Speck of hope on job front

John Riddell. Photo / Richard Robinson

It's a waiting game for John Riddell. He has done four job interviews, suspects he missed out on one of them and will hear about the others once all candidates for them have been seen.

The 58-year-old West Aucklander has applied in vain for 60 jobs since he was made redundant in March.

He put his bad luck down to his age, saying no one wants to employ people over 50.

But yesterday, he was cheerfully optimistic.

"I have an additional interview lined up for next week, which is promising and it's in my health and safety field of expertise. I've already done the psychometric test for it."

Mr Riddell said he had gone into the previous four interviews over two days with an air of confidence.

"After all, I've done a bit of training for interviews by now.

"On one of them, I've counted myself out. The people got back to me fairly promptly afterwards. On another one, the people are checking out references."

Two of the interviews were organised by the Work and Income job search service.

Mr Riddell said he was still getting messages of support and helpful suggestions from people in a similar situation since the Herald reported his plight on June 11.

"One person asked me if I wanted to buy a business in exchange for my house - an interesting concept."