Today’s tough hiring en- vironment seems to be bringing outthe originality in job candidates. In a recent survey, The CreativeGroup, a staffing service in Menlo Park, California, askedexecutives to describe the most unusual or creative tacticthey’d ever seen job candidates use. Their responsesincluded:

“One candidate handcuffed himself to the desk during theinterview.”

“One candidate sent us his resume written on asoftball.”

“An applicant rented a billboard that could be seen fromour [office] window and used it to list hisqualifications.”

“Someone being interviewed jumped on the manager’s deskto make his point.”

“One job seeker sent lottery tickets with herresume.”

“A candidate sent us a T-shirt with the names of everyonein the company on it-and her own.”

“A candidate baked cookies for me and used icing to writeseveral reasons why I should hire her.”

“One person sent everyone in the company flowers. Hedidn’t get the job, but the office smelled great.”

“A job-seeker had prepaid Chinese food delivered to me.Inside the fortune cookie was his name and phone number.”

“A guy organized a chain letter that included a request tosend his resume to 12 other [companies].”

And the strategies that actually worked:

“A person offered to work for free on a trial basis. Ihired her.”

“One applicant brought us doughnuts every day until he washired.”