Ex-Google Employee Pays for Job Referral

A tech marketer, unemployed for ten months, is trying to overcome the AI job market downturn by using DIY flyers. According to Layoffs.fyi, over 61,000 tech positions have been eliminated this year by large corporations. A former Google contractor is trying a different approach to deal with the AI revolution. He is offering $2,000 to anyone who helps him get hired.

Philipp Roessler, after being jobless for 10 months, has started posting flyers in downtown BART stations in San Francisco. Roessler said that he applied for a senior marketing position that had about 2,800 applicants. He felt like his résumé was going nowhere.

Roessler, who was laid off from a contract position at Google in July, stated that he has applied for many jobs and received numerous internal referrals, but has not been successful. Roessler, a marketer with 12 years of experience who is originally from Bavaria, Germany, has worked for some of the world's largest tech companies. He said recruiters were contacting him, but he still couldn't find a job. He decided a change was needed.

Roessler, 41, said that he decided to treat himself as the product and use corporate marketing strategies to advertise himself. His strategy was also intended to differentiate himself from candidates using AI-generated cover letters, noting that he'd read that some candidates are fabricated and some job listings aren't real. He hoped the paper flyers would help him stand out from AI-generated content.

Roessler said that he wanted to show his seriousness, add a human touch, and demonstrate his dedication by getting up early on a Monday to reach his audience. He also runs a small consulting firm. He put up posters at every BART stop from the Embarcadero to 24th Street in the Mission, hoping to appeal to a transit-riding executive with a marketing job. Roessler mentioned that if it's successful, he'll do the same with Muni the following weekend.

The flyers were posted on Reddit, where some people made fun of their sincerity and design. One person wrote that the flyer was terribly designed for a marketing professional. Some people wondered if it was a scam or performance art. (It’s not; the QR code goes to Roessler's LinkedIn page.) Roessler stopped reading the comments, deciding that the criticism wasn't helpful.

Roessler said that it's easy to hide behind an anonymous profile. He also shared that the flyer seems to be working, as he was contacted by a major tech company this week. According to Roessler, the person empathized with him, stating that they had been unemployed for 15 months before finding their job, and was willing to refer him without taking the referral bonus. Roessler reported the person as saying they would refer him but didn’t want the bonus.