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Doting Husband Turns Bill Board Into Wife’s Resume: Appeals ‘Please Hire My Wife’

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With jobs hard to come by and times getting more desperate day-by-day for the average American family, a worker in Toledo, purchased advertising space on two giant billboards in two of the busiest traffic junctions in town and turned it into a resume, appealing to all and sundry to give his wife a job.

The two billboards carry his wife’s picture, along with an outline of her qualifications that say she has a Masters in Business Administration and has both academic and business experience along with an apt phrase, “a great fit.”

There is a contact email address that is easy to remember, just hiremywife@yahoo.com and splashed across the billboard in giant, bold, black letters, “Please Hire My Wife,” a plea as desperate as it was loving. Stuard says that the billboards cost him $700 to hire for a week.

Brandon Stuard, a deputy sheriff in a Toledo suburb was deeply unhappy over his wife desperation for a job and her futile attempts to land one over the last year.

His wife, Holly, lost her position as program manager for the MBA program at the University of Toledo, from which she graduated with both an MBA and a degree in psychology. She was laid off in July 2011 owing to budget cuts. Since then she had managed countess interviews, but none proved fruitful.

Holly was unaware of her husband’s loving venture until he pointed it out to her. She said that intentionally he made plans to take the family out for a dinner at a Mexican restaurant, so that we would have to pass the billboards on our way to the eatery. However, her son noticed the billboard before she did and said, ‘Momma that picture looks like you.’”

When realization dawned that it was not a likeness but indeed she, herself, Holly said that she was shocked. “At first I was a little embarrassed. That’s more attention than I normally draw to myself. But when it really sunk in, I thought it was creative and thoughtful, and he was trying to help me.”

Brandon was amazed at the response the billboard garnered and said, “I was just trying to help and put her face and a small portion of her resume around the city in hopes that something would come along. I’m almost probably as shocked about all this attention we’re getting about it as she was to see it.”

“It’s been such a long time-frame and there’s so many ups and downs with a job search, and I think he’s felt a little helpless. He felt this was a way he could actually do something because it’s been a difficult process.”

She said that her husband did not seek her permission prior to putting up the billboards, as he must have rightly presumed that she would object to it as it was something beyond her comfort zone.

Unfortunately however, the job offers haven’t exactly been rolling in even though the media is making a beeline for the couple’s doors. Emails from people in similar positions have poured in, the story has been shared on social networking sites and the couple has been featured on television.

Holly appreciated the gesture and said that it has breathed new life into her job search. “It’s definitely given my job search new energy life,” she said.  “It’s been really exciting.  I’ve heard from a lot of people who are trying to connect me with companies that are hiring and there’s just a really good vibe out there.”

Considering its popularity and impressed by the efforts, the billboard will stay up for few days beyond the one week for which the space was hired.

Brandon said that he hated to see his wife struggling.  “It’s been really frustrating for me, watching her be frustrated,” and if it does not result in a job “if it puts a smile on her face, it’s good enough for me,” the doting husband said.

Doting Husband Turns Bill Board Into Wife’s Resume: Appeals 'Please Hire My Wife' by
Authored by: Harrison Barnes