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

Jarndyce

Perhaps we should send Gumtree an age discrimination questionnaire....!

terra_ferma

jap200 wrote: »

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?

Gosh you really don't know do you
Many public sector jobs are advertised in the Guardian (social work, housing, charities), found several jobs this way. Normally not the low-end minimum wage type of jobs, but plenty of qualified/management jobs (unless it's all
dramatically changed in the last 18 months or so..)
http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/jobs/social-care/physical-disabilities/

e.g.
http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/job/4403888/male-support-worker/

Also lots of volunteering in this sector.

Not saying it's necessarily genuine, but it's not as odd as people think.

jap200

terra_ferma wrote: »

Gosh you really don't know do you
Many public sector jobs are advertised in the Guardian (social work, housing, charities), found several jobs this way. Normally not the low-end minimum wage type of jobs, but plenty of qualified/management jobs (unless it's all
dramatically changed in the last 18 months or so..).

I've been reading the Guardian (and taking an interest in the job section) for years, so I do know very well that there are lots of public and voluntary sector jobs advertised there every week.

The point I was making was that I had never seen another job quite like this one in question (i.e. for a carer) as they would normally be adverstised in the local rather than national press, or possibly in a publication like The Lady.

emsywoo123

Nope, no news here either.........

jap200

Well, just had a response from the Guardian:

"Thank you for contacting Guardian Jobs.I can confirm that the client in question is a regular advertiser and has been doing so for many years and is a genuine advert. "

I'm not sure if this adds anything new to the debate really.

terra_ferma

She will have probably been tipped off by someone by now, at lest this is what I've seen happening regularly in other threads (e.g. when people talk about an ebay listing).
Please let's not forget that there is a good chance that this is a genuine severely disabled woman, not young as she's been advertising forever, I'm sure nobody here would want to harass her, she is doing nothing wrong.

..and if it's MI6/fraudsters or whatever, they are not going to reply anyway are they????

Esoog

terra_ferma wrote: »

She will have probably been tipped off by someone by now, at lest this is what I've seen happening regularly in other threads (e.g. when people talk about an ebay listing).
Please let's not forget that there is a good chance that this is a genuine severely disabled woman, not young as she's been advertising forever, I'm sure nobody here would want to harass her, she is doing nothing wrong.

..and if it's MI6/fraudsters or whatever, they are not going to reply anyway are they????

http://www.london.gov.uk/graduates/jobs/DisplayVacancy.aspx?id=39735573-ace6-4dbc-b0a9-9b8c3c8e4ba4



She gets about a bit. Maybe by female writer she mean's spends a lot of time posting job adverts!

moondance22

h**p://mallproject.blogspot.com/2009/08/long-running-newspaper-advertisements.html

Seems it's been running for over a decade.

Sorry, cant post links yet. Just change the stars to t's.

jap200

moondance22 wrote: »

h**p://mallproject.blogspot.com/2009/08/long-running-newspaper-advertisements.html

Seems it's been running for over a decade.

Sorry, cant post links yet. Just change the stars to t's.

http://mallproject.blogspot.com/2009/08/long-running-newspaper-advertisements.html

g_attrill

It does look interesting.

The possibility is that the "lady writer" is extremely picky and therefore needs to cast a very wide net to pick the best of the best. She presumably needs to keep it running permanently to be able to replace at short notice.

However, we have heard of several people putting in what would look to be genuine applications and getting no response. The only explanation to that would be she doesn't bother to reply when either not needing work or not liking the application. Nice!

It being an agency is most likely, but the Guardian's reply saying it is genuine nixes that (assuming they are confirming the content is truthful, and it's not a filler fake ad).