’t join a [really early stage] startup. Here’s why. Join a company after, or close to its Series A.
What does a successful career look like to you?
Anything but a career in the corporate world.
Jeremy can be found through his personal website, http://jeremyrieunier.com/ or LinkedIn profile.
