Plucky placard jobseeker reaps PR reward

A determined Stoke-on-Trent jobseeker, who had been out of work for two years, has demonstrated the power of publicity by promoting himself at a busy road junction and landing himself a job within just a few hours.

Mark Wheeldon from Newcastle-under-Lyme had been looking everywhere for a job but was getting nowhere with the traditional methods of finding work.

So the 23-year-old decided to adopt a PR campaign of action and get himself noticed by turning up at one of Stoke-on-Trent's busiest roundabouts with a sign made from a piece of cardboard saying Please! - Give me a job.

Then after standing in a torrential downpour for nearly three hours a local businessman pulled up and promptly offered the rain-soaked former mechanic and decorator an interview at his nearby timber factory.

And by midday Mr Wheeldon was the latest new employee at the Smart Timber Frame Company after factory director Vince Champion decided that Mark's initiative and determination were exactly the sort of qualities his business needed.

Having seen this type of approach reap rewards time and time again, PR professionals are not at all surprised by how quickly such a course of action can yield positive results.

But what really impresses them is how the company also identified it as an interesting and newsworthy story and grabbed a valuable name check in the national newspapers in the process.