imnotinsane posted:

I know this place is happy to hire people on working holiday visas.

http://www.srcentre.com.au/

It's just calling people asking them to do surveys. There is another company that does the same thing really close by, can't think of the name, its on peel st one block past the queen vic market.

If you do call centre work just make sure its non sales based and preferably inbound then it's piss easy.

Hit up the recruitment agency Hallis they do a lot of contract work for call centres.

Gloomiebat posted:

Hey dude, that would be fantastic! I don't have PM's but you can get me at my username at hotmail dot com and I could send you information and so on

BCR posted:

Positive attitude mate. Its hard, but you'll be surprised how much further you get with a fake smile on your face and positive body language than showing the reality of it all. Don't be afraid to lie.

Practice on this: http://play.typeracer.com/

And of course you have 2+ years doing admin for Bumfuckshire Council before whatever when you came out and give a mates email address/ph no for the reference. Honestly 9/10s of it is selling confidence, with the smile, clean shaved, suit.

Edit: Don't get depressed about it, this is capitalism in action where their ideal is a $2hr zero hour contract casual slave labour that an incompetent and bitter management can play puppetmaster with.

plasmoduck posted:

Mailed you yesterday, not sure if you got it? Either way I gave your email to my labmate and she said she'll contact you =)

Gloomiebat posted:

I've been trying to stay positive, hopefully have been managing to keep the depressive 'what's the point' down-in-the-dumps behaviour behind closed doors and putting on my best smile when I go out. It's just getting that one offer that'll make all the difference,but so far, nowt. Cheers for that link, ha, on my first try I got 93 WPM but I've no idea if that's average or terrible!

One of my references is actually a mate back home although they happened to be my manager for a time so it's kind of a win-win situation (i.e. they are a genuine reference but since neither of us work for the company any more they're willing to lie their pants off for me.) Obviously I'm not wholly adverse to a bit of truth-stretching but it's a different story if I say I did admin work or whatever back home and then literally have no idea where to even begin when in a job or interview situation. My office-experience is that dire


Replying just now, sorry, it went into the junk folder and I missed it! Thank you!

BCR posted:

Bulging Nipples posted:

Road tripping through great ocean road, grampians, up through adeleide and finishing at Alice springs and Ayers rock. Any must sees along the way? We have GOR pretty figured out but only a rough idea for the rest of it

BCR posted:

Mate, if you can get 90wpm over 20 or so tries you're a great candidate. Most admin average 50ish wpm. Another test: http://typing-speed-test.aoeu.eu/

The point is, you can do IT, you're typing on an internet forum, you can type fast and now you have some numbers to throw around and it makes you look more professional. Seriously, look up the local agencies or bus into the cbd, and doorknock. Have a print out of your CV. Say "I'm [ ], I'm looking for a temping job, I have previous experience in admin and a typing speed of 90wpm, do you have any openings?" Smile from the suited and booted man. A 1/3 will get you to stay and take their typing tests to confirm you're not bullshitting, and from that you'll get one or two job offers in the next fortnight.

Mate admin is the following, sorting mail, dealing with queries from members of the public (wheres my council bus pass, don't know maam, i'll get right on it) answering the phone, dealing with deliveries (heres 20 phone books, sign here), photocopying memos etc. They don't do follow up questions on your work, they'll ask questions like "what do you do if you're boss is a bastard?" "what do you do is the customer is a bastard?" "are you happy having your brain to mush photocopying?" and you go "i'll act like an adult, follow the company guidelines and i love photocopying me"

If nothing else you need to be out there in your suit, with a CV, hitting two agencies a day.

Edit:

CV MODEL, one page, do not put down hobbies interests etc, work does not care.

NAME / PHONE / EMAIL

QUALIFICATIONS (Degrees, industry certs, driving license etc) Here is where you put down highest qualification, computer experience, typing speed, your competence with MS Office/Open Office, and your driving license level because even if you're bussing in they don't have to know that so they think they have you at their beck and call.

PREVIOUS JOB EXPERIENCE

2010-2012, BUMFUCKSHIRE COUNCIL, ASST ADMIN
Supporting the sports and leisure department, I distributed mail, dealt with members of the public and their queries, processed their applications into the data entry system run by MS Excel. Over the course of my two years I moved up from assistant crack whore in training to asst admin with more duties and responsbilities.
REFERENCE: OLD MATE WHO WAS A MANAGER

2007-2010, WHATEVER LTD, JOB DESC
Whatever real work you've done till this point in your life
REFERENCE: OLD MATE WHOSE IS HAPPY TO SAY YOU TURNED UP ON TIME AND WAS ENTHUSIASTIC AND HARD WORKING.

Honestly, I've given references and the questions come down to @does he turn up, does he work, were there any problems, would you have him back?@

plasmoduck posted:

Pretty much!

Just posting here to let gloomiebat know I replied with an edit of the CV, in case it gets filtered into junk again :O I also forgot to include typing speed/MS Office skills into the Skills/Qualifications paragraph but I suppose you'll only need to fill that in when applying to data entry/admin jobs?

Finch! posted:

What type of car will you be in and what time of year will you be doing it?

I thoroughly recommend visiting the Flinders Ranges and Arkaroola. Take camping gear.

If your car is up to it, from Arkaroola I recommend heading to William Creek and along the Oodnadatta Track to Marla. This route will skip the long and boring highway, but you'll be on dirt roads most of the way from Wilpena.

I did something similar a few years ago with some friends. Can't wait to go back.

Bulging Nipples posted:

Leaving tomorrow in a Holden Commodore so that kind of offroading won't work haha but your pictures look amazing

Alan Matterhorn posted:

With that in mind is there anything I should be sure to stock up on before I come over? Somebody told me hot sauce?

Alan Matterhorn posted:

Alright, this is happening. I just accepted a job in Sydney, informed my current job and started the visa process (the new job is sponsoring).

NoArmedMan posted:

Living in the Newtown area will be amazing since thats where pretty much all the goons live in Sydney - and they are very active and do things often. The thread in the goon meet forum is pretty dead but there is always people chatting in #sydgoons on irc.synirc.net

HookShot posted:

When you can't find anywhere that sells ranch dip because it doesn't exist in Australia and you still want your veggies to be delicious, combine ranch dressing with sour cream.

Thanks to the kind goon in GWS who told me about that one!

Also if you like pumpkin pie, bring cans of pumpkin over, because you will have to make it yourself and Australian pumpkins are weird.

edit: also I hope you don't like cinnamon buns, because you will never find a good one in Australia.

Gloomiebat posted:

Well, I start an unpaid internship tomorrow that'll give me great experience (admin/office type stuff for a video production company) and is tangentially related to the career path I want to follow some day in the future when I eventually actually find paid work; I should be excited but I'm dreading it for some reason? Today I had a woman just look at me and shake her head without saying anything when I tried to hand in a resume which caught me at such a stupid moment that I had to go and sit in the toilets in Southern Cross for ten minutes because I was about to lose my poo poo. I'm just getting really, really annoyed now.

In other news: I went out with four layers on and it was randomly 22 degrees and now I'm dying

BCR posted:

* Are you getting expenses?
* Where are you?
* If you need to do it, scream. Suppression does nothing.
* Then understand job hunting works like advertising. Unless you have inside knowledge so you can tailor yourself to the position the success rate is about 5%.

Omgz posted:

That's a bummer, be sure you know your rights here. http://www.fairwork.gov.au/ Job hunting can be awfully depressing, just try your best to keep your chin up and have a positive attitude as it can make a huge difference. Anyway same old stuff eh, hoping for the best and trying to keep an eye out for any possible opportunities for you.

BCR posted:

* Then understand job hunting works like advertising. Unless you have inside knowledge so you can tailor yourself to the position the success rate is about 5%.

Gloomiebat posted:

Not getting expenses I don't think, it's only two days a week but I will have to get two trains a day (or two 'free' trams I guess.) They know I'm looking for paid work and are willing to fit my time with them around whatever I eventually get which is really great. I know it sounds like a waste of time and to be honest I really don't want to work for free but it is experience that I desperately need (office skills, admin, data entry and then more me-specific stuff like getting to help out on shoots and video editing as well which I'm interested in personally), and I need to loving get out of the house! I've also got volunteer work at the Fringe next month which should involve bar work and again, I wish I was getting paid but it's stuff I want to do and I enjoyed working the film fest immensely so if nothing else it's helping my mental state if not my financial one. I'm meeting a lot of cool people as well so it's not a complete loss

I'm re-writing cover letters/resumes to suit each job I'm applying for, and even trying to be as honest as possible without admitting I don't really know what I'm doing in a hospitality area, for example playing up my extensive work history in customer service/front-of-house and how it's easily transferrable from the retail sector and so on, and how eager I am to get into hospitality etc. Maybe that's the wrong angle but I am trying everything I can think of.

I actually had a bit of a 'okay actually screw this going home' moment today because I'm at the end of my tether but I don't want to give up just yet. (Ironically had Qantas contact me today to arrange another flight home because my original return flight was cancelled or something so I could have just gone 'bugger it tomorrow please', ha, but I didn't.)


Thanks so much dude I'm aware I'm a broken record and I'm actually boring myself to tears because I have nothing else to talk about at the moment! People in the hostel are being very kind and letting me know when they see vacancies and so on but it's just getting lucky. It just sucks because I'm getting stonewalled the moment I open my mouth and the non-Aussie accent comes out if I go into places in person, and applying online is pretty much just throwing my resumes into a black hole because I never hear anything back

Fake edit: In a 'I guess it can't hurt' effort I wrote up an admittedly terrible 'hey I'm looking for hospitality work' ad on Gumtree yesterday not expecting any response whatsoever and someone just this minute called to offer me an interview on Friday so cross your fingers for me

Omgz posted:

NAB: worst bank

cajunspitfire posted:

Second only to CBA

Sharks Below posted:

Lol, nope you can. I mean, I have a visa debit card (with PayPass ) but they have those Maestro debit cards I'm p sure that you can use anywhere. Oh Suncorp!

Finch! posted:

I like ING direct - it's all online, no fees, and you can use any ATM if you withdraw $200 or more and ING refund the ATM operator charge. Their savings accounts provide a reasonable interest rate, too.