gobbledonk Posted February 4, 2003 Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 Guys, At the risk of becoming maudlin, and perhaps emulating another board member who shall remain nameless, I have the following observations on unemployment : 1. For the first two weeks, it was GREAT ! The payout, no need to turn up to the sweatshop etc - freedom ! 2. Next two weeks - had occasional thoughts of looking for a job, became increasingly irritated at the lack thereof. 3. 6 week mark - OK, the labour market has had its fun - its time to let me go back to work now. Please. Friday will mark 8 weeks since I walked out, a free man, and I have to seriously ask myself if I did the right thing. Who the hell throws in a $70K (OK, its the Pacific Peso, but a lot of the locals earn much less..) job to take on the worst IT market in over a decade ? My former employer will inevitably go under, but perhaps it would have been easier to get another job if I could still claim to be doing the old one. Having not previously suffered more than about a month of unemployment, its a real eye opener. I'd read the horror stories - they have become commonplace in my industry, but I thought I would just need to get a couple of interviews and it would all be a foregone conclusion - wrong. I'm not even getting an acknowledgement that they have received my resume : not even an auto-generated jobbie. Two rejections weeks after the applications closed, and thats it. I know others who have embellished their CV's to get in the door, but where's the future in that ? Most IT is team-oriented : even if the IT Manager is straight from Dilbert, the other team members are going to realise pretty quickly that your 'J2EE' experience is limited to the stuff you've read between getting the job and rocking up to work .... I am spending the time educating myself and working on my website, but its not the same as paid employment. How the long-term unemployed endure it remains a mystery - if I dont find something by the end of next week, I will take a job as a delivery driver just to reinject a sense of purpose into my life, and some money into the bank. Apologies for the doom and gloom - I need to start taking the happy pills again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 4, 2003 Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 Gee AW you are right, things seem almost hopeless for you. No wonder you are worried, i would be too if i was you. But try and keep your chin up mate, surely there must be something for an ageing IT profesional can do to bring in an income. The other guys were reluctant to tell you...but ....i cannot bear to see you suffer anymore. We took a secret poll and came to the conclusion that you will most likely never work in your chosen profesion again and will most likely end up living in a leaky teepee somewhere south of Nimbin with a reformed drug addict called Star. For christ sakes snap out of it man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go out and get tanked and laid and put a smile back on your dial before we are forced to fly some board members to your house to give you a damn good bitch slapping Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted February 4, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 Thanks, Fred, you c*nt Folks, if you are ever considering moving to Oz, this is the mindset you face. And many of the locals arent as handsome as NorFly .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 4, 2003 Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 Chin up Artie! (chin chin is also Japanese kiddie talk for your schlong!) HA!:: A few mates of mine also saw the end of the rainbow when the payout offer came round and most regret it now. Hindsight's a wonderful thing. Have you looked beyond Brisbane? Beyond Oz? Or is a move impossible? Are you in a position to go walkabout until the market improves? Hang in there mate, there's worse things in life than being jobless on the beach in Brissy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted February 4, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 Roppongi, Hang in there mate, there's worse things in life than being jobless on the beach in Brissy LOL ! After growing up in Sydney, the dead calm of Moreton Bay came as a huge shock when I first moved up here, not to mention the fact that it takes longer to drive to a 'Brisbane' beach than it does to get the Gold Coast from many parts of town. Dont get me wrong - the coast is still highly sought after, its just not a patch on places like Cronulla, the Northern Beaches or even the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. Yeah, we've got big dollar coasts on either side of the town, but BrisVegas itself is pretty much landlocked. Relocation is an option, and I have begun to spread my search to include other Aussie metropoli. Fred's probably right though - I need to start seeing the glass as half-full. If only it were half-full of Lic beer, and I was in a Shenzhen hotel room with two women, and ............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 4, 2003 Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 sounds like you need a holiday in the orient AW. a cold beer and time to unwind from the stresses of modern life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spirit_of_town_hall Posted February 4, 2003 Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 Just get something to bring in a bit of money. Anything, so you dont spend your capital. What about becoming a cabbie, your work when you want, cash and can go for other interviews as applicable. 8 weeks isnt so bad you can absorb that, anything over 6 months and you will have to lie and say you went travelling or something. Hey, why not claim abbo ancestery and be supported well by the state! STH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samak Posted February 4, 2003 Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 look at this site: Jobhunter's Bible this gives a total different perspective than traditional job hunting. buy and read the book as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoiledCowboy Posted February 4, 2003 Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 I am sorry old son, but you are just going to have to bite the leather between your teeth and move to Sydney to find work - we will forgive all the nasty,nasty comments that you have made about the place in the past and we will welcome you with open arms, just as long as you throw that BrisVegas passport over one of the many bridges in the city where you are now ensconded(imprisoned). , on your way here. The best way to see Brisbane is at 35,000 feet in the sky, flying over it on the way to somewhere nice. Seriously though, Sydney is still a tough market but it is 3 times bigger at least, if not more commercially than Brissie so chances are you will succeed in finding something suitable much quicker..... you do want those regular trips to LOS don't you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stickman Posted February 4, 2003 Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 I took off 12 months once in Thailand and had a great time. I studied Thai full time for 7 of those months and frankly, I was a man of leisure for the rest. Would I do it again? You bet you I would! Obviously it all depends on where we are at in our life, what we want and so forth. Stick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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