Last updated on March 24th, 2024 at 08:23 pm
Being made redundant at any age is a shock and it can have big self esteem implications. With a shrinking employment market and a recession that continues to make its effects felt, finding new work in your chosen field is an ongoing struggle. So much so that prospective job hunters need to come up with ever more inspirational ways of making themselves the most desirable employee a business can have. Advertise a job – the traditional way of a company looking for staff and the job hunter replies to the ad is no longer a good enough technique.
One step is to upload your CV onto a recruitment website. This can help tailor your job search and also allows potential employers to find you through a CV search. You certainly need to stand out, promote yourself and come up with awe-inspiring ways to hook an employer. This was what passed through Andy Palmer’s mind when he was made redundant by Northern Rock in 2009. As a mortgage advisor for a failing building society in a time when the banking industry was laying off staff in order to keep afloat, Andy was faced with a career cul-de-sac. After 30 unsuccessful attempts to find new work the ‘old fashioned way’ he posted himself on eBay under the title ‘Employee for a Month’.
In his description he offered his services for a 35 hour week with a starting bid of £1000, 25% of which would go to his chosen charity, the NSPCC. Putting himself forward as a flexible worker he told BBC Radio Kent that he ‘would work in any industry providing that it had nothing to do with sex or illegal activities’.
Surrounded by publicity and interest, Andy was taken on as a consultant by Simon Coulson who paid £1500 for his services. And in November of 2009, he kept his part of the agreement, paying the NSPCC a useful £375.
It was certainly a novel way to get noticed and bidding on employees is still very much an unusual method in finding a workforce. Today, it is much more of a senior management prerogative and referred to as ‘poaching’ where a company – particularly in the financial sector – will approach existing employees of a rival company to try and get them to ‘defect’.
Considering today’s economic climate and the Bank of England’s statement that inflation will reach 5% by the end of this year and that any new jobs will have to be in the private sector (funding for public or third sector work being negligible); it seems almost certain that more people will take Andy Palmer’s method, move it up a notch and promote themselves in ever more inventive ways.
Greg Coltman left the rat race in 2005 to work as a freelance writer but loves to read about ingenious job hunting techniques.
