Arizona Dad Hands out Resumes on Street, Gets Hundreds of Job Offers

Melissa DiGianfilippo took this photo of Patrick Hoagland while he was looking for a job in Phoenix. (Twitter/@MelissaPR)

An Arizona father struggling for employment found himself overwhelmed with job offers after he went viral for handing out a resume to strangers on a street corner.

Patrick Hoagland has been working for a Phoenix-based metal recycling company as a forklift operator until he lost his job a few weeks ago. Not getting any calls back from potential employers, the 30-year-old father decided to change his job-hunting approach.

Every morning, Hoagland would wake up and take his hand-written cardboard sign to the busiest intersections in Phoenix. He did not go there asking passers-by for money, but hoping to make a job connection.

“PLEASE TAKE A RESUME,” the sign read. “LAID OFF. LOOKING FOR A JOB.”

“It caught me by surprise. And after that, I had some other stresses in life going on, and I really needed to get a job, so I chose to stand on the corner with a sign,” Hoagland told CBS46.

It turned out that Hoagland’s job search strategy worked.

DiGianfilippo, who co-owns a Phoenix marketing firm called Serendipit Consulting, noticed Hoagland on her drive back from lunch in Phoenix. She rolled down her window, gestured the friendly smiling, resume-panhandling father over, and grabbed a resume, reported KTAR News.

“I was driving down Camelback Rd in Phx near my office and saw this guy on the side of the road with a smile in 110-degree heat, with a sign asking people to take his resume,” wrote DiGianfilippo, sharing the impressive encounter with her social media followers.

“I love that he was not asking for a handout, just for people to consider him for a job.”

Although Hoagland isn’t precisely the kind of employee her company looks for, DiGianfilippo, impressed with his approach, went out of her way to help the father find a new job using her own network. A post on LinkedIn titled “Please help!” with a picture of the resume received more than a thousand likes, leaving Hoagland flooded with hundreds of job offers.

“It was crazy. It was hard to navigate my phone for a little bit, but I received so many great offers,” Hoagland told CBS46. “I received offers from companies that wouldn’t hire you without experience, but because they saw my determination, they offered me a position without even an interview.”

Hoagland narrowed the jobs offered down and accepted a new position with Flatline Concrete Grinding Company as a concrete grinder on July 26.

“He’s really excited about it,” DiGianfilippo told KTAR News after talking to Hoagland over the phone, adding that she would love to meet Hoagland in person and sit down and have coffee together.

DiGianfilippo said she was impressed when she learned that Hoagland had been out of work for weeks before hitting the street with his sign and resumes.

“I think that’s even cooler. He didn’t wait. He just jumped out there and was creative,” DiGianfilippo said.

“He really stood out to me because what he did was really unique,” said DiGianfilippo. “It’s not really about me; it’s about him.”