Ad Plugers from Geldrop applied for a job ten years ago by accident, but did not get a job. Thanks to his own website and sharing his story with Omroep Brabant, he eventually found work at Aqua Drolics in Best. He can officially retire on Monday, but he will continue for a while. “What I learned is that you just have to persevere,” he says.
Ad often thinks back to his job application nightmare from ten years ago. He had lost his job and was desperate for work. Applications went out every day, sometimes as many as four. “The economy was going very badly and my age also worked against me,” says the 67-year-old Geldroppen resident. “At a certain point you think: we don’t count anymore. That scared me.”
Website with videos
As a last resort, his son-in-law created a website with videos of him and contacted Omroep Brabant to share his story. “The striking thing is: then it suddenly happened quickly,” says Ad. “The people who had rejected me by email still approached me for an interview. I thought that was strange, but nice.”
Ad was then invited to Aqua Drolics, a company that makes playground equipment for swimming pools. “I had worked in construction for 30 years, so this was a whole different world.”
He was afraid that he would have to learn a lot, but his drawing insight as an industrial designer turned out to be a good fit for his new position. “I didn’t leave anymore, even though I didn’t think so beforehand,” he says. “I enjoyed working there for ten years.”
Builds up slowly
His colleagues put Ad in the spotlight on Monday because he has reached retirement age. Yet he does not stop immediately; he prefers to finish his work slowly. “I am healthy and happy, and the management asked me to stay involved longer. I was enthusiastic about that.”
Despite the difficult job search, Ad would do exactly the same today. He would also relaunch his website. “I did what I could do. I applied to the maximum.”
That taught him one important lesson: just persevere and sometimes choose a different path. That’s why Ad’s golden tip: “Sometimes try to come up with something that does work.”
