Féilim Mac An Iomaire is desperate to get a job so he can stay in his home country of Ireland. But after 100 failed job applications he decided he had to do something dramatic to get anywhere.So he's advertising himself on a huge billboard on one of Dublin's busiest streets, at a cost of £1745 for a fortnight's exposure.
He doesn't want to be one of the 50,000 Irish citizens due to emigrate this year to find work, nor one of the 400,000 jobless* in the Republic.
He's already worked in the States and Australia, but doesn't want to work abroad again. Despite the grim economic situation in Ireland, his roots are still firmly in "the Old Sod".
The poster has led to a flood of sympathetic emails and messages, but as yet no job offers. He may still have to leave the country.
People try all sorts of bizarre tactics to get employment. They walk the streets with sandwich boards, offer their services for nothing, and buttonhole chief executives, not to mention stuffing their CVs with bogus skills and experience. When times are hard, ingenuity is called for.
Fruitless job-hunting has to be one of the most disheartening experiences there is. Month after month you send out the applications, only to get polite letters "thanking you for your interest". Or no response at all, just a deafening silence. I got my present job after over two years of searching, and what a relief it was. Persistence does seem to pay off eventually.
So what's in store for Féilim? Will he be gainfully employed in Dublin or will he be heading back to Oz? Watch this space.
* That's 14.7% of the workforce
How does he pronounce his name? That's a good question, I'm glad you asked me that.
A note on the post title: the pic doesn't show the bottom of the poster which gives his email address as joblesspaddy@Gmail.com
PS (Thursday night): I read that Féilim now has dozens of job interviews lined up and is likely to get a job offer very soon.
PPS (June 16): Féilim has been offered two top marketing jobs and is deciding which to take. Emigration cancelled!
What's that in his left hand? Is it a Curling stick?
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a hockey stick to me. And as you know, they're keen on hockey in Australia....
ReplyDeletePoints to him for creativity!
ReplyDeleteMeno - Absolutely. You could hardly miss that massive poster as you drive past it!
ReplyDeleteIt's a hurl, for playing hurley- fast, vicious, in the air- scary national sport.
ReplyDeleteMy mother once suggested I should write a book on dealing with rejection when applying for work. I only needed two words 'chocolate digestives'...
Speccy - Thanks for that. I don't know much about hurley! Chocolate digestives - my favourite. No crisis can be properly dealt with before the appropriate number of choc digestives has been deployed.
ReplyDeleteAs light-hearted as you have tried to make it sound, it makes for sad reading. Knowing nothing about the guy, but going by what he has done to get employed, I bet that he will turn up to be a winner sooner or later. There is entrepreneurship there in the man.
ReplyDeleteHurling, the national sport of the GAA along with Gaelic Football.
ReplyDeleteI never did like the term "Paddy" for an Irishman, I put it alongside all the other derogatory terms for other nationals which I won't list here as I don't use them. At all.
I applaud Féilim for his ingenuity and hope it pays off, probably his last few Euro too... :(
XO
WWW
Ramana - It's certainly sad for him, and the other 400,000, that they can't find a job. Everyone who wants a job should be able to get one. If they can't, the government is failing its citizens.
ReplyDeleteW3 - The pic doesn't show the bottom of the poster, which actually gives his email address as joblesspaddy@Gmail.com. So I guess he's happy to use the term - humorously no doubt. But I agree, the word paddy is too often used as an insult.
All you want to know about Hurling: http://www.gaa.ie/
ReplyDeleteGrannymar - Why is everyone so interested in hurling all of a sudden? I blame Nursey for bringing up curling. Meanwhile, Féilim has a lot of job interviews lined up....
ReplyDeleteThe Sad Irony Is That This Depression Is Global, So He Has No Guarantees Of Employment Abroad.
ReplyDeleteTony - I don't think the depression is global, some better-run countries have been barely affected. Like Australia, which has a tighter-regulated banking sector.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of SelfAid - the Irish version of Live Aid - to find jobs for people a previous time around. It was a great concert in the RDS - Rory Gallagher, Moving Hearts stood out. But as for the jobs...
ReplyDeleteIt kept turning out that, for instance, the eight jobs mending the roads in Leitrim were not actually being offered by the local council - but were a misinterpreted suggestion from a local angry with the potholes. And so it went one.
Blackwater - Governments simply aren't prioritising job creation, they seem to think the jobless will somehow magically "get by". In fact with their vicious spending cuts they're making the job situation worse.
ReplyDeleteLet us know how he gets on at these interviews, and good luck to him.
ReplyDeleteSx
Scarlet - I will. Such enterprise deserves to land him a really plum job.
ReplyDeleteI feel he stole the idea from my portrait of Quentin emigrating to New York. But I'm willing to be flattered rather than annoyed :)
ReplyDeletehttp://annierhiannon.blogspot.com/2011/01/quentin-fottrell-with-dublin-and.html
Annie - You're right, there's a distinct resemblance. I remember your pic well. He could at least have put "Thanks to Annie Rhiannon" on the poster.
ReplyDelete