In response to mass unemployment and the prospect of having to emigrate, an unemployed Irish graduate has spent 2,000 euros (US$2,900) on a massive billboard advertisement asking employers not to let him leave the country.
Feilim Mac An Iomaire, who erected an advertising hoarding on the busy Merrion Road in south Dublin in an attempt to find a job, said he had been overwhelmed by the response.
The ad contains a picture of the 26-year-old marketing graduate facing a number of famous landmarks from Sydney, London and New York with the message: “Save me from emigration.”
His ad has struck a chord at a time when about 50,000 citizens, many of them young graduates, are expected to leave this year for work abroad. There are still up to 400,000 jobless workers because of the property crash and fiscal crisis.
Mac An Iomaire said he came up with the idea after being unemployed for eight months after a year in Australia.
“I had a good bit of money saved when I came home from Australia, but I was managing to live on jobseeker’s allowance. I gave it a week of hard thinking to come up with the concept and nothing was going to stop me then,” he said.
“The great thing is that everyone’s been so positive about it. No one has really had a bad word to say,” he said.
He also set up a Facebook page and Twitter account, @Joblesspaddy, and has been inundated with e-mails and messages.
“I’ve had some really nice replies. Some CV experts are willing to spruce up my CV so I’m pretty overwhelmed with that,” he said. “It looks good for something to come out of it, anyway.”
“I am not exactly looking for a concrete job offer. I would sooner go through the whole process of doing an interview,” Mac An Iomaire added.
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