Thursday last week was bitterly cold but beautifully sunny with clear blue skies. To get some fresh air I walked down to our local bookshop in Hays Galleria. Some book tokens for a gift and a guide book to Rome (off in April and excited as I have never been before) in my bag my shopping was done. As I went to leave the shop I watched a self assured young girl come in and ask if there were any vacancies. Sorry, we are not hiring she was told. She put her CV back into her bag and went to go back outside. "Hmmm", I thought, "they may not be hiring but we are".
I suggested to the girl that she should leave her CV, just in case a vacancy did come up and then asked her what sort of work she was looking for. She explained that she was a school leaver still seeking her first job after having done A-levels and deferred going to university. The Job Centre had told her that she must take 30 copies of her CV to the West End and hand them all out. The thought of a 17 year old handing out a CV with home address, mobile and email to all and sundry made me wonder about the thought process of the person who advised this course of action.
We chatted and I asked what type of work she was seeking. “Anything, I just want to work. No one takes my CV. I’ve tried shops, offices and agencies but have no experience” she replied. I explained that we had just made the decision to take on and train a school leaver and asked her if she would like to come back to the office to get the job description.
In the event she did come and sat and chatted to Tina and Karen (both of whom had started straight from school and now have responsible roles at SHR) and met the rest of the team. Tina and Karen thought she would be ideal and so we decided to offer her the job there and then. Shelley, as we now know her to be, said she would like to think about it and talk to Mum and Dad in the evening and would let us know. We popped an offer letter in the post that night and I am delighted to say that on Friday she called to say she would like to take the job. Shelley was sweet enough to say it must have been her lucky day, but in reality I think it was ours. Good old serendipity put me in the right place at the right time.
Shelley starts work tomorrow and will share her induction with the two work experience students who start their two week placement with us. I hope she likes us and can put some of her skills and knowledge to good use.
- Sue H
I read this and thought how lucky Shelley was to meet you Sue rather than someone else and I too thought it was very dodgy asking a teenager to hand out CVs with personal details on them; especially as it is thought that a ID fraudster only requires 5 pieces of informaton and typically CVs contaim more than that.
Posted by: Mary | February 06, 2012 at 03:32 PM
What a fantastic post. I hope Shelley is settling in well. You'll have to get her blogging about everything she is doing!
Posted by: James Mullan | February 09, 2012 at 09:57 AM
Watch this space!
Posted by: Sue Hill | February 10, 2012 at 11:59 AM