holy crap! Everyone is going home!

Oh my god!

I just got word that Christy, Dave and Nikki are going home to Ireland! This is mental! They spent the last week down south planting trees for a horrible farmer. They were meant to stay for a month at least but came home after a week. Now, because they've given up on finding a job, they've all decided to go home! This is a pity! I hate seeing people going home early because they run out of money or can't find a job. It especially bad in this case because I work for a company who specialise in getting people, with trades, jobs in mines! These mines are also in rural areas so would count towards the 3 months rural work needed for the 2nd year visa!! Also, my new landlord said he put the word out that he knows people looking for carpentry work in Perth. I reckon they could have had jobs in a week or two easy!

Even after I told Christy this he still decided he was going. He has his flights booked and paid for. Dave and Nikki changed theirs yesterday. Now, Ciara is considering changing her flights too! Donna is still in Sydney, Jeremie is gone off to some island a few hours flight north, so that leaves myself and AnneMarie in Perth by ourselves.

The reason they came back up from the outback soon was because the farmer guy they worked for was a right dickhead. He was shouting abuse at them all the time, using woeful language, and calling them all names. He also didnt pay them the correct hourly rate, and charged them 35 dollars for bed and board instead of 10 dollars that he was meant to charge. What an idiot! It was back breaking work, not made any easier by him. They all came back with their hands covered in huge blisters all over. I doubt its something they'll forget too soon, for all the wrong reasons!

Christy said he'll probably try come back to Australia in a couple of years and make a proper go of Australia. Hopefully he'll get the visa. In the meantime, I'll have to get used to having that many less friends over here!

Its a sad day. :(

Rabobank

So, I started my new job today. I am working for Rabobank in Daring Park Tower, beside Darling Harbour.

The job is an IT helpdesk job. This means I sit at my desk taking calls all day from people having problems with their computers. The majority of the calls come from rural areas, but we also get a lot of calls from people in the building. This can break the monotomy of sitting down all day as you can walk down and fix the problem in person. I've done helpdesk jobs before and the main thing I hated about it was tht you sat down all day on your ass. At least this job I can walk around a bit.

The building is nice. It's part of Darling Park Tower, with Price Waterhouse Cooper, and IBM. I think Google has an office in there somewhere too. I'm on the 17th floor so I can see everywhere in the city. I'm also overlooking the Maritime museum in Cockle Bay Wharf, so I can see a warship and a submarine semi-submerged in the bay from out my window. The kitchen also has a big plasma telly with all the Foxtel channels, which is nice for watching premiership highlights. I've still yet to see a full 90 minutes of soccer since I left Ireland! I doubt I'll get to see any in work, but at least I might get to see more highlights.

The people are nice too. My boss is Irish, from Kilkenny and there's a few other Irish people floating around the office. Should be good for the free office beers after work every Friday! :D

I got a job!

I finally got a job!

I went for an interview with Transfield for the HelpDesk role, but didn't think it went that well, so the girl from the agency arranged to meet with me face to face and work on my interview skills after my other interview for Rabobank. So after the Rabo interview, I came down the lift, walked out of the building, walked up the street towards the agency and 2 minutes later I got a call offering me the Rabobank job that I had just interviewed for!

Apparently, straight after the interview my new boss phoned the other agency and said straight away that I have the job. They tried calling me back to tell me but couldn't get through to me. I later figured out this was because there was no phone coverage in the lift! So then he phoned me back 2 minutes later when I was outside informing me of my new job! Brilliant!

I start next Wednesday (15th) :D

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs...not!

So, I still haven't got a job yet.

I've had a few rejections and some people saying they won't hire me because I'm a backpacker and only on a holiday visa, and they're looking for someone more long term. Pain in the ass.

I have a couple of more interviews coming up this week so hopefully something comes up.

The first one is with Transfield in Sydney for a HelpDesk role, and the 2nd is for RaboBank in Darling Park for a desktop role. I'm hoping for that one. Its more money, and basically a better job. I've done enough of sitting on my ass answering phones so at least in that job I wont be confined to my chair.

Lets see how things go...

Getting a job in Sydney

We're starting to get really low on cash at the moment. I would have been broke a couple of weeks ago if it wasn't for Anne-Marie coming over with her life savigns to blow on me! :D

So, to remedy this lack of disposable cash, we've been forced to get one of those "job" things. You know them things that force you to get up early and pay attention and exert effort into what you'r edoing? Yeah, well we've all had to try get one of those.

I've been applying online to a number of job websites here in Sydney. I've applied mainly to IT jopbs, but if I can't get an IT job, I may be forced to look elsewhere, like in a pub or restaurant or supermarket. Hopefully I'll get an IT role though. If not, I'll then also need to get an RSA (Responsible Supply of Alcohol) card. These cost about 60 dollars and you've to sit through 4 hours of powerpoint presentations to get it, and nobody will hire you without one. Not officially anyway! :p