I got my first job by giving away home-cooked breakfast with my resumé. I was 15 at the time.

We wanted me to stand out from the crowd and get noticed. We asked ourselves what workmen like and came up with hot breakfasts. Getting their attention through their stomachs seemed like a good strategy. And where do you find plumbers? Plumbers’ merchants, where they buy their supplies.

Dad and I made a list of hardware stores that mostly catered to tradespeople. They were all within a 10-mile radius of our house. Then, we laminated 200 copies of my résumé — which included my work experience — to distribute both inside and outside the merchants.

Every night for a week, Dad and I prepared giant-size pigs in a blanket. We listened to playlists in the kitchen while we put together the sausage meat and pastry. Then, at around 5:30 a.m. the next day, we’d bake the batch of around 45 breakfast snacks in the oven.

We kept them warm in insulator containers and drove to each plumber merchant, starting at 7 a.m. We’d give some to the merchants and ask if we could put my résumé on the counter. Then, as the plumbers came out of the store, we’d given them a pig in a blanket and a CV. We’d go to three different stores every morning.

The tactic was a solid investment

I was shy at first, but after a while, I felt more confident and would chat about wanting a job. “It’s good to see young people going out there trying to make a name for themselves,” one plumber said as he ate the snack and put my CV in his van. “If I needed an apprentice, I’d hire you in a heartbeat,” another said.

The tactic worked. It didn’t take long before the head of a commercial plumbing company called me on my cellphone. He’d gotten hold of my résumé. “I admire you for showing initiative,” he said. Apparently, I’d become famous in the plumbing community as “the kid with the pigs in a blanket.”

He gave me a week’s trial and then offered me the job. I was relieved to start college that fall, knowing I was already earning a salary. Those free breakfasts had been a solid investment,

I work from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and get five weeks of vacation a year. I love what I do, and my family — especially my dad— is very proud of me.

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