This designer was tired of being ghosted by employers. Now he’s sending them ‘unhinged’ résumés

In a competitive job market, job seekers are resorting to increasingly unconventional methods to stand out to potential employers. Melbourne-based designer Felix Toohey has taken this to the extreme, creating a series of "unhinged CVs" to get employers' attention. These "Ghosting Busters" are physical representations of traditional résumés, crafted in a way that is impossible to ignore.

Toohey's series includes a coffee tray with paper "latte art" labels for each section of his CV, as well as a box shaped like a lunch container containing fake foam sandwiches that replace the lettuce and tomato with his résumé details. Each résumé is tailored to a specific agency, researched thoroughly before the design process begins. He looks at the agency's specialties and cues from the agency's name to determine what medium to use.

Toohey's approach stems from his own struggles in finding stable employment in the competitive creative industry. After graduating from university, he worked as a barely-paid intern in a design agency before being let go unexpectedly. He has since worked for several design agencies and even started his own sustainable clothing brand, but consistently landing a job as an art director has been challenging, often filled with silence after applying to over 200 positions and only securing one interview.

Toohey emphasizes the importance of fully committing to his bizarre ideas, stating that he "100% commits to the bit, no matter how stupid it is." Some of his recent creations feature robot arms or laser-cutting his cover letter into a tombstone. "I wanted to be impossible to ignore," he says.