The job market may be improving, but the competition is as severe as ever. There are hundreds of job seekers competing for the same coveted position, but the situations are not similar to all. While few have the options to look for their interested openings from their comfort, others will do almost anything to stand out from the crowd. Much recently, a homeless California web developer bagged himself with more than 200 job offers after holding a placard announcing he was homeless by a busy median traffic shop and distributing his CVs.

On July 27 morning, David Casarez woke up from his park bench in Mountain View, put on a clean shirt and tie and carried his hand-written cardboard sign and a stack of resumes to a nearby highway median. The sign reads, “HOMELESS. HUNGRY 4 SUCCESS. TAKE A RESUME.” It was clearly a make or break moment for David. After standing for a couple of hours, a passing driver identified as Jasmine Scofield stopped and asked if she could take his picture and post online to support him.

Jasmine tweeted about the young homeless man along with his resume on the same day urging netizens to help.

David’s personal sign prompted an outpouring of community support to help fulfil the only thing he was asking for. According to his resume, he graduated with a degree in Management Information Systems from Texas A&M University in 2014. Jasmine even informed on her tweet that, “He came to Silicon Valley with a dream to be successful in tech and has a lot to offer the community. He's sleeping in parks and still trying to get freelance work, interviews, and applications in.”

By next day, his resume was retweeted more than 50,000 times. The 26-year-old excitedly informed the New York Post, “Google reached out to me.” Many other tech giants and a bunch of startups too offered him a job. As he scrolled through the offers, he further said, “A product manager from Bitcoin.com was wondering if I could work remotely of if I want to relocate to Tokyo.”

Earlier this month, a similar strategy impressed the Human Resources at various companies in London when a graduate Kamran Hussain after failing in online job hunting handed his CVs to the train commuters. Hours later, he was equally surprised to receive interview calls. Such stories of courage, initiative and perseverance encourage many job hunters to never give up on dreams. Stay strong and think out of the box!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 29, 2018 05:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).