Man lands job after 200 failed applications by wowing interviewer with song

“When I heard the heartfelt lyrics, I knew I had to take him on – plus it sounded like a mix of Oasis and Elton John”
Harriet Brewis @HattieBrewis16 September 2020

A man who applied for more than 200 jobs has secured a new role after finding a creative way to stand out from the crowd.

Richard Stevens, 54, from Hertfordshire, was made redundant last year after three decades working in the medical devices sector.

After weeks of fruitless job hunting, he wanted to encourage interviewers to look beyond the qualifications on his CV.

So he penned a song with his 16-year-old son Oscar called ‘Paper Me’ – and was offered a position after sending an interviewer the recording.

Richard Stevens, 54, with his 16-year-old son Oscar at home in Borehamwood
PA

Lyrics of the song include: “Only look at the paper me/ a human being you cannot see.”

Mr Stevens said there were many examples of people being judged on paper, with his son unable to take his chosen creative media course as his centrally assessed grade was marked down on his mock exam result.

The 54-year-old said it was “fantastic” to be in work again and he has his “confidence and self-esteem back”.

Mr Stevens thanked his new boss for not simply judging him on paper
PA

He is now working as a sales and marketing manager for a company selling software to hospitals.

Before he was offered the role, he had applied for more than 200 jobs, reaching the interview stage eight times and the final two candidates on three occasions but placing second each time.

He said that during his search, his son asked him why he remained unemployed.

Mr Stevens said that prompted him to write the song alongside Oscar – with the 16-year-old on vocals and him on piano and strings.

Mr Stevens said he was thankful to his new boss
PA

His new boss Tim Coutts, chief executive of CareCube Solutions, said: “I met Richard and he seemed like a great guy, with great experience, but I also met some other strong candidates.

“During our first meeting, Richard mentioned he’d written and recorded a song with his son about his job-seeking experience and I asked him to send it to me.

“When I heard the heartfelt lyrics, I knew I had to take him on, plus it sounded like a mix of Oasis and Elton John – my two favourite artists.

He added: “Richard is my gain and everyone else’s loss.”

Mr Stevens said he was thankful to his new boss, who was “open-minded enough to know everybody’s got to get a chance”.

He said he hoped the song would give hope to those coming out of furlough “and coming into this horrendous time”, and would encourage recruiters “not just to look at what somebody’s like on a CV as it doesn’t give the true picture”.

Describing his experience of job-seeking, Mr Stevens said: “It was a mixture between, ‘I’m just going to do this, I believe in myself, I’m going to do it’ to feeling, ‘Am I ever going to get a job here’.

“You go through this rollercoaster but I’m made of fairly stern stuff and I just got through it.

“I just carried on and I kept believing.”

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