Creativity in job applications is often appreciated and a woman from North Carolina, Karly Pavlinac Blackburn, has set a new standard, the appropriateness of which has left the internet divided.
Blackburn had set her mind on a job at Nike, and having failed to reach out to her dream organisation, decided to get creative.
On the suggestion of a friend, Blackburn decided that instead of sending in her resume the traditional way, she would instead send it on a cake to the Nike World Headquarters in the state of Oregon.
With the help of Denise Baldwin, an Instacart driver, Blackburn did just that.
On the day Valiant Labs, a business incubator of Nike, was celebrating its annual Just Do It Day at the Nike headquarters, Blackburn instructed Baldwin to deliver the cake to the front desk of the Nike HQ. The Instacart driver went the extra mile, navigated the massive complex with the cake in one hand and her eight-month old son in another, and delivered the cake to the exact person Blackburn needed to contact.
"I waited, and they called him [the employer] down. It took a few minutes, and then he came down. He said to me, ‘Oh, a cake, it’s too nice for me to cut it into.’ And I go, ‘Yeah, it’s, it’s pretty awesome the way she thought of putting her resume. It’s kind of what Nike needs: thinking out of the box and initiative ...," Baldwin told Today, explaining how she managed to get the cake delivered to the employer.
Since the incident took place a couple of weeks back and Blackburn posted about it on LinkedIn, the 27-year-old's cake resume and Baldwin's delivery heroics have gone viral, with many on the platform praising the duo's ingenuinity, and others finding the gesture too 'gimmicky'.
Regardless, if reports are to be believed, Blackburn managed to get one foot through the door through her innovative resume, and has "talked to some people at Nike" about a position in hospitality or administration.
Talk about a resume that takes the cake.