Intrigued by long-running advert in Guardian: Home help needed for female writer...

Esoog

An elaborate, not to mention expensive, way of harvesting email addresses to sell to spammers...?

An attempt to gather personal information for identity theft purposes??

emsywoo123

SailorSam wrote: »

Listen you lot on here ! I'm a disabled writer living in Nottinghill Gate, for some years now i've been trying to find a reliable home help. Quite frankly the standard of each of the applicants has been appalling. Despite all this time searching i haven't found anyone suitable. Now over the last couple of days i've been inundated with false emails and my investigations lead me to believe this harassment has been organised from this Mse site.
Please stop your childish behaviour.

I emailed you out of the goodness of my heart. I would have worked for free. And I'm the right height.

You couldn't even be bothered to email back.

Pft.

emsywoo123

Saturnalia wrote: »

I'm tempted to phone or e-mail the Guardian and ask them what they know! They must be in on it, no?

Do it!! :T

SailorSam

emsywoo123 wrote: »

I emailed you out of the goodness of my heart. I would have worked for free. And I'm the right height.

You couldn't even be bothered to email back.

Pft.

I've just finished washing the dishes, if i'd known you were free i'd of left them in the sink.

jap200

emsywoo123 wrote: »

Do it!! :T

I actually sent an email to the Guardian jobs editor earlier today - no reply back yet - what a surprise!

jap200

Esoog wrote: »

An elaborate, not to mention expensive, way of harvesting email addresses to sell to spammers...?

An attempt to gather personal information for identity theft purposes??

I made a brand new yahoo address and used totally ficticious details in my CV, so we should be able to see if that is true as well!

So far, not very exciting as nothing is happening.

Esoog

I'd imagine it probably is a number station or something related to such activities, why else would it be all over the place? Think of the costs.

I wouldn' expect a reply (no-one seems to have had one) unless you're Russel Crowe from a Beautiful Mind

Saturnalia

This is the text of the Gumtree ad Rachel_123 found:

Area: London
Sub Area: West London
Neighbourhood: Notting Hill

Permanent

This is a part-time, live-out position.

Employer is a female writer.

Weekday shifts are ideally from earlyish to 2.30 pm with shorter times a possibility. They can be on one, two or three weekdays.

Employer walks normally but has very weak arms due to a neck injury. Her neck movement is limited and therefore carers should be between 5'3" and 5'9" in height.

There is no personal care. Duties include housework, shopping for groceries, and whatever comes up.

Due to employer's disability there is a certain amount of detail in the work and this is taught. The position could suit a student or professional person. Applicants should have fluent English, and be reliable, organised, have a good memory, genuinely enjoy helping and have bags of common sense and initiative; and good references. A sense of humour is useful. Cooking ability would be a bonus.

Apply by emailing an informative cover letter about yourself, giving your phone number, address, ( and which neighbourhood/ tube that means), email address your age - and your height.

A CV if you have one - pasted, not sent as an attachment- is useful, but you can put the major points of your education and past work as well as other current work in your covering letter.

Thank you.

This raises even more questions! Why is height a requirement if no personal care is needed? And needing to give your area and tube station made me think perhaps it's a scam where someone burgles your house while you are at the interview, but no-one's been offered an interview or even got any reply in all these years, it seems.

Due to employer's disability there is a certain amount of detail in the work and this is taught
...have bags of common sense and initiative
What detail would this be, and how much initiative would be required, for a job involving housework and doing the shopping? And the original ad said "overqualified people welcome", the Guardian tends to be mostly graduate level jobs, and it has been posted recently on uni job boards. But it isn't really the sort of job a graduate or undergrad would be aiming for is it? (I know we can't be fussy nowadays but you know what I mean.) Plus it says the job would suit a student or professional person, two very different groups, and both would be in either work or lectures in the mornings when the worker is needed.

I'm looking back to my Secret Services recruitment theory - there is a job there but not the one that it looks like is being advertised. There is something hidden in the text, I'm sure of it! (But no idea what.)

Esoog - we need the guy from A Beautiful Mind on this!

terra_ferma

I've been following this thread because it's really funny.
In my younger days I worked as a carer, and this ad doesn't stand out in any particular way, I even remember seeing either this one in particular or very similar ones (I'm talking about 20ish years ago...), and applying for a couple.

The eight is probably for no other particular reason than having to look up or down is painful, so they need someone at the right height for them.

It's very unlikely that this job is aimed at British applicants, so you are reading it wrong.
In my days it used to me mainly Antipodean, now I would expect Easter Europeans tend to apply for this type of positions. I met very few British people when I used to do a lot of covering for people in this type of role.

The comments made here show that people don't have a clue about this type of work (naturally, if this is not your area). I've not done it for years, but moved to to senior management in related fields (now self-employed), so it's not such a dead-end if you are ambitious. Any job looks better than no job, and PA to a writer if you know how to describe it on a CV can look rather good...
Anyway I met several students doing this job, working around their lectures, perfectly doable on a rota with people without the same commitment.

The fact that it runs continuously seems strange, but if she employs a lot of people, and some leave at short notice she may want to have a selection of CVs on file, people she may need to start quickly.
If she is a bit demanding, not that easy to get on with I expect she'll go through a lot of staff. Using an agency would have made her life easier, so she is probably stingy... believe me some of these (normally rather well-to-do) people can treat their staff like dirt, I remember working for 1 day for a couple who had their carer working from 6am to 11pm at night, needless to say they were recruiting very often....

Maybe the Guardian offered this writer a much cheaper deal for having her ad running all the time, she may know people there and get a very good discount, maybe like a staff discount, who knows....

jap200

terra_ferma wrote: »

I've been following this thread because it's really funny.
In my younger days I worked as a carer, and this ad doesn't stand out in any particular way, I even remember seeing either this one in particular or very similar ones (I'm talking about 20ish years ago...), and applying for a couple.

The eight is probably for no other particular reason than having to look up or down is painful, so they need someone at the right height for them.

It's very unlikely that this job is aimed at British applicants, so you are reading it wrong.
In my days it used to me mainly Antipodean, now I would expect Easter Europeans tend to apply for this type of positions. I met very few British people when I used to do a lot of covering for people in this type of role.

The comments made here show that people don't have a clue about this type of work (naturally, if this is not your area). I've not done it for years, but moved to to senior management in related fields (now self-employed), so it's not such a dead-end if you are ambitious. Any job looks better than no job, and PA to a writer if you know how to describe it on a CV can look rather good...
Anyway I met several students doing this job, working around their lectures, perfectly doable on a rota with people without the same commitment.

The fact that it runs continuously seems strange, but if she employs a lot of people, and some leave at short notice she may want to have a selection of CVs on file, people she may need to start quickly.
If she is a bit demanding, not that easy to get on with I expect she'll go through a lot of staff. Using an agency would have made her life easier, so she is probably stingy... believe me some of these (normally rather well-to-do) people can treat their staff like dirt, I remember working for 1 day for a couple who had their carer working from 6am to 11pm at night, needless to say they were recruiting very often....

Maybe the Guardian offered this writer a much cheaper deal for having her ad running all the time, she may know people there and get a very good discount, maybe like a staff discount, who knows....

So you think the advert is really placed by a lady writer who needs a carer?

You are right that I don't have experience of applying for these sort of positions, but the odd thing to me is that it is in the Guardian - not the first place that the someone seeking a carer's job is likely to be looking.

The Gumtree advert has a lot more detail than the long-running Guardian advert though and does make it sound as if there is more of a PA element to the job. Also it gives more detail of the duties and asks for a lot more specific details from the prospective candidate. Anyone applying in response to the Guardian ad will not know to send details of their height, age, nearest tube station - or even phone number.

Also, the cost of the long-running advert would surely outweigh any savings by not using an agency (?)

It may well be a genuine advert, but I find it all a bit odd. It seems to have been discussed over several years in previous forums on the internet, but no-one has ever had a reply, let alone and interview. I still think it all rather odd.

By the way...no response to application yet and also no reply from the Guardian.

Any news from you emsywoo123?