True Story #8: I found my job in the trashcan

Marcus, 28, was both lucky and unlucky. Lucky in that he found a job within months of arriving in London.  Unlucky in that, despite his double major in finance and statistics and two years experience as an assistant financial analyst back in his home country, his job was emptying trash cans for a temp agency.  Lucky in that occasionally his clients included financial institutions, unlucky in that his was neither the position nor the pay for which he had applied.

“It’s funny really, when you think about it; the irony of the situation.  But the job didn’t come without its perks.  I got a first class ticket to the inner workings of my future employers.”

Marcus’ assignments lasted from two weeks to three months at a time, and that was more than enough time to gather the intel that he needed.

“I kept a notepad with me at all times and noted the names, job titles, and office numbers of each person whose trash I changed.  If they were sociable I’d talk to them for a few minutes and probe even further.  Usually, by the end of the first week I knew the organizational chart for the entire company.”

One fateful Tuesday afternoon, shortly after beginning a new contract for a financial hedge fund investment company, Marcus emptied the trashcan on the 4^th floor that would change his life.  In it were nearly 200 resumes and print-outs to at least 30 different jobs that were unfilled within the company.  Marcus had stumbled upon the Human Resource’s community trash can!

“I know it was illegal, but I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life in this job!  I took those resumes and job announces home and poured over them.  Some of the resumes even had notes and remarks on them from job interviews!  From that point on whenever I came across letters or memos mentioning certain software the company used, transactions I was unfamiliar with, or a list of clients, I’d research and study up on them, and then incorporate them into my resume.”

Marcus, negotiating with the other trash collectors from his company, procured the 4^th floor as part of his daily route to ensure he could stay up-to-date with the hirings and firings of the company, however made sure to stay as invisible as possible, lest an HR employee put 2 and 2 together and realize that their perfect candidate used to be the trashcan cleaner.

"As soon as my contract ended for that company I sent my resume directly to the HR director applying for a vacancy that hadn’t yet become officially listed as available.  I even included the classification number that the company used to classify their jobs.  Heck, I probably knew more about the company than they did.  Within 24 hours I was contacted and asked if I could come in for an interview the next day, which I readily agreed to.”

Because Marcus had applied for a job that hadn’t yet become available, this meant that the HR director was faced with a choice: spend thousands of dollars and countless hours tying up his department sorting through hundreds of resumes and conducting hundreds of job interviews over the next 5-9 weeks, or hire Marcus, a man obviously suited for the job, and be done with it.

The following day Marcus came in for the job interview, the only candidate for the job, and got it.

True Story.