[Baco Xtath]

I'm a building contractor/carpenter (frame and finish) with 20 years experience (yes, I started in the field at 15 - dad owned a company) but I can do any aspect of building be it site layout, tile, electrical, plumbing, concrete, drywall,......etc. I've been self-employed for 8 years (though 4 of those have doubled as stay-at-home dad with on and off renovations). I can always find work in construction.

I was a philosophy major in college, so, you know, there is that.

And, of course, I'm a writer. I could probably get a job at a local middle school editing their school paper (if no students challenge me for the job).

[Starling]

Kanubis, on 07 November 2013 - 09:28 AM, said:

I work with a very specific product that I won't bother explaining because it's boring and finance related. It does however make me quite employable because it's a popular product and I have thirteen years experience with it.

It seems that should I be inclined to go to the other side of the world, New Zealand are practically throwing visa offers at me. Seems to be a real shortage of specialists in said product over there.

Coincidentally, in a couple of years my girlfriend will be qualified as a speech therapist and audiologist, which NZ are also desperately trying to import.

We have a fair bit keeping us in Europe, but it's a tempting though. Especially since I fucking LOVE Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough vineyards...

It kind of depends what speciality of SLT your girlfriend has, but sure, job prospects here in NZ are not as bad as some places.

I'll actually be a qualified speech language therapist myself at the end of next year. Not sure how employable I am at the moment, half way through my degree, but I have an undergraduate arts degree and some entry level employment experience, so I'd probably be able to get some kind of entry level job.

[Kanubis]

Starling, on 07 November 2013 - 08:11 PM, said:

Kanubis, on 07 November 2013 - 09:28 AM, said:

I work with a very specific product that I won't bother explaining because it's boring and finance related. It does however make me quite employable because it's a popular product and I have thirteen years experience with it.

It seems that should I be inclined to go to the other side of the world, New Zealand are practically throwing visa offers at me. Seems to be a real shortage of specialists in said product over there.

Coincidentally, in a couple of years my girlfriend will be qualified as a speech therapist and audiologist, which NZ are also desperately trying to import.

We have a fair bit keeping us in Europe, but it's a tempting though. Especially since I fucking LOVE Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough vineyards...

It kind of depends what speciality of SLT your girlfriend has, but sure, job prospects here in NZ are not as bad as some places.

I'll actually be a qualified speech language therapist myself at the end of next year. Not sure how employable I am at the moment, half way through my degree, but I have an undergraduate arts degree and some entry level employment experience, so I'd probably be able to get some kind of entry level job.

I think she's actually planning on focusing on the Audiology side of things for her Masters.


She's doing the last semester of her Bachelors in Christchurch, on Scholarship, after Christmas. Gonna miss her but she can see what she thinks of the country and report back!

[Gust Hubb]

Always are dead people.

[Adjutant Stormy~]

I am aparently extremely unemployable. I haven't worked full time in over a year and a half. I'm employment kryptonite at the moment.

[Daeg]

Adjutant Stormy~, on 08 November 2013 - 10:04 AM, said:

I am aparently extremely unemployable. I haven't worked full time in over a year and a half. I'm employment kryptonite at the moment.

Where you live?

[Salt-Man Z]

No idea. My current job started as a temp position that expanded into a full time role 8 years ago. I can do almost anything you want via Excel/Access/VBA. Beyond that, though...?

[Abyss]

Una, on 07 November 2013 - 07:38 AM, said:

I feel pretty good about my employment situation. I'm a multilingual, female family doctor in a country with a chronic family doctor shortage. ...

No kidding. Most of Manitoba, northern Ontario and all of Quebec outside of Montreal will want to offer you souls, acreage and gold bullion. Quebec will say you have to speak French but are willing to pay for language school, translators and manservants with a palanquin.

[Una]

Abyss, on 08 November 2013 - 10:01 PM, said:

No kidding. Most of Manitoba, northern Ontario and all of Quebec outside of Montreal will want to offer you souls, acreage and gold bullion. Quebec will say you have to speak French but are willing to pay for language school, translators and manservants with a palanquin.

I have seen this in action. In order to get his Canadian certification, a doctor from South Africa had to work with one of my supervisors so he could be evaluated. The guy already had a job lined up in a neighboring town. The doctors invited him to a "little get together to welcome you" and invited a few key townspeople. By the end of the night, they had managed to convey to him why he wouldn't like living in the other town, persuade the guy to let a "realtor we know" show him some houses in town because "what would be the harm in just looking", find out what his wife did for a living (elementary school teacher), and make plans to have her to meet with the owner of a local daycare. By the end of his 2 week stint, I heard he was going to stay. It was crazy. It was like a movie.

[Starling]

Kanubis, on 07 November 2013 - 11:14 PM, said:

Starling, on 07 November 2013 - 08:11 PM, said:

Kanubis, on 07 November 2013 - 09:28 AM, said:

I work with a very specific product that I won't bother explaining because it's boring and finance related. It does however make me quite employable because it's a popular product and I have thirteen years experience with it.

It seems that should I be inclined to go to the other side of the world, New Zealand are practically throwing visa offers at me. Seems to be a real shortage of specialists in said product over there.

Coincidentally, in a couple of years my girlfriend will be qualified as a speech therapist and audiologist, which NZ are also desperately trying to import.

We have a fair bit keeping us in Europe, but it's a tempting though. Especially since I fucking LOVE Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough vineyards...

It kind of depends what speciality of SLT your girlfriend has, but sure, job prospects here in NZ are not as bad as some places.

I'll actually be a qualified speech language therapist myself at the end of next year. Not sure how employable I am at the moment, half way through my degree, but I have an undergraduate arts degree and some entry level employment experience, so I'd probably be able to get some kind of entry level job.

I think she's actually planning on focusing on the Audiology side of things for her Masters.


She's doing the last semester of her Bachelors in Christchurch, on Scholarship, after Christmas. Gonna miss her but she can see what she thinks of the country and report back!

Oh, exciting! Christchurch is still rebuilding after the quakes a couple of years ago, but there are some great places to visit down there, and the west coast of the south island has amazing views and weird little towns. Also, if she can make it to Wellington, it's definitely worth it.

[Solidsnape]

Well I've got 13 years experience machining all kinds of steel, aluminium, brasses/bronzes as well as plastics. Over the years, I've made things for farming, civil aviation, defence aviation, food production, space exploration, marine propulsion, oil/gas and medical prosthetics to name but a few. I've even worked in a foreign country (Holland) for a few years which tends to go in my favour too.

So basically no, I have no problem getting hired.
I even get offered jobs every other week, the last 3 were for Williams F1, Lotus F1 and Caterham F1. Pretty cool eh? I've never done motor car engines before, I suppose F1 products would be quite the challenge.
I'm in my 17th job now, if I've counted correctly, though some of them only lasted days, while others, a few years.
It may seem lots of jobs, but I get bored easy and move on a lot.
Though I'm staying put this time, this is just the most epic job I've ever had.

[Satan]

Satan, on 06 November 2013 - 07:48 PM, said:

I'm a bureaucrat in higher education, very probably the fastest growing sector world wide. I've also worked with international studies, giving me an experience not tht many others have. Even if I didn't work at a university, I'd probably find employment at some governmental quality assurance department or some other completely unrelated office job. Once you've gotten your first job it's generally rather easy to get another.

I'm also a voracious networker (yeah, one of those people). Most people suspect that I got my last job because I play football with a few bosses at the university. I don't make close friends with anyone, but most people come away with an alright impression of me.

Work wise I suspect people think better of me than I deserve, one because I'm a cheeky bugger, and two because I'm fairly good at seeing the bigger picture. The latter goes somewhat at the expense of my attention to detail and general structure, but unless you're very good at that people tend not to rate it as highly. As such most people who matter are generally impressed with me.

And if worst came to worst I'm a licensed truck driver up to 8 tonnes - I could probably find me something at a construction site or a storage facility if things got really desperate.

If I could revise this, it seems that I should be very unemployable. Just gone over an evaluation report from one of my students group and the only clear-cut negative experience they had was with student administration (me). I've also gotten feedback from another student group that they are displeased with my handling of their applications for supervisor. Worst bit is, I know the criticism is legitimate. I hate my job and (partly because of that) I'm rubbish at it. But it's a permanent position and it pays the mortgage, so I'm not about to quit it just yet. Just, well, first world problems, but I'd rather have a job I liked and was good at. Can't have it all, I suppose.

[Una]

Yeah. Job dissatisfaction seeps into performance. That's a problem. It's just one of those things that you can't fake. What don't you like about it?

[Elzhi]

I've got an a&p license, I'm a pipe welder. I'm pretty employable in any industrial field.
I've been working plant shutdowns for the past 9 months. I've probably made 77K so far. Might take the next 5 months off.

But then I'd have nothing to do. So I'll continue working shutdowns for another few months and then take a break. Living on the road is a bitch, though.

[Satan]

Una, on 10 November 2013 - 11:05 PM, said:

Yeah. Job dissatisfaction seeps into performance. That's a problem. It's just one of those things that you can't fake. What don't you like about it?

I suppose like many other bureaucrats I'm somewhat disconnected from the actual product that I make. I simply don't care how well a student does on his or her examination. It's also the way my position is set up to work. First off it's a rather lonely job where I'm responsible for most facets of administrating my programmes. There's no team work here - I am my own island (an upside to this is that I can to some degree dictate myself how I do a number of tasks). Second, I'm in a squeeze between three separate entities: the students; the academic personnel and the central administration. Whenever there is a conflict of interest I will always take the opposing side, meaning that I always get a lot of piss for shit I really don't care about.

I have to be honest, though, it isn't all that bad; this really is one of those first world problems.; it is far and away the best job I've ever had. It probably sounds worse than it is from the description above, but I've only highlighted the negatives. I'm also working towards making it a more team oriented job and it looks like I'll win through at a local level with at least some of my suggestions, so it'll get better with time.

[Daeg]

Satan, on 11 November 2013 - 03:59 PM, said:

Una, on 10 November 2013 - 11:05 PM, said:

Yeah. Job dissatisfaction seeps into performance. That's a problem. It's just one of those things that you can't fake. What don't you like about it?

I suppose like many other bureaucrats I'm somewhat disconnected from the actual product that I make. I simply don't care how well a student does on his or her examination. It's also the way my position is set up to work. First off it's a rather lonely job where I'm responsible for most facets of administrating my programmes. There's no team work here - I am my own island (an upside to this is that I can to some degree dictate myself how I do a number of tasks). Second, I'm in a squeeze between three separate entities: the students; the academic personnel and the central administration. Whenever there is a conflict of interest I will always take the opposing side, meaning that I always get a lot of piss for shit I really don't care about.

I have to be honest, though, it isn't all that bad; this really is one of those first world problems.; it is far and away the best job I've ever had. It probably sounds worse than it is from the description above, but I've only highlighted the negatives. I'm also working towards making it a more team oriented job and it looks like I'll win through at a local level with at least some of my suggestions, so it'll get better with time.

I work with a lot of people who are not well-matched with the job they are being paid to do. I don't mean this to sound too harsh but find something you are passionate about. If you don't love your job then you are probably not performing as well as someone who would love it. And you are probably standing in the way of them having their dream job.

All that being said...if you do actually love it and are just in a slump...take a long vacation...it will do you a world of good...

[tiam]

This is interesting actually.

I left uni with a 2.1 in history and am currently working as the full time assistant manager in a store. Ive pretty much left uni found a job close to where I live, worked my way up to full time managerial work and been there for 18 months. Im mid twenties and unsure where to go from here. Im thinking of applying for graduate schemes and hopefully with a decent degree from a decent uni with some managerial experience Ill be able to build a career through that.

Any one have any tips on where to go from here? I swear apart from Rodeo you all seem to be accountants or doctors or something.

[Solidsnape]

NoOneExpectsThetiamishInquisition, on 12 November 2013 - 09:23 AM, said:

This is interesting actually.

I left uni with a 2.1 in history and am currently working as the full time assistant manager in a store. Ive pretty much left uni found a job close to where I live, worked my way up to full time managerial work and been there for 18 months. Im mid twenties and unsure where to go from here. Im thinking of applying for graduate schemes and hopefully with a decent degree from a decent uni with some managerial experience Ill be able to build a career through that.

Any one have any tips on where to go from here? I swear apart from Rodeo you all seem to be accountants or doctors or something.

Hardly mate. I feel like the only fecker here without a Uni Ed.
I cut metal for a living fella. Like a glorified modern day miner!! I'm just good at making it sound interesting.

[tiam]

Solidsnape, on 12 November 2013 - 12:20 PM, said:

NoOneExpectsThetiamishInquisition, on 12 November 2013 - 09:23 AM, said:

This is interesting actually.

I left uni with a 2.1 in history and am currently working as the full time assistant manager in a store. Ive pretty much left uni found a job close to where I live, worked my way up to full time managerial work and been there for 18 months. Im mid twenties and unsure where to go from here. Im thinking of applying for graduate schemes and hopefully with a decent degree from a decent uni with some managerial experience Ill be able to build a career through that.

Any one have any tips on where to go from here? I swear apart from Rodeo you all seem to be accountants or doctors or something.

Hardly mate. I feel like the only fecker here without a Uni Ed.
I cut metal for a living fella. Like a glorified modern day miner!! I'm just good at making it sound interesting.

My dad works in a steel mill funnily enough.

A degree isnt anythin atm for me though. Its just a piece of paper till I put it to good use getting into a proper career.

[Primateus]

Apparently I'm very employable seeing as how I was just employed today with a start on Tuesday next week.

It's only for a year, but with opportunity for an apprenticeship if they are suitably impressed with the effort I put in.

So that's good.