Lukas Yla is not really a donut delivery man. But he is looking for a job.The young Lithuanian decided to visit San Fransisco in the hopes of landing a marketing gig at a top tech company here.He was once the chief marketing officer at a Lithuanian car-sharing service called CityBee, but came to San Fransisco after leaving that position.“I’m chasing my dream,” he said.As he was only here for a few weeks, he knew it wouldn’t be easy to get his resume into the hands decision-makers.“I knew that I might be written off just because I didn’t graduate university here, or I don’t have work experience in the United States,” he said.Staffing firm Robert Half says work history is the most important thing that marketing departments look for.“Each big company wants the best of the best still. It’s that fight for the top talent here, not just any talent,” said the firm’s regional vice president, Heather Johnston.Still, with experience at several startups under his wing and a fairly well-developed Linkedin profile, Yla knew he could be competitive. The problem was, how does he get his resume into the hands of executives?Enter the donut.
"Donut" Expect Everyone to Be Receptive
By posing as a delivery person from Postmates (and going through the process of getting the shirt printed with their logo), Yla was able to hand-deliver donuts to executives with his resume inside.“Most of the time they’re shocked. They’re like, how did you get into the building?”But after a few bites of delicious donut, they’re usually receptive. Out of 40 deliveries, he landed 10 interviews.“It sounds like he’s a go-getter, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get the job and I’d hire him,” said Johnston.Postmates, the delivery service he was impersonating, didn’t mind.“We loved it,” said Postmates vice president of strategy Kristin Schaefer.The CEO of Postmates even reached out to Yla.“He’s actually getting coffee with him next week, so you know, maybe he’ll even get a job offer from us,” Schaefer said.