Without ever writing a cover letter or traditional CV, I started working at Laces here at the adidas Group’s headquarters a few weeks ago. What an amazing opportunity to join adidas during this era! The digital age rapidly changed nearly everything we do in just a couple of years: the way we connect, consume and work. Now it’s about time we should realize that getting jobs with companies has changed a lot, too. I’m not an expert on this, but let me share with you what I’ve learned during the hiring process. It all came down to putting the user at the center, understanding the employer, obsessing over details and telling a passionate story.

Leveraging user experience design

My background is in the user experience field, a broad practice that is getting more and more attention right now. Basically, all user experience professionals focus on finding out what makes life as easy as possible for customers and then doing it in alignment with the business goals. The principles in this field help us build awesome products and services – why shouldn’t the same methods help me land a dream job at adidas?

Understanding the employer

I started with research. Details of the specific position, the culture and goals of the organization are of course a must. But I also tried to understand the real users of my job application, the recruiters and hiring managers. I imagined what it must be like for them to examine hundreds and hundreds of applications every week. Their job isn’t to filter information out of almost identical pieces of paper all day – although most educational institutions told us otherwise – their real job is to find the ideal fit for the open position. Admittedly this is pretty obvious, but think about this for a minute. Why do most of us treat our job applications like the exact opposite?

Committing – florian is all in

I decided to make it as easy as possible for adidas to understand that I’m all in: the idea for the website “florian is all” in was born. From here on it was all about designing a simple experience for the recruiters and hiring managers. Structuring information and data, producing a lot of designs and writing even more copy. Believe me, the whole thing got much more complicated the moment I decided that I had no boundaries of traditional cover letters or CVs anymore.

Screenshot of  my little different CV 

Telling passionate stories

One of the biggest challenges for me was to communicate my passion adequately. Besides using the products (should be obvious), I also tried to leverage my personal history with adidas. Back in 2009, I registered @adidasrunning on twitter and started sending out tweets not only were fitting the vision and other communication activities of the brand, but also provided direct value in everyday life for runners like myself. Soon after, the Digital Marketing teams at adidas took over, but with the foot in the door I was able to share my thoughts on marketing and user experience with them through several presentations I proactively put together. Even though I had no clue how my experience could benefit the adidas organization at that time, I was able to tell a great story later and show my long-term passion for the brand.

Caring about details

I worked hard to make every little bit of information on the website be absolutely relevant for the user experience position I was applying for. Even if it got a little bit obsessive from time to time I believe a potential employer can feel the care and hours that you put into an application. For instance, I imagined the HRHuman Resources (HR), is the organisation within the adidas Group which is responsible for the management of our workforce. Responsibilities include attracting, selecting, training, assessing and rewarding employees as well as fostering a corporate culture of performance, passion, integrity and diversity. team traveling a lot, so I made sure the site would provide a great experience on mobile devices too.

After launching the website I sent very short emails to the people I thought would be involved in the hiring process. Every one of them got a personalized version of the site with a dead-simple contact form in case they had any questions. The only thing HRHuman Resources (HR), is the organisation within the adidas Group which is responsible for the management of our workforce. Responsibilities include attracting, selecting, training, assessing and rewarding employees as well as fostering a corporate culture of performance, passion, integrity and diversity. wanted me to do differently was to provide a printer-friendly version. Printed CVs still help them a lot during their evaluation process.

I also personalized a version of the site with a dead-simple contact form for the people who was involved in the hiring process

The adidas perspective

After sending out the application of course I was very eager for feedback from the adidas side and very happy to get such positive feedback. Putting thought and the time into my application paid off after all.

“When I first came into contact with Florian it was several years ago when our digital team found that he had started a very popular adidas running site on Twitter. I was very impressed with Florian’s ability to build communities and his commitment to his work. He wasn’t working for us then but we shared a few ideas around the digital space in recruiting. Several years later, after relocating to Germany, Florian had sent me the link to the site he built to highlight his ability to strengthen adidas in the digital space. When I finally had time to view the site I was very impressed with the work he put into it. I then immediately forwarded this to our Marketing recruiter and not too long after he was coming for an interview.

The vast majority of our candidates apply through our adidas career site. But we are interacting more and more with our candidates within the social space. We now have our Facebook Careers page, our Twitter Jobs page or our Shape the Future of Sport LinkedIn Group. Applying to our job postings is still the best way to ensure your information is viewed by the right person at the right time. But now you have many ways to learn more about careers within the adidas Group, interact with us and find the best tips for getting your foot in the door.”

Steve Fogarty, Sr. Manager – Employer Branding

Conclusion

A few weeks ago I joined the adidas business unitBusiness Unit (BUBusiness Unit (BU) is an organisation within the company which unites various business functions which are all relevant to a specific market segment. At the adidas Group, BUs are suborientated to the individual brands. Business Units at the adidas Group include BU Basketball, BU Swim or BU Football.) is an organisation within the company which unites various business functions which are all relevant to a specific market segment. At the adidas Group, BUs are suborientated to the individual brands. Business Units at the adidas Group include BUBusiness Unit (BU) is an organisation within the company which unites various business functions which are all relevant to a specific market segment. At the adidas Group, BUs are suborientated to the individual brands. Business Units at the adidas Group include BU Basketball, BU Swim or BU Football. Basketball, BUBusiness Unit (BU) is an organisation within the company which unites various business functions which are all relevant to a specific market segment. At the adidas Group, BUs are suborientated to the individual brands. Business Units at the adidas Group include BU Basketball, BU Swim or BU Football. Swim or BUBusiness Unit (BU) is an organisation within the company which unites various business functions which are all relevant to a specific market segment. At the adidas Group, BUs are suborientated to the individual brands. Business Units at the adidas Group include BU Basketball, BU Swim or BU Football. Football. Interactive where I’m helping the Customization Experience team create world-class experiences for our miadidas and mi Team customers. It has been a crazy journey this far and I’m really excited to be part of the adidas family. I hope this also inspires more people to leverage their experience when applying for their dream jobs. The talents of the Gen-Y generation have the privilege to rewrite the rules of job hunting right now. Just be all in, take risks and always create an awesome experience!