Job website SEEK has teamed up with Jamie Hyneman, of Mythbusters fame, in the first shared and earned led piece of work under the business’ revived ‘SEEK and You Shall Find’ brand platform.
From hot laps and fire cannons to plasma torches and fortified vaults, this two-part online content series, is an exhilarating examination of the common adages on how to land the right job for you.
‘Busting Myths: The SEEKRET to Finding Better Job Matches’ sees Jamie back on the myth-busting tools and in Australia for the first time in 10 years. Across two episodes, Jamie, with the help of Kiwi and Australian talent, gets to the bottom of common job-hunting myths that were revealed by SEEK research.
The first episode of ‘Busting Myths: The SEEKRET to Finding Better Job Matches’ explores the idea that 75 percent of Kiwis believe that ‘you can’t get a job without experience’1. In this episode, skills are up against experience, as Jamie looks to uncover what’s more likely to land the right job.
To do this, Hyneman enlisted the help of YouTuber and digital creator Alex Apollonov (I Did A Thing), in a gripping challenge that pitted Alex, a skilled inventor and the next generation of Mythbuster, against someone with years of industry experience – Jamie himself. The focus of the challenge? To see who can ‘break’ into the ‘industry’ the quickest.
SEEK research also revealed that 68 percent of Kiwis believe ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ when it comes to landing the right job. The second episode of ‘Busting Myths’ sees Jamie challenge two ‘job seekers’ to vie for a delivery driver role. Set against the thrilling backdrop of Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne, the ‘job seekers’ navigate a dynamic obstacle course teeming with jumps, fire and high-speed action. One knows their stuff and the other knows Jamie, but who’ll be the right fit for the job?
Battling it out on the racetrack is Jethro McLean, a Kiwi-born and raised Research Assistant at the Jamie Hyneman Centre in Finland, representing the ‘who you know’ in the experiment. Jethro goes head to head with Courtney Prince, a professional race and stunt driver from Melbourne, who represents the ‘what you know’ in this challenge.
Maryanne Tsiatsias, Chief Marketing Officer at SEEK, comments: “We launched our refreshed brand platform with the SEEKRET campaign in May 2023, focusing on showcasing SEEK’s power to help job seekers find the right job. We’re excited to launch the next phase of the SEEKRET with Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters fame, which puts our commitment to providing Kiwis with better job matches than ever before into overdrive.
“Jamie’s methodical approach to busting myths paired with SEEK’s trademark light hearted style allows us to challenge what New Zealanders believe to be true about the job hunting process in an entertaining way. By examining common job seeker frustrations, we hope to spark conversations about what it really takes to land the right job.”
Hyneman comments: “It was good to be back in this part of the world, and in front of the camera, to put some common misconceptions about the job hunting process through their paces. Armed with insights from SEEK, I was able to come up with tangible experiments that serve as metaphors for important aspects of the job hunting process and reach a verdict.
In my own career, I’ve seen first-hand that there is no shortcut to success or abstract way of getting where you want to go. Whether it’s been as a TV host, a special effects expert or an inventor, the value of applying yourself to the task at hand and using the right tools to get there has always rung true. Working with real, tangible things helps people internalise what they may be thinking to find the right path for them.”
Michael Maurice, Managing Director at Adhesive, comments: “An idea that generated talkability and shareability was at the heart of our task from SEEK. When we looked at the data it became clear that many job seekers want to find a shortcut to their success, so we knew there was something powerful in tapping into job hunting misconceptions to get New Zealanders really thinking about what it takes to land the right role. Teaming Jamie up with SEEK meant that we could explore it in truly weird and wonderful ways, and it was such a joy to bring the beloved TV icon back onto Kiwi (small) screens.”
