"I'm over the moon, I can't believe I've managed to pull myself out of that hole."
Those were the words of Currambine man Brett Puttick after a "last resort" desperate decision to sit on the side of the road with a "work needed" sign led to an overwhelming flood of support from the trade community.
"I've been unemployed for the last couple of months... all the jobs I was applying for I would literally hear nothing back from 99 per cent of them," he said.
"I had no income at all, I couldn't put food on the table, I couldn't provide for my family.
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"A couple of weeks ago, I jokingly said that I was going to sit on the side of the road with a sign and one day I was just sick of it, I had no other options and pride wasn't a factor – if I couldn't provide for my family, where's the pride in that?"
So the 28-year-old father, who supports his partner and their 14-month-old son, did just that, getting changed into his work gear and even packing a lunch before setting off to sit on the side of the road at 6.20am on Friday.
Within 15 hours, he had a job.
"I had two people pull over, tradies that had driven past and came back to see me and grabbed my details," Mr Puttick said.
"I had everything from the Sherriff of Western Australia drive past... job recruitment agencies drive past and just stare at me, I personally thought they would have been the type of people to stop.
"My mate of a mate who owns 123 Tradies, Troy Reid, he came down and grabbed all my details off me, took a photo of me and posted it on his site and the rest is history."
The 123 Tradies Facebook post was shared 1450 times with people all over the country and even abroad offering to help.
"The doors that have opened is inexplicable, I've had everything from offers to work on submarines, to move up to Dalwallinu and have a house provided for me, to go do rigging in Canberra," Mr Puttick said.
"It just so happened the job I was offered and took first was clearly the best choice for me... to find someone who is a decent boss and family orientated, you couldn't ask for much more than that."
Mr Puttick holds several tickets in asbestos removal, demolition, scaffolding, and even has his responsible service of alcohol certificate.
All his attempts to apply for jobs through recruitment agencies, Seek and Gumtree had to date failed.
Until finally at 9pm the same day he had sat on the road holding his 'work needed' sign, he received the call he had been waiting for.
"He told me if I could be in Cottesloe at 6.45am the next morning, I could start my trial," Mr Puttick said.
"I was completely honest with him - given the fact I've had no income for the last couple of weeks, my licence has since been suspended for unpaid fines and my car ran out of rego and I had to sell it.
"What I am ecstatic about is that he is so understanding... I'm speechless, he seems more than happy with me."
The young father has passed his trial and is now working as an asbestos removal and demolition worker.
He hopes his story will help inspire others in his situation to not give up.
"I am extremely grateful for all the effort involved... the positivity coming from everywhere – I even had people putting together money to send me credit on my phone so I could reply to job offers," he said.
"It's good to see social media actually has positive outcomes in the world, everything you generally see on there is people being bullied or something, so it's good to finally see something good."
WA's unemployment rate, currently at around six per cent, is showing some signs of recovering after reaching a 15-year high of 6.9 per cent in November.
Mr Puttick's desperate effort to find a job comes around five months after a Perth father advertised for someone to give his son an apprenticeship - promising to pay the wage himself just so his son could get qualified.
It followed the son - who had completed a pre-electrical apprenticeship course - sending his resume to 100 electricians without any luck.
The unusual effort paid off and his son was offered a trial with an electrical company only days after his plight was made public.