Borrowed suit and effort pay

Redundant dairy farmer Craig Hirst is enjoying his new life as a security guard in Whangarei after nine weeks on the dole. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Redundant dairy farmer Craig Hirst had never worn a suit and tie in his life until a "dress-up day" when he was retraining to become a security guard.

Even when he married Jinine in Hamilton back in 1998, he wore "a nice collared shirt and a vest made of calf leather" - but no tie.

When he lost his job as assistant manager on a dairy farm at Ruakaka in May, he found a leaflet at the Whangarei Work and Income office advertising a six-month course in security work, enrolled - and had a problem when the "dress-up day" came up.

"I didn't have a suit and tie," he says. "My daughter's boyfriend had one, or he had bits of one, and another mate of his had bits of one too, but they all matched so I wore them."

Mr Hirst, 37, was desperate for work. He and Jinine had worked on the farm together so they were both unemployed. Living in town on the dolewith three girls 11 to 17 was "tough".

"By the time you paid your rent there wasn't enough left for groceries or anything," Mr Hirst says. "We ended up going to a market and selling stuff we didn't need any more ... We did that every week."

When he applied for the dole he attended a seminar where work broker Nicki Burgess aimed to help people prepare their CVs and search for work.

"I showed her my CV. It's got a cow on the front and she just looked at it and straight away she said, 'That's the best CV I've seen in a long time."'

He went into Work and Income "at least once or twice a week" and applied for farm jobs all over the North Island, as well as insulation and even caregiving jobs in town.

When he got on to the security course, he didn't wait for it to finish.

"I went up to a security guard at the Plaza where the Work and Income office is and asked what training he had. He said, 'Give Bev Hutchings a ring, the Armourguard boss'."

He arranged to see her the next day, borrowing the "bits and pieces" of a suit again. He got a cautious hearing.

"They put me off for a little while. I think they were testing my patience ... Then I went back for a second interview. They gave me the job."

By then, with Nicki Burgess' help, he had also been to see another security firm and had been given a trial overnight shift at Whangarei Hospital.

"That other one hired me on the spot the same day."

It was August 10. After just nine weeks on the dole, and three weeks on the security course, he had two jobs. He had to drop the hospital one to take the fulltime job with Armourguard.

"I'm going to give security a go for a while," he says. "It's different. I don't miss the cows and the rain."