'Jobless Paddy' who had to leave Australia spends his life savings on a billboard to try to get a job
Glenda Kwek
June 1, 2011 - 11:09AM
Cost $2700 ... the billboard in south Dublin.
An Irishman who has been unable to find a job in his country since returning from Australia last year has spent his life savings on a billboard campaign in a last ditch effort to get employed.
Feilim Mac An Iomaire, 26, said he moved to Australia after finding work at a travel agency but had to return to Ireland in August after the strengthening Australian dollar weakened the tourism market, The Journal news website reported.
Mr Mac An Iomaire, who calls himself the "Jobless Paddy", said he was "really frustrated" after searching for a job for eight months.
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Looking for a job ... Feilim Mac An Iomaire has spent his life savings on a billboard campaign after being unable to find work since returning from Australia.
The marketing graduate decided to spend €2000 ($2700) - the rest of his savings from Australia - to rent a billboard in south Dublin as "one last throw of the dice to remain in Ireland".
"I read that an experienced recruitment agent will actually review a CV in eight seconds, so you've got eight seconds to get their attention. It's frightening," he told the Irish Times.
The billboard has the words "Save Me from Emigration" and an image of a man with a suitcase looking out beyond a body of water to famous structures such as the Sydney Opera House, the Statute of Liberty in New York and the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada.
Looking for work after his Australian adventure ... Feilim Mac An Iomaire.
"I had a good bit of money saved when I came home from Australia but I was managing to live on jobseeker's allowance," he told The Guardian.
"I gave it a week of hard thinking to come up with the concept and nothing was going to stop me then.
"The great thing is that everyone's been so positive about it. No one has really had a bad word to say. Everybody who is close to me knows I've been pretty miffed about being unemployed and feeling like I've been on the sidelines."
Mr Mac An Iomaire also set up Twitter and Facebook accounts to promote his campaign.
About 50,000 Irish citizens, mostly young graduates, were expected to leave Ireland this year to look for work aboard, The Guardian said.
The unemployment rate in Ireland was at 14.6 per cent of the labour force in April, according to figures from the country's Central Statistics Office.
On Monday, the Irish government ruled out a second European Union-International Monetary Fund bailout. The country received an €85 billion bailout package in November.
"There is no question of a bailout package having to be brought in next year," Finance Minister Michael Noonan told local broadcaster RTE, Reuters reported.
"We have sufficient money from the IMF and European institutions to carry the country forward in all eventualities and the programme runs until the end of 2013. A second bailout doesn't arise because of that."
But it is not clear if Ireland's economy will make a recovery this year.
An economist with Irish securities firm NCB Stockbrokers told RTE that "nobody can be absolutely sure that there will be growth this year".
"Our forecast is that there will be some growth in GDP this year but the margin of error is sufficiently small that nobody can be sure that it will actually be positive. It's only in 2012 that we can forecast the return to what we would like to see as solid growth."
Mr Mac An Iomaire said that, while he had received a lot of feedback and "goodwill" from his campaign, he was not sure if it would help him secure a job in Ireland.
"I can give it until the end of June," he told The Journal.
"If it doesn't work, I'm gone. That's it."
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/executive-sty...o-get-a-job-20110601-1ffdk.html#ixzz1Nz4BKriq
