By Margaret Maccoll
Rex Fairbrother gave up on online job applications to try his luck the old- fashioned way, and found it worked a treat.
About five weeks ago, the Cooran resident began standing at a three-way intersection with his hand-written message on cardboard.
“It was pretty daunting. It was way out of my comfort zone,” he said.
But, it didn’t take long to gain a response, and having worked in construction with rigs and cranes since the mid-1980s, Rex had a lot of experience behind him.
He quickly gained some work in Cooroy renovating houses, but finished way ahead of schedule within four weeks. So he headed back to the road.
“There was lots of encouragement from joggers, people out walking, people in their cars, guys yelling out to me from trucks,” he said.
During the week, a couple of people snapped his photo and posted his message on Facebook.
Rex said the owner of a steel fabrication company in Cooroy approached him on the street, and then he had half a dozen job offers from Facebook. “I was overwhelmed to think about it,” he said.
Rex has opted to work in Cooroy. “It’s keeping me in my trade, and it requires a few different skills, so I’m pretty happy,” he said. He was looking forward to starting his new job this week.
