Word of mouth and refer-a-friend are common concepts in the eMarketing trade and, in my experience, they are also the best methods of hiring creative talent. Forget job ads and expensive recruiters, the best and only way of finding that awesome new QuirkStar is not by their self-written CV, but on a recommendation of someone you trust. In the spirit of St Valentine, just have a look at the extremely successful UK dating site mysinglefriend.com. How many people do you know that have hooked up through friends? Same goes for making that perfect match with a company.

Most companies rely on the candidate filling in painful application forms and sending a PDF of their portfolio. Relatively useful? Yes. Do I have fun sifting through the rubbish and cow poo whilst munching my lunch? No. So here is what I'm proposing - why not try this 'Purple Cow' (Can you tell I just put down Seth Godin to write this?) and tell me why you think your friend should join the creative team here at Quirk. We are always looking for great talent whether it’s in the form of a hot designer, full fat 'flasher' or html/CSS god.

There are a number of fabulous positions available in Joburg and Cape Town, so if you think someone you know should move to the QuirkStation, drop me a line [emma.carpenter@quirk.biz] with a link to their portfolio and tell me what we are missing out on.

• Creative Director: Joburg
• Senior Designer/Art Director: Joburg
• Designer: Joburg
• Flash Designer/Programmer: Cape Town
• Middleweight Developer: Cape Town  

Also check out:

• A Day in the Life of a DesignStar
• What People Do to Get Into Quirk