I didn't end up going to the interview, it would have been cheap of me to go there with no intention of working for them. I don't believe that they (XR Marketing) are a scam, I just think they prey on people who can't find work, targeting recent graduates and promising new recruits fast promotion within the company. There is plenty of unethical practice going on out there and plenty of desperate individuals who are susceptible to fall into the trappings of this type of employment.

So what should young unemployed people do? Unfortunately, here in Dublin for example, it is very expensive for a company to employ a person and more expensive to train a recent graduate. Considering the number of positions are still declining, it seems like an impossible task for most graduates to find work. What can be done? Workfare programmes in Ireland have been tried in the past and have generally been badly run and have cost more money to run than plain social welfare, but it was reported last month that Éamon Ó Cuív, Minister for Social Protection seeks to try and expand on these programmes, hinting at mandatory workfare programmes. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) have strongly opposed this plan and so political movement in this direction has been slowed. I understand both sides, the government really feels it needs to tackle the problem of rising unemployment and emigration, and they feel that its best served by trying to expand on programmes that have essentially been in place for years, but ICTU know from experience that these programmes did not work in the past and will probably only be beneficial to a minority of people.

The actions I would like to see would be for money to be invested into simple grassroots movements, where people can share their free time while they look for employment. They should be free to donate as little or as much time as they can, but we need a well developed central forum for this. A positive example comes from Portland, Oregon. A small group of people started a blog called wevegottimetohelp (now http://wevegottimetohelp.org/) which was basically a few people who had some extra time due to being laid off or were looking for work and were happy to donate their time and skills to the community. I know so many talented people with a lot of time and energy on their hands who could do so much help so it might be a good idea to start a WGTTH chapter over here and rebuild the country from the base up. Not only could we give a helping hand to those who are struggling the most, we can give real world experiences to young graduates who are our future leaders and policy makers.