Meet the graduate who has applied for 500 jobs and NEVER even had an interview

A man who has been looking for permanent employment for almost 13 years and has applied for well over 500 jobs says he cannot understand why he has not been called for even ONE interview.

'My friends say I must be the most unfortunate person': Huw Davies has applied for about 500 jobs and has not had one interview

University graduate Huw Davies has been searching for a job since he graduated with a degree in geography from the University of Glamorgan in 2002.

The 34-year-old job hunter also has three A-levels and 10 GCSEs on his CV.

And he has expressed his frustration at his shocking run of bad luck – saying he “hasn’t got the foggiest” about what he can be doing wrong, he told Wales Online.

Although Mr Davies has had jobs in the mean time, they have been on short, fixed-term contracts.
It means he has had to dip deep into his savings in order to pay the rent and other bills.

He has also spent time teaching in South Africa, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, but says he returned home as did not want to live away from the UK.

“My family and friends find it incredible that I am willing to work and have qualifications but I can’t find work,” Huw said.

He originally wanted to find a job related to his degree, including employment within the environmental or town planning spheres.

But after getting knocked back, he is now willing to settle for almost anything, and has put his name forward for roles including office jobs, administration, factory work – and even a position as a train driver.

Huw said: “There are people in South Wales who aren’t interested in finding jobs, they are just happy to claim benefits.

“Coming from Merthyr, you have a generation of families who have never worked. Then you have got people like me who are willing to work but what can I do?


“It’s unbelievable and no-one can understand it.

“Everyone I’ve spoken to – people in business, the job centre, my friends and family just don’t know why I don’t even get interviews.

“The sheer fact I have moved three times to work should imply I am eager to work.

“It’s hard to blame anyone without being able to put my finger on the issue in the first place.”

Huw, who spends his spare time writing, having completed three poetry books and is now working on two novels, has also registered with a number of job agencies in Cardiff and Swansea, and says he is not fussy about where in Britain potential jobs are based.

“I drive, I am willing to travel a decent distance,” he said.

“I have the will, I have the drive. I would understand if I had bad interview technique but I am not even getting calls back.

“My CV has been redone by three or four different people.

“All my friends are fine. They cannot believe it. They say I must be the most unfortunate person.

“I can’t think of anyone else who would leave Britain three times to find work. I even applied for a job as a train driver, just because it was there.

“I feel awful thinking I have a lot to offer but no one wants to use me. It’s frustrating, upsetting. If I was very blasé it would be a whole different story.

“My job centre told me ages ago I was caught in a catch-22, saying I was over-qualified for a factory-type job but under-experienced for the kind of job I wanted to do.”

Although Huw says he does not recognise the rosy economic picture described by the Westminster government, he says he does not blame the authorities for his position.

But he added: “In his speech last Monday morning David Cameron said a thousand jobs were being created a day. I was just looking at him, shaking my head and thinking, ‘Really?’”

Asked about Huw’s case while on an election campaign visit to South Wales, cabinet minister William Hague expressed his sympathy.

“We are determined to create more opportunities for people like him,” he said.

“This is why the creation of more jobs is important. It doesn’t mean everybody instantly has a job, but it means literally every day more and more people are able to find work, and there are now more job vacancies across the UK as a whole than ever before on record.

“Those opportunities are there – and I hope he has success in the coming weeks.”
But, despite his bad run of luck, Huw is not in a unique position. In 2011, Leanne Shipley, 18, from East Yorkshire, applied for 300 jobs without hearing back from a single one.

In the same year, 19-year-old Bob Jewers, from County Durham, said he had been rejected from 400 jobs, only getting replies from four.
Merthyr Tydfil has a higher rate of unemployment than the country as a whole.

In February, 1,159 people in the council area claimed jobseeker’s allowance, a rate of 3.1 per cent. That figure compares to a Wales rate of 2.6 per cent and the level for Britain as a whole, which stands at 2 per cent.

But the rate has reduced significantly from a high of 6.6 per cent in September 2009.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said employment in Wales went up in the last quarter, according to the latest independent figures, by 24,000 people.

The spokesman added: “Unemployment fell in the last three months by 13,000 so there are just 92,000 people out of work in Wales.

“The number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance in Wales has also fallen by 17,000 in the last year."