Homework

Hi!

Well, unfortunately, I have to say up front that no adventures were had this week. Not unless you count going out to dinner, discussing how best to write a very lengthy job application, until past bedtime on a school night, an adventure, then maybe a little one was had. Otherwise, nothing. Nada. Nyet.

Here's the thing, I have to get a new job. And in order to do that, I have to look in my spare time, as I can't at work. And the only time I can really look and write applications is on the weekends. Yes, I know you've heard all this before, but let me explain. If it's a government job worth applying for, then you have to answer selection criteria statements. It's crazy. You absolutely cannot apply for a government gig (which includes everything from the health sector, to Parliament, to the police, to education) without answering this stuff. Some can be 1 or 2, or in the case of the one I've been writing all week, 8 statements long. And you can't just state the obvious, like cutting and pasting from your resume and repeating yourself or answer it nicely in one sentence. No. They want at least 1/2 a page for each one. Put it this way, the application I was finally able to put together came to a total of twelve pages. Twelve. That's cover letter, selection criteria and resume.

It sucks.

And it's incredibly stressful. Which is the number one reason most people in government jobs never leave, because they can't bear the thought of answering selection criterias. Some questions look innocent enough - "Highly developed administrative and project coordination skills", and some don't - "Ability to undertake cost benefit analyses in relation to to proposals to enhance registry wedding services and to provide reports to senior management about proposals" (that was one I had to answer, somehow, and I was just applying to be a monkey marrying people at City Hall!). Yeah. Each one has to be broken down by word, and each word answered with an example of how you did whatever. It's worse than writing an essay or report for school. Much worse. I've not been able to apply for jobs that not only do I have a degree in, but practical experience in, because I couldn't answer their selection criteria. And if you try to apply without it (I've tried), they throw your application away without batting an eyelash. You could be Bill Gates applying for an IT helpdesk gig for the government and if he didn't answer the selection criteria, he wouldn't even get a phone call to tell him his "...application was unsuccessful at this time...". He'd get a form-rejection email. They miss out on a lot of good people because of this stuff. And, it's really only Queensland and some tiny pockets of Australia, nowhere else in the world (my luck). But, I've recently noticed that more and more government jobs are doing away with it because they've finally noticed that people have other people write their selection criteria for them and when it comes to interview time, the people can't answer the questions because they don't know what they said on paper. Dur. So the govt has finally seen the light that, gee, maybe if we just went by people's resumes and interviews, we might get decent people after all. It's so dumb. But, right now, if you want a decent job, that pays pretty good, you have to put in the hard yards (as the locals say).

So. Like I said last time, until I get a job, no adventures. Well, no really exciting ones anyways.

I know, I know. This isn't what I came all this way to do. But without money in the bank, adventures will be thin on the ground. Veryvery sad but true. Like I asked before, if there's anyone trying to get ahold of me about a lottery payout or an inheritance, I'm right here!!!!!!



Sorry about the tirade. But that's what I've been up to this week.

Otherwise, all is well. The weather is starting to warm up (I'll say!). It's supposed to get up to the mid-80's today. Eeeeek. Such a good thing I'm on the top floor - get great breezes all day! Kona is fine, tho he did knock another one of his ping pong balls off the balcony onto the bottom floor patio, next door to the other patio with the previous wayward ball. Hee hee. I'd take a picture if I thought the neighbors wouldn't have me arrested.

And that's about it! Hope you guys are all well up there! And if anyone wants to come visit, better do it before it gets hot and gross down here!!!!

Bye! J!

P.S. The eggs here come with smiley faces. I have no idea why.