Emil took a leap of faith

Experience economy graduate took a leap of faith – and got his first job only one month after graduating. An e-book on LinkedIn opened the door to the job market.

Roughly one month ago, Emil Fogh Barslev was still writing his thesis and thinking about graduating and finding his first job. He started looking for a job, but decided to take a slightly unconventional approach:

“I don’t believe in applying for jobs in the normal way. I think that new graduates should focus on underlining their qualities as individuals, instead. Your CV is still pretty thin, after all, so what you need to do is emphasise your strengths and personality. I wrote a book. About myself. And it helped me to find a job,” explains Emil.

Irritation or inspiration?

After waking up with a gigantic hangover one morning, he put his feet up on the sofa and started scrolling through his feed on LinkedIn.

There were e-books all over the place. And to be perfectly honest, he was totally fed up with e-books.

But this sense of irritation eventually turned into a source of inspiration. He decided to write a book about himself. A book containing all the things you never normally mention in a job application. The title is Sådan scorer du Emil (How to Score Emil). And it gave him a direct route to the job market.

Personality is the key

As a reaction to all the e-books he found on LinkedIn, Emil decided to share his own book with his network online.

And suddenly there were several hundred people who liked his post, and loads of people who wanted to get hold of the book. About him.

“A huge number of people ranging from major companies to inquisitive students and people in my network were interested in the book,” explains Emil, who still seems slightly surprised about its popularity.

He has been overwhelmed by the level of attention, but he’s not in any doubt about the reason for the book’s success. Personality. He is convinced that the way to stand out from the crowd and find a job is to underline your personality. After all, people already assume that anyone with a Master’s degree knows a lot about their field of expertise. So that’s not in any doubt. Which is why he took the plunge and focused on his personality instead.

Pravda scored Emil

It didn’t take long for Emil to find a job. The contract has already been signed, and he has started working full-time for Pravda.

He noticed the Pravda job advert while he was still writing his thesis. And when he graduated, he noticed that the position was still vacant. He sent his e-book to Pravda as a teaser, buying himself enough time to write a formal application. But this application proved to be unnecessary. Pravda responded to his teaser within one hour:

“We have received your teaser. Thank you. Coffee? Yes, thank you. When?”

And on the following day, he went to his first job interview.

Read "Sådan scorer du Emil".