Staying ahead of the pack

It's getting harder and harder to find work. Eight hours prior to this moment, WA Today reported that a particular company in WA will be cutting about 360 jobs.

It's like a joke without a punchline. I caught a train to the city for an interview for a simple position as a bartender. The interview took all of two to five minutes and while the person interviewing me was the nicest person by far to do so, it was a bit annoying. The really outstanding part is that he told me why it wasn't going to take that long to interview me - he had to interview 70 to 80 other applicants.

Bartending is always a popular choice of part time work. A lot of people don't realise how hard it can be and that they really have to be able to remember recipes, laws and procedures about who you serve and how and be able to do calculations in your head really fast. People think it is a cool job and so they apply.

However, 70 to 80 other applicants for one position is pure, utter madness. Even the fact that I am certified by law in two Australian states to serve alcohol and I like it and I also like inventing cocktails is not going to be enough of an edge. Not even the fact that I can pull or pour a perfect beer. Or the experience I have had serving to mad cricket fans.

Buyers market

It's very much a buyer's market at the moment. That applies to the people looking to hire employees. The standards for each job even entry level positions have often been raised higher and higher. I am doubtful that this strategy will work in the long term however for these companies. Just because you hire someone who has a lot of experience and a high number of qualifications for an entry level position, doesn't mean that they suit that position or the company.

People who are too experienced for the role will undoubtedly move on, the moment a better role that suits them more or better paying one for that matter comes along. This then means that instead of hiring people for longer terms, the HR people have to do double the work. It costs a lot to put potential employees through the screening and hiring process. There are tests, interviews, forms and orientations to plan and carry out, all of which cost a lot. Besides, do you really think you should be hiring a researcher for a front desk receptionist job?

However, this is exactly what is happening. It is possible to go the other way entirely. The educational institutions seem happy to take on people with no experience as teaching assistants at primary and pre-primary level. It makes you wonder, how they are going to screen out anyone they deem unsuitable. These are children you will be dealing with - for starters, you're not allowed to hug them as you comfort them even if they are bawling their eyes out because the line between what is indecent and what isn't is not easily discernible.

Welfare benefits

The government department that handles welfare - Centrelink - reports a huge rise in the number of people applying for welfare benefits. One wonders where the money is going to come from to help support everyone, especially given that the standard amount of money that people get per fortnight has not risen by much since 2004 and therefore has not kept pace with the amount of cash most people need to pay for rent, bills and food. The cost of living has gone up. Food prices have gone up simply because that is one of the few parts of retail that hasn't suffered much - everyone needs to eat after all but not everyone needs to buy fancy clothes every day. Money just doesn't stretch as far as it used to.

People are advocating that we spend our way out of the crisis but there isn't much money to spend in the first place if a lot of people can't find work. This affects me too. Media companies are going bankrupt or cutting staff. Changes in technology and the way that people get their information has meant that a lot of publications have already been struggling with how to maintain readership. The crisis has delivered the finishing blow to many of them. Which means it's less likely that I will be able to get articles accepted or paid for on a freelance basis.

Things have to change. Even if the rest of the world hovers between panic and denial, things will change, simply because such a state of affairs cannot go on forever and hope to benefit anyone else. People, companies and weird HR people with fancy ideas will all be forced to change their ways of thinking and operating.

People are giving up

I am taking advantage of the fact that most other people are quite possibly giving up. I am aiming to get my name and my work out in front of as many eyes as possible. I am trying to get to know as many people in the industry as possible without pushing my needs or work onto them. The more people discussing my work, the better. I know that things will change and when they do, I will already have the market to myself. I will not need to start from scratch.

Waiting for the right time

The biggest mistake you can make with anything in your life is waiting for the exact right time, moment and situation to do something. It will never happen. If you wait for all these factors that you cannot control to fall into place correctly before you go ahead, you will be waiting forever. It's not exactly seize the day that I am advocating here.

One of my friends stays in a full-time job she hates that stresses her out and gives her health problems. She stays in it because of the security and because she really wants to write but she thinks she needs to wait for a laundry list of things to happen first.

She thinks she needs her parents to accept her choice of writing, to master the skill of accountancy, to become a citizen, to have a semi permanent writing job offered to her and so on... Do you see what I mean? She is never going to get out of her full-time, back pain causing job. She is never going to do anything that she is genuinely good at or passionate about.

This is a problem with most people. They are too fearful to take chances and to attempt to do what they want to do and like doing. They sit around waiting for things to get better before they do so and of course never get there because all these things getting better are not things they can control. To me, this is a lot like wasting one's life.

So when the crisis is officially over and everyone starts coming out of their bunkers and lining up at the starting line because things are finally falling into place, they won't realise that the race is already over. That's me at the finishing line because people would have known that I tried and survived.

That's all the people who ever took a chance standing at that finishing line. Once you jump in, the momentum takes over. The fact that you like what you are doing is what runs the race and wins it for you. You just have to make sure that you stay on the track itself and run in the right direction.

Despite the fact that there aren't many jobs open right now, this isn't a competition between you and me and any of other hundreds of job hunting or client hunting hopefuls. I don't mind being knocked back several times and neither should you. Tough times like these should serve to bring out our best including resilience. I'd rather run this race with you than against you.

So there goes the starter's gun. Whose up for joining me?