A young man’s creativity landed him his dream job.
De’Andre Matthews got creative and stood on a busy intersection with a poster that read #StriveForGreatness while passing out his résumé. The 21-year-old applied to over 30 jobs after graduating from the Houston School of Carpentry in February.
(photo credit: ABC 13.Com)
However, the aspiring electrician had trouble finding a job after graduating from trade school.
“I applied to at least 30 jobs all over Houston,” Matthews told Yahoo Lifestyle. “Distance wasn’t a problem; I was willing to commute anywhere.”
However, the Houston resident took his future into his hands and took job hunting to a completely new level. He decided to create a poster that advertised his desire for a job after reading a news story about a homeless man who passed out his résumé on the street. Matthews crafted a sign that read, “I am an electrical trade school grad with no job experience. Please take a resume and help this electrician apprentice out.”
Matthews headed into the blazing heat on Sept. 17 and spent three hours at an intersection handing out his résumés.
“I was scared, and my negative thoughts kept kicking in — I worried that I wrote too much on the sign and it would be hard to read, or that people would think I was asking for money,” he told the news source.
Bystanders and passengers took photos of Matthews and shared his story all over social media. The graduate said his phone was ringing off the hook when he returned home. He received job offers from Virginia, Baltimore, Boston, Louisiana, Alabama, Arizona and the Houston area.
“I really spoke to people,” he told Click 2 Houston. “And to be honest, I just put my heart on the sign and hoped that it worked, and it worked.”
Matthews accepted a job offer from a woman whose father had an open position at an electrical company. The company staff hired him right on the spot.
Matthews took to Facebook and thanked social media users for sharing his story.
“I want to thank everybody for sharing my post. … Without you guys I wouldn’t have never found a job.”
