Out of curiosity, and to see what I'm up against, I looked up the demographics of my new city. Although by far the biggest city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, Darwin is small. The pop is about 120,000 -- which is not that much bigger than Lowell. There are no other nearby cities, the closest "city" is Alice Springs, with a population of 25,000 and a 2 day drive away. Are you jealous yet?
Anyway, as a job hunter, what I really wanted to find out was the unemployment rate. It's 1%. Seriously. As I sit in my apartment each day applying to every job I come across, I notice no one ever walks by. Everyone has a job here. The parking garage is empty, the pools are unused, no one is home. So why don't I have a job yet??
I have spoken to other people who have moved to "The Territory," and the consensus is your first job is very hard to get. Once you have a job, you'll constantly hear of people hiring and job offers will be coming left and right. I was told this my first week here, when I was still optimistic, and kinda thought, ya, whatever dude. "No really, it's not about what you know here, but about who you know. And don't put on your resume that you have a master's degree, it's going to put people off." Uhhh, what?
But really, is this the case? There's one university in the entire state, and it's not very big. I had a conversation with a woman the other day who moved here from Melbourne to be with her boyfriend while he serves in the army. She's 27, so it's not like she is just a kid, and it took her 8 months to get a job. She wants to go to school to be a dental hygienist, but there isn't a single program in the whole state. This is an area almost twice the size of Texas! Am I fucked?
I applied for a job yesterday with the local government and was asked the following questions on my application:
Have you the ability to communicate orally within an office environment? yes/no
Have you the ability to communicate in writing within an office environment? yes/no
Do you complete tasks within deadlines? yes/no
Have you the ability to work effectively in a team? yes/no
Do you display willingness and motivation? yes/no
Umm, YES! I hope! The entire application was basically asking about my personal info (address, etc) and questions like those. Funniest part is I probably won't even get an interview.
So my new plan is to try to "know people." "Hi, I'm Al. Nice to meet you. Where do you work?"
Anyway, as a job hunter, what I really wanted to find out was the unemployment rate. It's 1%. Seriously. As I sit in my apartment each day applying to every job I come across, I notice no one ever walks by. Everyone has a job here. The parking garage is empty, the pools are unused, no one is home. So why don't I have a job yet??
I have spoken to other people who have moved to "The Territory," and the consensus is your first job is very hard to get. Once you have a job, you'll constantly hear of people hiring and job offers will be coming left and right. I was told this my first week here, when I was still optimistic, and kinda thought, ya, whatever dude. "No really, it's not about what you know here, but about who you know. And don't put on your resume that you have a master's degree, it's going to put people off." Uhhh, what?
But really, is this the case? There's one university in the entire state, and it's not very big. I had a conversation with a woman the other day who moved here from Melbourne to be with her boyfriend while he serves in the army. She's 27, so it's not like she is just a kid, and it took her 8 months to get a job. She wants to go to school to be a dental hygienist, but there isn't a single program in the whole state. This is an area almost twice the size of Texas! Am I fucked?
I applied for a job yesterday with the local government and was asked the following questions on my application:
Have you the ability to communicate orally within an office environment? yes/no
Have you the ability to communicate in writing within an office environment? yes/no
Do you complete tasks within deadlines? yes/no
Have you the ability to work effectively in a team? yes/no
Do you display willingness and motivation? yes/no
Umm, YES! I hope! The entire application was basically asking about my personal info (address, etc) and questions like those. Funniest part is I probably won't even get an interview.
So my new plan is to try to "know people." "Hi, I'm Al. Nice to meet you. Where do you work?"
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