Job applicants have dozens of tricks to make their résumés stand out. They print their CVs on colored paper or use eye-catching fonts. They include prompt injections for AI.
Logan Ivey put his résumé on a balloon.
Ivey has been making videos full-time since 2022, he told Business Insider in an email, and helped scale Matter Neuroscience’s Instagram page to over 300,000 followers.
When looking for a new gig, Ivey made a list of what he considered the best companies with the worst Instagram accounts. “I thought airbnb was the coolest!” he wrote. “Being paid to travel and stay in cool places seems like a dream job.”
Logan Ivey
So, he put “hire me” in big letters on a star-shaped balloon, along with a comparison of his and Airbnb’s Instagram engagement rates, likes per post, and views per reel, based on his calculations.
Ivey then put the deflated balloon in a lockbox, similar to the ones Airbnb hosts use to store their property keys. He then mailed it to Airbnb, who would have to fill the balloon with air (get it?).
Logan Ivey/@heckin.sick
He posted a video about the process on Instagram on October 3. It’s since racked up 16 million views, and Airbnb quickly responded: “Logaaaannnn my guy, my friend, check your DMs before this package triggers a security incident.”
The company’s account said it had the “perfect role” for Ivey.
Sure enough, Ivey posted an update three weeks later. Airbnb had DMed him, he said, and the two sides agreed that Ivey would make some videos. He listed some spots he’d like to film: a treehouse, a former elementary school, and a bath made of rock.
Ivey told Business Insider that he’ll be a contractor and that “nothing beyond the follow up video I made has been set in stone yet.”
Let’s face it: the job market can feel impossible these days, and applicants are aiming for as much visibility as possible. Becoming a “LinkedIn lunatic” might help. Another applicant received her job offer after posting a presentation that pitched herself.
Ivey’s takeaway: make yourself stand out. Before making his balloon-résumé video, he’d applied to about 15 jobs without receiving a single interview.
“Making your skillset widely known is definitely beneficial,” he told BI. “One company told me they have 10,000 applicants per job posting. There is just no competing with that with a 1 page resume.”
