Partner Article

Persistence pays off for placard man

AN UNEMPLOYED man landed a job by standing in the pouring rain by a busy road with a cardboard sign pleading: “Please give me a job”, The Telegraph reports.

After spending the last two years out of work, 23-year-old Mark Wheeldon was fed up with living on benefits and concocted a plan to get him noticed on the job market.

He decided to stand on one of the busiest roundabouts in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs, and advertise himself to passing motorists during the morning rush hour.

But he could not believe his luck when, within three hours, a passing businessman pulled over and offered him a job on the spot.

Vince Champion, director of a timber factory, spotted the former mechanic, on his way to work and returned to collect him, giving him an interview straightaway and offering him a position just 20 minutes later.

After a shower, Mr Wheeldon found himself making frames at the Smart Timber Frame Company by midday on Thursday.

Mr Wheeldon, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, had failed to find work after spending the past two years caring for a former partner who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis.

Mr Wheeldon, who has also worked as a painter and decorator, and butcher’s assistant, said: “I was planning to stay until the evening rush hour and then keep coming back until someone gave me a job.

“I had been everywhere looking for work but I’d had no luck, so I thought I may as well just go down to Basford Bank on the A500 and stand by the traffic.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .