As you know, job searching can be incredibly frustrating—and we all unwind from it in different ways. Some of us vent, others go for a walk or put on their favorite TV show, and some of us…write a song.
Well, maybe not most of us—but this was the case for Page Kemna, a recent college grad who posted a video of herself playing the piano and singing about her resume that ended up going viral on LinkedIn. The video (titled “Hire Me”) garnered over 11,000 likes and 1,000 comments, which lead Kemna to write a second thank you video (just as entertaining) for all her fans.
I have to say, when I first saw the post on LinkedIn I was skeptical—could it be that good of a song to get this much attention? The answer: Yes, it was. Kemna’s lyrics are original and witty, her chords catchy, and her personality and voice contagious.
I just had to talk to her and learn more about how this video came to be. Turns out, it was a fairly spur of the moment decision.
I’d been having job interviews fairly often, and I was just a little bummed out one day, and I was like, ‘How can I get people’s attention?’ I honestly had a kind of epiphany moment. I was hanging out with a couple friends at a coffee shop and suddenly decided, ‘I’m going to write a song,’ and my friends were like, ‘That’s the goofiest thing I’ve heard, but go for it.’
So, Kemna went home, wrote the lyrics, tweaked it a bit, and spent another half a day recording it on her iPhone propped in a glass cup (the jingle, she says, was semi-inspired by Billy Joel).
She then sent it out on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn, and that’s where I found it—practically blowing up my feed.
I just wanted to write this song to make people I do know laugh about the situation and relate to it. I didn’t expect to get much feedback at all…but then several people shared it and people were reaching out saying they were inspired by the whole thing and I had no idea that that was going to happen. It was humbling and also exciting because now I have all these opportunities and I never thought I would be in this situation. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before and I’m just so happy people liked it!
And opportunities she certainly has: While Kemna didn’t want to jinx herself by revealing all the offers she’s gotten (understandably so—you only get a chance like this every once in a blue moon!), she did share with me that large companies such as Google, Facebook, and Expedia have commented on her video.
“A lot of the feedback I’ve gotten has also been from New York and California. This was wild to me. I live in Denver and I’m from Missouri, so it was really cool to see people from places I’ve never been,” she says (whether she’s willing to move for a job isn’t off the table). In addition, a lot of people have just offered her advice, which made her feel even more a part of a real, live community.
Of course, the best outcome from this video is that companies have requested her to write songs for them: “I was like yeah, totally, I’d love that! So I’m thinking of maybe doing that as my side hustle,” she told me.
So, what’s next for her? Besides singing (“it’s always been a pipe dream for me”), Kemna really wants to find a role where she can work with people—but her recent stardom has opened up a lot more doors for her than she originally considered: “Initially I was looking for sales and marketing roles, but I’ve actually now shifted gears a bit. I’m talking to some advertising connections I have, and content creators, and social media marketers. I hope that in whatever I do I get to talk to people. I’m super social, and I love face-to-face interactions.”
What I personally love most about Kemna’s story is that she took a risk. And this is exactly the advice she has for anyone else out there in a similar situation:
A lot of people reached out to me to tell me they were inspired by my bravery. I didn’t think it was bravery, I just thought it was funny at the time. My advice for people who are nervous to put yourself out there is don’t be, because you have something that other people want to see, and it can definitely benefit your job search and also help you weed out the companies you don’t really want to work for. Personal branding is not overrated.
And the beauty of personal branding is that it doesn’t have to be something that goes viral, like Kemna’s video. You can start a blog, create a personal website, or even add some personality to your LinkedIn with a professional bio—whatever helps you best express what makes you uniquely, well, you. Because I know not all of us have song writing in our back pocket (if only).