So far, 2009 has seen no shortage of strange job search tactics — 18% of hiring managers have seen candidates go to unusual lengths to get a job, according to a recent CareerBuilder survey. That’s up from 12% at the same time last year.

Some of the strangest methods managers reported:

• One candidate sent a resume tucked inside a shoe — he wanted to “get his foot in the door.”
• A desperate job-seeker staged a sit-in at the company’s lobby to get a meeting with the manager.
• One manager received a resume from a job-seeker while his car was stopped at a red light.
• One guy sent the boss a cake with his own face and credentials painted on it.
• A candidate figured he could start at the bottom and work his way up — so he started washing employees’ cars in the parking lot.
• One crafty applicant told the company’s receptionist he’d scheduled an interview. When the manager arrived he confessed that he’d just driven by and decided to stop in.

How would you react to one of those gimmicks? Would you grant an interview or tell the candidate to stick to tried and true job search methods? Let us know in the comments section below.

The “Careereoki” contest, sponsored by Workforce Central Florida and the Orange County Board, allows unemployed contestants to compete for a “career makeover” package, consisting of tuition for a career training course, professional resume help and a $100 gas card.

Contestants are asked to sing work-themed reworkings of popular songs. One participant performed a take on “Summer Nights” from Grease, with lyrics like, “Unemployment happened so fast, never thought this recession would last.”

The winner will be chosen based on originality, creativity and humor.

Five months ago, Jason Fruen of Manchester, England, lost his job as a mechanical maintenance engineer.

After sending his resume to companies and having no luck, he adopted a different strategy: He began wearing the resume.

Fruen created a sandwich board that read, in big bold letters, “Mechanical maintenance engineer, seeking employment,” along with his telephone number, the Daily Mail reports.

His plan: Stand by an industrial complex and hope someone pays attention. He didn’t have to wait very long.

On his first day of self-advertising, a car pulled over. The owner of a local company offered him a job.

Unfortunately, it was only for a two-and-a-half month temporary assignment. So now, Freun is hitting the streets again, starting every day at 5:30 a.m.

What extreme job-seeker tactics have you seen or heard about? Would anything like Freun’s gimmick catch your attention enough to consider someone for a job? Let us know in the comments section below.

A recent CareerBuilder survey asked HR managers about the strangest things they’ve seen candidates do. Some of the highlights:

• Writing the cover letter in poem form
• Baking a cookie with “Hire Skip” written in frosting
• Promising the interviewer a foot massage
• Showing up at the office every morning with breakfast and asking for a job
• Approaching the hiring manager in the rest room after the interview, and
• Asking a restaurant the interviewer had mentioned to name a menu item after the candidate.

As an HR manager, have you ever witnessed any strange behavior by people who wanted to work for your company? Let us know about it by leaving a comment below.

That’s OK, most hiring managers would think twice, too.

The Creative Group, an advertising and marketing staffing firm, recently published a report on the unusual lengths some people go to in order to get hired. Among the strangest anecdotes in the report was a guy who rented a roadside billboard to display his resume.

Another job-seeker used the building across the street from a company he wanted to work for to hang a big sign listing the reasons they should hire him.

Some other tactics mentioned in the report: sending a singing telegram to the recruiter, mailing a resume in six pieces that fit together like a puzzle and hanging a poster with the candidate’s portrait in front of an executive’s parking space.

What were they thinking?

If you think that sounds ridiculous, you aren’t alone. Out of the executives surveyed by The Creative Group, only 2% said those off-the-wall techniques might increase someone’s chance of getting hired. More than half said they’d hurt the candidate’s chances.

What do you think? Would you bother with a candidate who did something silly, strange or just plain stupid to get your attention? Have you had candidates try any unusual tactics to get hired? Did it work? Let us know in the comments section.