Interview with Alec Brownstein

Alec Brownstein, born in 1980. He worked at Publicis New York, Maxim Magazine and BBDO New York. He became known through the Google Job Experiment. I asked him about the experiment, personal branding and very popular in the U.S. Pandora.com

What made you to do Google Job Experiment? You have been tired of sending CV or you just decided to something unusual to get your dream job?

My goal was to showcase my creativity directly to the people for whom I wanted to work. In my industry, we don’t really use CV’s – it’s all about our portfolio of work. I wanted to get attention for my portfolio, and create a new piece for it at the same time.

Your experiment took some time (few months) so it’s a way for people who are not in hurry. What would you do if you need job immediately. Would you use Internet also?

Getting a job is a slow process. Even when companies are in a rush to hire, there’s still a lot of paperwork and approvals before anything happens. I suppose if I needed to make a move right away, I would probably start by calling all of my friends at agencies that I liked. From there, I would ask them if they could arrange an informational meeting with a manager. Then I’d have to make it clear in the interview why they needed to hire me immediately. Sadly, if there’s no job or money available, you won’t get a gig no matter what you do. But nothing beats a face-to-face meeting when trying to get a job.

You received awards for your experiment. Have you got any other advantages of your experiment beside this prizes and job at Y&R?

In a tough economy, I think it’s nice to hear the success story of someone who was looking for a job and actually got it. I’ve gotten a lot of emails from people around the world who say that my experiment was an inspiration for them to start thinking creatively about their own job hunting process. Those email have felt very rewarding to me.

Have you heard about people who was inspired by your experiment and they did something similar?

I have heard about one person within the advertising industry who tried to use the same Google Ad technique. But because jobs in the creative department at advertising agencies are all about originality, I don’t think it was successful.

Have you seen Dave Berzac video cv? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV0OgsRK0Bc) Did you think about this way of promoting yourself?

I hadn’t seen that video. It’s cool. Unfortunately, I don’t have the singing or dancing skills to pull off something like that.

On your website I found Pandora.com advertisement that you made. Pandora.com is available only for US citizens. Do you use it? And can you say is it really so revolutionary online radio as media describe it?

The Pandora.com advertisement was a spec radio commercial that I created for an advertising contest. I do use Pandora.com, and I think it’s fantastic. I do believe that internet radio, like Pandora.com and Last.fm, will be the future of radio, even in cars.

What do you think about personal branding in Internet? Do you care about it?

Personal branding is important insofar as when someone searches for you on the internet, you want to control the information that they find. Just like dressing well for a good first impression in a job interview, you want potential employers to have a positive impression of your online presence. You don’t want the first thing they see to be a picture of you on Facebook chugging a beer.

What would you today if you have to search for another job?

If I had to find another job today, I would probably email the potential employers a link to the Google Job Experiment and say, “Remember this? I did it!”