Do you want to live dangerously? Do you want to make headlines? Do you want people to remember you as someone who takes risks? If you said yes to any of these questions you should become a Stunt Recruiter!

I did a Yahoo! Search to see if anyone had used the term Stunt Recruiting to describe unique recruiting events or activities. I found references to activities that stunted recruiting efforts, but nothing cool. I think we should take the word “stunt” back and make the term Stunt Recruiting stand for fun! No longer will the word “stunt” be a bad word in recruiting.

Back in September, I created an event around the launch of one of 2007’s most highly anticipated videogames, Halo 3. There were a record number of pre-ordered games sold and I knew that hundreds of gamers would line up outside GameStops in order to pick up their copies at midnight. I called around and it turned out the three stores closest to Yahoo! had sold the most copies in the Bay Area and expected at least 100 customers to line up at each store.

Based on the stereotypes of gamers, I knew that a good number of those folks lining up would be engineers, sys admins, web developers, and other tech types. I also knew that there would be plenty of high school and college kids there as well. So, given the target audience, I hoped to persuade those tech types to apply for jobs that we had open. Based on yet another stereotype, I called the local Pepsi office and purchased 720 cans of Mountain Dew’s Gamer Fuel. They also provided 3 poster board cutouts of Halo’s main character, The Master Chief (more on that in a second).

I then wrote up a quick description of my plan and emailed it to a local TV station’s story suggestion line and got a call back within an hour. They not only wanted to cover the event, they wanted to talk about Yahoo!. A few days later a camera crew stopped by to interview our VP of Talent Acquisition, Carol Mahoney.

I then solicited volunteers from within staffing and signed up schedulers, sourcers, and recruiters. Given that I knew a news crew would be coming to one of the three stores, I got everyone into a room and we coordinated our message. Our message was that most tech types are gamers and we’re out here to connect with them as well as potential and existing Yahoo! users. I then grabbed a colleague and we picked up swag items from the Yahoo! Games folks. One of their engineers thought it was such a cool idea that he volunteered to help hand stuff out.

Three poster board cutouts became raffle items for each store. I created raffle slips that asked for Name, Phone, Email, and Level of Education (Elementary, High School, College, or Masters/PhD). Given that the poster board cutouts would have an enormous cool factor, I knew that raffling them off would be a great way to get email addresses so we could keep in touch with everyone after the event – and hopefully get resumes.

We all got out to the stores around 9pm and started handing out Mountain Dew, decks of Yahoo! Games playing cards, pens, raffle tickets, and special items for the first 10 people in line. We mingled and talked with folks in line and explained why we were out there. There really isn’t a lot to do when standing in line for hours, so many started using the Yahoo! playing cards immediately. Branding. Branding. Branding.

Some of the people in line would call friends and tell them that Yahoo! was there handing out free stuff. The interview piece with our VP made it onto the 6pm news. Every mention of Halo 3 the entire night on the ABC channel also mentioned Yahoo!. For the 11pm news, a camera crew visited one store and interviewed one of our recruiters as well as Halo 3 buyers standing in line about what they thought of our event. It was resoundingly positive, though I was just a little miffed that I wasn’t the one interviewed onsite at the store.

This entire event took only a few hours to plan over a week and a half. It generated a lot buzz and really helped us to connect with a small, but very influential, group of people. Stunt recruiting isn’t about complex events. It’s about fun, simple, and creative ways of connecting with your target audience. I forgot to mention that this was a super cheap event. It doesn’t take a lot of money to be creative.

If the holidays hadn’t been so crazy for me, I would have been handing out coffee to people standing in line to buy a Nintendo Wii. That would have been a great way to connect with people and solicit resumes and/or referrals. The iPhone launch would have been another good line to mingle with. You could even buy tickets to an open air festival or concert and send your recruiters out in company branded clothes to just press the flesh. If it works for Presidential candidates recruiting voters, why can’t recruiters do the same?

Some people have asked how small and medium-sized companies or companies in small towns can stunt recruit, and more specifically, how they can leverage their brand. I think these same tactics could work. Street Fairs, High School Football games, and other local events would be a great place to walk around and meet the community and hand out company branded items (pens are the cheapest). Volunteering as a company is another great way to get your company out into the community. If you do something you feel has a great cool factor, call the local media and get them to cover your event.

We make cold calls all the time. Stunt Recruiting is pretty close to the same thing, except you have the ability to engage someone in person and you don’t have to worry about leaving a voicemail. I also have to say that a handshake means a lot more than an email.

Be daring. Be creative. Be a Stunt Recruiter.