I have a friend who is the associate director of a summer camp and each year she and her colleagues need to hire about 150 employees from cooks to counselors to tennis instructors. She and I met for lunch and she voiced her frustration about the not so smart things job seekers do.

“What is wrong with people? Why would I hire you to work with children when your Facebook profile picture is you holding a bottle of Jack Daniels in one hand and Bacardi in the other?” she said.

She does make an excellent point; this person isn’t applying to work at a bar or on Madison Avenue in the ‘60s, so they should probably lose the booze in their photo. One would think that this is a very OBVIOUS thing to do when conducting a job search and I know that this topic has been covered before on both the hiring and job seeking side of the industry, but clearly this message isn’t resonating.

When I first started putting some thoughts to paper, I was going to write solely about how the job title an employer lists on their job postings can affect the job’s performance – but then I looked at my own situation and the subject matter grew.

Northeast Sales Team Lead, Talent Solutions (a position with several direct reports)… that’s the job title that I was recently promoted to.

Director of Employer Sales (a sales representative role with no direct reports)… that’s my previous title.

If you are confused how going from “Director” to “Northeast Sales Team Lead” is a promotion, based on title alone, you would be justified.

Most job seekers really, really, really want to find a new job. Some have specific companies where they’d ideally like to work, but chances are they’re still applying other places.

And then there’s Nina Mufleh.

Mufleh really, really, really wanted to work for Airbnb.

She relocated from the Middle East to San Francisco in hopes of landing a job with the company, but after a year of trying all the usual approaches, a job offer still hadn’t materialized.

That’s when she decided to try something way outside the norm. She created a digital resume that highlights her knowledge of the company and features well-researched analysis of their areas of opportunity. Her personal work history takes a backseat, but her passion shines through from beginning to end.

Now, Mufleh is clearly an outlier, an extreme example of candidate enthusiasm and persistence. But if she hadn’t taken extreme measures, Airbnb may never have recognized her passion and the value she could bring to their growing company.