‘I’m on cloud 9’: Father finds job within 24 hours after ‘desperate’ plea on Twitter goes viral

Liam McEvoy was inundated with help from the British public after posting he was 'struggling’ on social media

Liam McEvoy with his sons (Liam McEvoy)

Liam McEvoy experienced the true kindness of strangers after he tweeted he was “desperate” in a plea for help, admitting that he was really “struggling at the moment” after losing his job during the pandemic.

Within 24 hours his tweet had gone viral and he had secured another job. From feeling rock bottom and having low confidence, “I’m now on cloud 9,” said McEvoy. 

Father of two McEvoy, 32, from Newcastle, has worked since he was 16, and found himself applying for Universal Credit for the first time after he lost his job in October. 

His career in the Aerospace industry, for a company manufacturing the wings for Airbus, took a hit after the travel industry collapsed during the pandemic. “As you can imagine nobody is flying, so nobody is building planes,” he told The Independent.

“I got little in the way of redundancy”,  explained McEvoy, who had worked for his previous company for only two and a half years.

“Ive applied for job after job, and I heard little in return. It knocks your confidence and you question yourself, you question your own ability,” he said.

After his posting about his situation around midday on Tuesday, McEvoy’s Tweet went viral, clocking up more than 9,000 retweets.

“I’m quite a proud person, so it took a lot for me to post that,” said McEvoy. “I’ve got two kids and the panic sets in around Christmas time,” he said.

His post is filled with replies from people trying to help, consoling him, giving him pep talks, asking if they can help financially and most importantly offering work.

“If you need your CV going over let me know, qualified proofreader and I will do it for you gratis”, said one user named Manda Ponium.

“I sincerely hope you find something Liam. My wife found herself in the same boat earlier this year”, said user Robsta.

“I have straight commission entry level sales work” said user Phi Tran.

“Best luck. Always remember – how far you have come as a worker is how far you have come as a person.

Practice self awareness. You got this”, said  James Gorman.

Others have commented that they have had similar experiences in the pandemic, or have opted to change careers.

“Literally in the same position but communications and marketing”, said user Anastasiya.

“Hi Liam, I’m an actor who hasn’t acted a heck of a lot since Covid. I started working as a carer a few months back and I love it. If you wanna email me with your details I’ll pass them on? A friend of mine runs the company and they cover most of Newcastle,” said another user.

McEvoy replied to a tweet saying he’d like to work in as a production supervisor, shift leader or team leader “but I'm pretty much open to anything”, he wrote, “I’m pretty desperate. Thanks.”

A former colleague of McEvoy later posted on his wall with a reference: “I can personally vouch for Liam as he worked in the same organisation as me until recently. He's a professional, skilled and extremely talented lad who I hope falls on his feet soon”, wrote Tim Marshall.

As luck would have it, a recruiter in the Newcastle area, where McEvoy is based, got in touch with him on Twitter.

“Hi Liam we have an immediate start for a night shift warehouse”, wrote Laura Dinning from DriverHire Newcastle. “I'll call him now thank you” responded Liam McEvoy.

DriverHire Newcastle offered McEvoy a temporary position, which could later turn into a permanent position. “I start 3am Christmas Eve happy days”, posted McEvoy on Twitter. “Thanks for all your kind messages of help and support, truly been overwhelmed.”

Branch manager David Burn, from DriverHire Newcastle, explained: “We saw that he’d put a post online and said he’s desperate for work, he’s got a family and it’s an especially bad time of year [to be unemployed]. There’s been a large amount of redundancies going on around the country because of Covid. We look for guys who are going to be reliable and he came across really well and he was just the kind of guy we were looking for.”

Burn would recommend people put themselves out there: “tell people you need the support, that you are looking for work because you never know who is looking and scouring the internet."