David Harding
Kristy lee
Cain LynchIt's all about who you know, not what you know! ...really?
February 12th 2010 11:13
It's really a grim out look on life and work isn't it? But can this be true? A recent discussion with people has started me thinking that maybe this is true. I have found myself without work still even though I am well educated, and I have found time to gain more skills than I may ever know what to do with. But there still remains, how does one get experience if you cannot get at least one foot in a door somewhere?
For me, I want to be a writer I want to sit down and write about sports, write a book and actually use my love of sport and writing to form a career, or at least that would be my dream job. I have the ability to do this and I know that I do not need a course degree to tell me what I can do. Will this be enough to gain me a job? Nope. So instead if actually just having the portfolio that I do have ready to take to any potential job I have to also find myself a course and do.
I have since done Freelance work with the West Coast Chronicle a small time paper that do not pay, but they want me to write about the West Coast more and that is fair enough they have published me already. I have also worked for two websites in writing as well publishing Collingwood work and writing previews, reviews and other articles on Australian Football.
I have also tried to work in the Commonwealth Bank of Australia call centre in Hobart, only to be told yet again I do not possess the sales experience to gain employment there. Really? Well they were nice enough to say that they wanted me to work there but said I needed more experience, well if I went through training there wouldn't I have gotten these skills? I went back again and still was not able to get in was again told I did not possess this.
So again i ask how does one get the experience? you can be put on as a trainee, and claim a grant from the Government, the Australian government would give them $1,000 to train a person, surely that is a convincing effort to put a person on? I have worked as a volunteer for the Greek Welfare Centre, and the Adult Migrant English Service institute of TAFE Tasmania, the first job at the Welfare Centre was as an office assistant, I feel that was a rewarding experience as well as working at AMES as a library technician and a tutor.
Working with migrants coming here learning English was great, I enjoyed everything I did at that place, I was also assisting a young student there who was during an Aged Care Course, and it was good to do the work with him that I did, teaching the computers to people, and doing other work has made me feel rewarded. Sadly this tenure had to come to an end, I was offered a paid position as a Call Centre Manager at Australian Security Monitoring/Australian Specialised Maths.
I got there at the time that there was not really that much work, sadly, and was told they would call me I became a survey doorknocker for them and they still owe me $130 but that's not really relevant. Since then I have gotten my RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) and was also able to get published in a newspaper, and since I got my RSA I did a traineeship last year as a bar tender, and did other odd jobs.
That did not turn into paid work, and I get the feeling I really think that is came down to not knowing anyone in this town ready to be able to back me up I got some good feedback in the end, and now I am stuck looking for some more work.
But that will soon come to an end as I am entering into more study, I am awaiting news on a scholarship to a writing school, should I not be awarded it after the tests I will go enrol in a course with TAFE Queensland, via Open Learning and I will study that for the next six months. It's a course in Freelance journalism, and if I pass this, I may take the other course which is Level 2, and see where I stand...
So now I wonder is life and work all about who you know and not what you know? I know that I possess an IQ of 126 or there abouts and I have taken on a lot of tough challenges in life, but still after all the searching I have still failed to secure the dream job. Is it because I have yet to obtain the qualifications? I have thought about this and come to the conclusion that it's half and half.
In some instances it can be who you know, rather than what you know if you know someone good enough in a business and have partial ability you are probably going to be favoured more then someone else, but if you have all the qualifications you are going to get the job.
But I have to wonder should you need more experience, where are you going to get it? No one wishes to offer it, how's it going to come? Are you going to magically find a position somewhere and get the experience and come back? I do not believe that studying a course is going to give you this, I was told a retail course could have gotten me sales experience, I found the course a bit hard because I am not good at maths at all and there were many maths questions on my assessment, but I was doing alright by the grading.
It's hard to know really what you need to do, but I guess I am going to eventually get into this writing business, somehow.
For me, I want to be a writer I want to sit down and write about sports, write a book and actually use my love of sport and writing to form a career, or at least that would be my dream job. I have the ability to do this and I know that I do not need a course degree to tell me what I can do. Will this be enough to gain me a job? Nope. So instead if actually just having the portfolio that I do have ready to take to any potential job I have to also find myself a course and do.
I have since done Freelance work with the West Coast Chronicle a small time paper that do not pay, but they want me to write about the West Coast more and that is fair enough they have published me already. I have also worked for two websites in writing as well publishing Collingwood work and writing previews, reviews and other articles on Australian Football.
I have also tried to work in the Commonwealth Bank of Australia call centre in Hobart, only to be told yet again I do not possess the sales experience to gain employment there. Really? Well they were nice enough to say that they wanted me to work there but said I needed more experience, well if I went through training there wouldn't I have gotten these skills? I went back again and still was not able to get in was again told I did not possess this.
So again i ask how does one get the experience? you can be put on as a trainee, and claim a grant from the Government, the Australian government would give them $1,000 to train a person, surely that is a convincing effort to put a person on? I have worked as a volunteer for the Greek Welfare Centre, and the Adult Migrant English Service institute of TAFE Tasmania, the first job at the Welfare Centre was as an office assistant, I feel that was a rewarding experience as well as working at AMES as a library technician and a tutor.
Working with migrants coming here learning English was great, I enjoyed everything I did at that place, I was also assisting a young student there who was during an Aged Care Course, and it was good to do the work with him that I did, teaching the computers to people, and doing other work has made me feel rewarded. Sadly this tenure had to come to an end, I was offered a paid position as a Call Centre Manager at Australian Security Monitoring/Australian Specialised Maths.
I got there at the time that there was not really that much work, sadly, and was told they would call me I became a survey doorknocker for them and they still owe me $130 but that's not really relevant. Since then I have gotten my RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) and was also able to get published in a newspaper, and since I got my RSA I did a traineeship last year as a bar tender, and did other odd jobs.
That did not turn into paid work, and I get the feeling I really think that is came down to not knowing anyone in this town ready to be able to back me up I got some good feedback in the end, and now I am stuck looking for some more work.
But that will soon come to an end as I am entering into more study, I am awaiting news on a scholarship to a writing school, should I not be awarded it after the tests I will go enrol in a course with TAFE Queensland, via Open Learning and I will study that for the next six months. It's a course in Freelance journalism, and if I pass this, I may take the other course which is Level 2, and see where I stand...
So now I wonder is life and work all about who you know and not what you know? I know that I possess an IQ of 126 or there abouts and I have taken on a lot of tough challenges in life, but still after all the searching I have still failed to secure the dream job. Is it because I have yet to obtain the qualifications? I have thought about this and come to the conclusion that it's half and half.
In some instances it can be who you know, rather than what you know if you know someone good enough in a business and have partial ability you are probably going to be favoured more then someone else, but if you have all the qualifications you are going to get the job.
But I have to wonder should you need more experience, where are you going to get it? No one wishes to offer it, how's it going to come? Are you going to magically find a position somewhere and get the experience and come back? I do not believe that studying a course is going to give you this, I was told a retail course could have gotten me sales experience, I found the course a bit hard because I am not good at maths at all and there were many maths questions on my assessment, but I was doing alright by the grading.
It's hard to know really what you need to do, but I guess I am going to eventually get into this writing business, somehow.
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