Walsall woman’s job hunt joy: ‘After 10 months and 300 applications, I’m finally back in work’
Britain’s jobs market is getting tougher - and Megan Naish, from Walsall, is living proof.
Each month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes its Labour Force Survey, and each month it tells an evermore downbeat story of more and more people chasing fewer and fewer jobs.
Until recently, one of those people was Megan, 37, who found herself out of work in January 2025 after a phone company in Wednesbury abruptly dispensed with her services after just six months in the role.
Before that, Megan had worked in the same job at a cook shop in Lichfield, since the age of 17, having started there shortly after leaving college with a string of high-grade GCSEs.
After 17 years, she left when she moved in with her then partner in Wolverhampton. As a non-driver, travel to Lichfield proved too tricky.
On losing her job at the start of 2025, Megan began what would turn out to be a bruising search for work.
“I sent out more than 300 job applications, and the response was either ‘no’ or no reply,” said Megan.
“It made me very depressed. I felt degraded as a person. I wanted to work. I didn’t want to just be sitting there on my backside. I didn’t want to be on benefits. I wanted to be earning my own money.
“I honestly felt like giving up.“
Of the more than 300 applications Megan made, she was invited for just one interview at a grocery store, which was unsuccessful.
In October, following 10 months of fruitless job-hunting, Megan knocked on the door of Startring Point Recruitment (SPR) in Walsall, where she signed up as a participant on the Restart scheme, a government programme helping get people into work.
The day after going to SPR, Megan had an interview with Heron Foods.
“I had my appointment at SPR, where I met Claire Peake, one of the specialists, and the next day I had an interview with Heron Foods in Walsall,” said Megan.
The interview went well. Megan has been working at Heron Foods since the end of October, and it’s fair to say she’s loving it.
“My confidence is growing all the time, and I’m so happy. I feel validated,” she said.
“And my manager, Kim Marston, is brilliant - an absolutely wonderful boss.
“Everyone is really nice. I like them, and I think they like me too. The job is hard work but rewarding and always entertaining.”
SPR’s person-first strategy has resulted in its best-ever year
Megan is a beneficiary of SPR’s person-first strategy, implemented from May, that has resulted in the 50-strong firm reporting its best year on record. Despite a worsening jobs market, with a national unemployment rate rising to 5.1%, 2025 has been the most successful year in SPR’s 24-year history. It secured jobs for 1,093 people across 2025, up 50% from 730 in 2024.
Mireille Harris, people director at SPR, said: “Our strategy at SPR is to look at the person in front of us, not the bit of paper that summarises them. We look for potential and for aptitude that we can develop in order to build jobseekers’ confidence and land them into great jobs.
‘We’re thrilled for Megan’
“When Megan walked through the door, we knew instantly that she was a conscientious person who wanted to learn and to work hard - exactly the kind of person most companies would love to have. Everyone at SPR is thrilled for Megan. It was such a long, hard slog for he,r but she never gave up.”
Housing struggle continues
Another problem Megan continues to try to solve is finding long-term accommodation.
Having split with her partner in Wolverhampton, she has been sofa-surfing with friends and family in Walsall, meaning she has no permanent address.
Despite applying to her local council, she has been put in category C, the second to least urgent, she said.
“On reflection, I don’t think this helped me when I was applying for jobs as potential employers looked at my address details and perhaps assumed I’d be unreliable,” she added.
