Are Skittles your favourite snack? Do you celebrate #WineWednesdays? Do you love curling up into a blanket burrito and having a Netflix marathon? Then you may just fit in at Toronto’s 88 Creative.
The agency, which caters primarily to real estate clients, has taken to Buzzfeed to find its newest employee. After posting about a coordinator-level opening on its social accounts on Oct. 10, the staff got together to pen a Buzzfeed quiz, “Would You Fit In At 88 Creative?” that’s designed to vet candidates.
The lighthearted quiz, written mostly by digital strategist Jason Giles, asks questions like, “What do you do in your spare time?” and “Pick a spirit animal.” Each response represents a staffer at 88 Creative, with a few decoys thrown in. The quiz was posted as community content (ie: for free) rather than a sponsored post.
What the agency’s looking for, according to managing director Erin Bury, is someone smart and resourceful, but also someone who fits the culture of the seven-person startup. As Bury explained, “We’re a small team, if [someone] doesn’t get along with the person we bring in, it’s going to cause a lot of problems.”
That’s not to say clicking “Kale” as your favourite snack food is going to land your CV in the “No” pile, though Bury confirms that is the incorrect answer. She said the quiz is a way to show the agency’s culture to potential candidates rather than a hard and fast vetting process.
It has also worked as a promotion tool. After pushing out the job post on 88 Creative’s social profiles, and the social profiles of its current staffers – Bury has nearly 20,000 followers – the agency received about 20 CVs from qualified candidates. After posting the quiz on Buzzfeed and promoting it on social media, the agency received another 20 CVs. The job post also attracted attention from Digiday and the Spanish site Marketing Directo, which is sure to attract further attention to the position.
“Once the quiz went out we had another wave of applicants come in, some of whom were really great. The quiz definitely helped get more interest in the position and get more people sending their resumes our way,” she said.
Bury turned to Buzzfeed and social media rather than more traditional career sites because of the type of person she’s looking to hire. “I don’t want people who are finding it on Workopolis, I want people who are already engaged in social, who use it in their personal life and are seeing it come through their Twitter feed or LinkedIn feed.”
The agency has already begun interviews and plans to hire for the role this week.
