Securing a position at Google is a difficult task even for the most qualified professionals: it is said to be 10 times more difficult than getting into Harvard, and two million people apply each year.
However, Mariana Kobayashi beat the odds and landed an account executive position in the Dublin office, even though she had been rejected before, thanks to her creativity with her application.
After Mariana was fired from LinkedIn, she applied for a position at Google in June of last year, for recording a short shorten to explain why she was right for the role, despite being slightly underqualified.
According Business InsiderIt took Mariana ten hours to create the clip, but it paid off when she was offered a position at the prestigious company.
Mariana Kobayashi (pictured) landed an account executive role at Google after submitting a creative video CV that took 10 hours to produce.
Mariana included all the information that a CV and cover letter normally includes, but presented it in a new format to stand out from the crowd.
She explained in the application: ‘I’m Mariana, I’ve just applied for CSA, Dublin. I’ll tell you in a minute why I’m going to make your life easier, so see it through to the end.
“I applied with the recommendation of someone who works with the team,” he continued.
Speaking in Spanish, as a way of highlighting his language skills, he added: In case you haven’t seen my application, I thought I could help.’
Moving on to her experience, the Account Executive continued: “I believe that everything in life is sales, and that is how I created my first pancake business at the age of 14, which allowed me to self-finance international education, entrepreneurship and opportunities. ‘
She then went on to list her experience in previous roles before explaining general information about her.
“I’m half Portuguese, a quarter Lebanese and a quarter Japanese,” she said. Mariana continued: ‘They are all high-context cultures. So instead of describing myself, I asked some Google and LinkedIn friends to describe me in one word. ‘
The video then went on to show clips of Mariana’s friends associating her with words like “a light,” “charismatic,” and “a visionary.”
Mariana was previously rejected from Google, so she developed the video to stand out from the crowd.
Mariana then concluded: ‘I hope you respond to this email so we can get to know each other and see what we can build together.’
He then sent the video directly to Google’s hiring manager.
Mariana also uploaded the video to YouTube along with the caption: “If you’re going to apply for your dream company, make it fun.”
The clip quickly caused a storm online and has since racked up more than 25,000 views.
In a conversation with Business Insider, he revealed: “A lot of people approached me offering coffee chats and telling me about positions.”
“Then the recruiter for the position reached out and I had a call with her.”
After submitting her application, Mariana went through a three-step interview process before being offered a position in Google’s Dublin office.
Mariana was initially told she was overqualified for the position, but she kept in touch with the hiring manager to check for different roles.
Two months later, she discovered the position of Account Executive and applied immediately.
“It was a very purpose-driven application, so I think that made me stand out, and then because the recruiter was already on my side, that helped,” she said.
Once she obtained an interview spot, Mariana developed two documents.
One described his gaps in experience and another document explained how he was going to change that.
Mariana then went through additional evaluations and interviews.
A month after completing the application process, he received the good news that he had landed the job.
Now, the account executive has encouraged others to follow in her footsteps and get creative with job applications.