Since early June, Kwaku Twumasi, 34, has been driving all around the posh neighborhoods of Dallas selling himself on the windows of his Chevy Tahoe.
Twumasi was laid off from his analyst job at management consulting firm Accenture in November and has been looking for a job to no avail ever since.
I first saw the photo of his vehicular billboard thanks to a Twitter tweet from @abalderrama: “Clever job seekers. Aka honk if you want to hire me.” I retweeted the story he referenced and then decided I needed to talk to the person behind the ad.
I figured I’d find a desperate job seeker grasping at what ever he or she could to find a gig.
But I didn’t find some crazed, unemployed daredevil. I found calm, engaging Kwaku Twumasi.
“Are you desperate?” I asked him on the phone.
“No,” he said. “Not at all.”
“I went through the process of job searching, networking, career fairs, cold phone calls, and ran through it over and over again,” he explained. “I got to the point where I just said, ‘let me use what they taught me in business school and solve this problem.’”
The “problem” of his unemployment needed to be solved so he decided to “get out of that circle.”
He looked at his big truck and all its window space and the “Me” mobile billboard was born. He used glass chalk, he said, because it stays on in the rain.
Twumasi got his MBA from Southern Methodist University, the future home of the George W. Bush library, he pointed out. Before going for his MBA, he was a support specialist for a call center in Dallas but realized he needed a business degree if he was going to attain his goal of working for a big banking company someday. After school he got the offer from Accenture, but just like so many other people in finance he ended up on the chopping block as the economy turned sour.
So, he’s been driving slowly around like a police officer in three towns he says are were the high-powered Dallas residents live: University Park, Highland Park and Preston Hollow. He’s gotten a few nibbles already, but no job offer quite yet. “I’m open to anything,” he said. “A lawyer called me last Friday interested in getting some help from me. I sent her an email Monday but I haven’t heard back yet. I hope it happens because I need to generate cash.”
He’s been living on his savings and unemployment benefits, but he admitted his money is starting to run out. And the cost of driving his gas guzzler around town promoting himself has already cost him $600 in gas. “The AC is going out and my ball joints are bad,” he said.
To save some money he’s tried to find prime parking spots where his billboard can get a lot of play without him driving around too much.
“My goal is to get something permanent in finance, banking,” he said, adding that he’d love to work for any of the Big Four accounting firms.
Even though the offers haven’t flooding in yet, he’s taking a Zen-like approach to joblessness.
“I believe there is a blessing in misfortune,” he notes. “You don’t know what’s around the corner.”
Street corner that is.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:02 pm
I think the brother should come back to Ghana. There are new banks springing up everyday and with his MBA and experience, he is bound to find something.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:01 pm
It’s great to see somebody “thinking outside the box.”
I know that statement is cliche but I can’t think of anything more appropriate. There are millions of people searching for jobs the traditional way and finding nothing based on reports in the media.
Good luck and keep up the great attitude, I’m sure it will pay off in the end.