It is extremely frustrating to be educated at one of the world’s most highly regarded academic institutions, have done extremely well against a body of your peers, have significant academic or work experience in a demanding and complicated field, and still be rejected out of hand from dozens of jobs.
We have all seen the type of applicants for jobs in Alberta. Handwritten resumes, poor spelling and grammar, declarations of homelessness and dubious past activities, interviewees dressed in tattered jeans who cannot answer you without lying and who will not look at you in the eye. Our employers often look for weeks, months even, for a suitable candidate to stand alongside us on the workline, only to settle on some ne’er-do-well who is much less qualified and experienced than you, if such a thing is possible, yet makes the same wage or higher, and does his work at a fraction of the speed and accuracy that you already achieve.
These are the people we see apply for the very jobs that we hold, and then when we, the supposed good employees with proven records of success, apply for different jobs, and we are rejected out of hand, for any one of a million reasons, none with which I am privy. I guess it’s possible that there are just that many awesome people who are better than us for all these jobs, but if that’s the case we shouldn’t have struggled to get these university degrees and should have just started working our way up from the mailroom in these organisations, since all of our bosses went that route and promote that way, regardless of the efficacy of the method.
There are university degrees that lead to jobs directly, and they are listed thusly: medicine, law, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, and engineering, to some extent. The remainder of the undergraduates, probably a good 70%, do not have jobs for which they can directly apply and reasonably expect placement. Technical schools provide direct skills application, often provide you with an employer upon graduation, have work experience built into their education, and charge a lot less and take a lot less time to finish. The technical graduates often make as much or more money than our 70% of graduates and some of our nurses, pharmacists, and lawyers.
The only solace is that regardless of how broken or frustrating the system is, we brave many, we band of brothers, can win this ridiculous war. It may take much longer than we would like, definitely longer than we were led to believe, but with tenacity and perseverance, we can navigate this horrid system and come out the other side...into a worldwide recession caused by bankers. Awesome.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Sydnicity
Hello again! I know it’s been a while since we’ve updated, but we are still without internet…at least until tomorrow, when I am assured that our connection will be re-established to the World Wide Web.
Things have been progressing in the world of Andrea and Chris, albeit a bit slowly. I am not 3 weeks into my internship with the Queensland Government and I like the people I’m working with. Everyday I walk about 8 minutes to the train, pay $2.70 on my Go-card, hop on for a short 15 minute ride, get off at Central Station in the city business district (CBD or downtown), and walk another 10 minutes until I arrive at the office. I’m on te 10th floor of a 24 floor building and my view looks right into another building. I am in a pod of 4 cubicles in the Capital Raising group. Our job as a team is to secure funding from the government or investors to help businesses in the biotechnology industry get funding or get attention from international community. Functionally, our group is a catalyst for the biotechnology industry. We are trying to speed up the reaction and get the industry booming, similar to the results and efforts seen from Melbourne and Sydney. Queensland, and Australia in general, actually has a very high quality life science program and is very well regarded internationally, even above the University of Alberta. There has been lots of success in Melbourne and Sydney governments in starting and growing their industries, so there is a role to play and it has been successful. Hopefully we can recreate it here in Queensland.
Andrea is furiously looking for work. We’ve been handing out and sending out lots of resumes so hopefully someone bites and she can start work. She’s getting a bit frustrated sitting at home all day, but this has the good side effect of focusing her efforts on exploring our new cook book each night. Although I shouldn’t get used to it, it certainly is a nice treat to come home to a fancy meal each night. Given the choice though, I’d rather have money coming in than food on the table. On that note, it should be mentioned that the minimum wage in Australia is $15/hour, which would help to explain why everything is so bloody expensive here. So that is both good and bad news. There are plenty of jobs down here, not like in Alberta, or Canada in general, so we are quite hopeful.
This weekend we were fortunate enough to meet up with a fellow Canadian and University of Alberta MBA alumnus, James Lam. It was great to see him and sort of trade war-stories about the trials and tribulationg of getting used to Australian life. The lifestyle is actually easy to get used to, but the bureaucracy is not, but that's the same anywhere. I have great respect for all the international students that come to the UofA each year...you are indeed strong people. Crazy, for purposefully exposing yourself to 8 months of winter and -40 degree temperatures, but strong! We talked of visas and working and of Canada...all in an Irish pub! Why aren't there Canadian pubs? Is there a 'Canadian' styled pub? Maybe something like Molson Canadian Brewhouse or Hudsons, but those are all Irish rip-offs anyhow. Maybe one of us can look into that. Let's for a subcommittee to review the potential of the space...uh oh...government is rubbing off on me! Where's the Alberta in me? Forget it, let's START a pub! There, that's better.
James is based out of Sydney and has been in Australia now for two years. It’s actually quite a funny story because when I heard that James was leaving Canada and going to Australia to work for free for a non-profit organization I thought he was out of his mind. When he graduated in 2008, times were still rosy job-wise in Canada so I thought for sure he’d end up working for big bucks for an oil company or some such position. When I heard about his choice I thought to myself, “Ha! Well, that’s not the path for me!” You could cut the irony with a knife…But after my time abroad in France, something I thought I’d never do, and coming home to worldwide depression, something I thought I’d never see, it seemed only appropriate to choose another unlikely scenario for myself. So I chose it, and here I am, and I’m having a great time too.
I’d like to think that with the right mindset that I’ll have a great time wherever I am. Even though I became a bit disillusioned with Alberta and Canada over the past couple of years I do miss home very much. Especially in the summertime I am sad to miss Ultimate Frisbee in Hawrelak park, golfing with friends, barbeques with the family, watching the NHL playoffs or just grabbing a beer on a patio or back deck…those are all great things and I am very sad to be missing them. We knew that moving away would be a bit of a struggle and that we’d miss all the best parts of home, but we also felt that it was time to throw a few monkey wrenches into the mix to push ourselves a bit and so far we aren’t regretting it. Although, we do wish there were a few less monkey wrenches lying around…
Things have been progressing in the world of Andrea and Chris, albeit a bit slowly. I am not 3 weeks into my internship with the Queensland Government and I like the people I’m working with. Everyday I walk about 8 minutes to the train, pay $2.70 on my Go-card, hop on for a short 15 minute ride, get off at Central Station in the city business district (CBD or downtown), and walk another 10 minutes until I arrive at the office. I’m on te 10th floor of a 24 floor building and my view looks right into another building. I am in a pod of 4 cubicles in the Capital Raising group. Our job as a team is to secure funding from the government or investors to help businesses in the biotechnology industry get funding or get attention from international community. Functionally, our group is a catalyst for the biotechnology industry. We are trying to speed up the reaction and get the industry booming, similar to the results and efforts seen from Melbourne and Sydney. Queensland, and Australia in general, actually has a very high quality life science program and is very well regarded internationally, even above the University of Alberta. There has been lots of success in Melbourne and Sydney governments in starting and growing their industries, so there is a role to play and it has been successful. Hopefully we can recreate it here in Queensland.
Andrea is furiously looking for work. We’ve been handing out and sending out lots of resumes so hopefully someone bites and she can start work. She’s getting a bit frustrated sitting at home all day, but this has the good side effect of focusing her efforts on exploring our new cook book each night. Although I shouldn’t get used to it, it certainly is a nice treat to come home to a fancy meal each night. Given the choice though, I’d rather have money coming in than food on the table. On that note, it should be mentioned that the minimum wage in Australia is $15/hour, which would help to explain why everything is so bloody expensive here. So that is both good and bad news. There are plenty of jobs down here, not like in Alberta, or Canada in general, so we are quite hopeful.
This weekend we were fortunate enough to meet up with a fellow Canadian and University of Alberta MBA alumnus, James Lam. It was great to see him and sort of trade war-stories about the trials and tribulationg of getting used to Australian life. The lifestyle is actually easy to get used to, but the bureaucracy is not, but that's the same anywhere. I have great respect for all the international students that come to the UofA each year...you are indeed strong people. Crazy, for purposefully exposing yourself to 8 months of winter and -40 degree temperatures, but strong! We talked of visas and working and of Canada...all in an Irish pub! Why aren't there Canadian pubs? Is there a 'Canadian' styled pub? Maybe something like Molson Canadian Brewhouse or Hudsons, but those are all Irish rip-offs anyhow. Maybe one of us can look into that. Let's for a subcommittee to review the potential of the space...uh oh...government is rubbing off on me! Where's the Alberta in me? Forget it, let's START a pub! There, that's better.
James is based out of Sydney and has been in Australia now for two years. It’s actually quite a funny story because when I heard that James was leaving Canada and going to Australia to work for free for a non-profit organization I thought he was out of his mind. When he graduated in 2008, times were still rosy job-wise in Canada so I thought for sure he’d end up working for big bucks for an oil company or some such position. When I heard about his choice I thought to myself, “Ha! Well, that’s not the path for me!” You could cut the irony with a knife…But after my time abroad in France, something I thought I’d never do, and coming home to worldwide depression, something I thought I’d never see, it seemed only appropriate to choose another unlikely scenario for myself. So I chose it, and here I am, and I’m having a great time too.
I’d like to think that with the right mindset that I’ll have a great time wherever I am. Even though I became a bit disillusioned with Alberta and Canada over the past couple of years I do miss home very much. Especially in the summertime I am sad to miss Ultimate Frisbee in Hawrelak park, golfing with friends, barbeques with the family, watching the NHL playoffs or just grabbing a beer on a patio or back deck…those are all great things and I am very sad to be missing them. We knew that moving away would be a bit of a struggle and that we’d miss all the best parts of home, but we also felt that it was time to throw a few monkey wrenches into the mix to push ourselves a bit and so far we aren’t regretting it. Although, we do wish there were a few less monkey wrenches lying around…
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Long time no posty!
Sorry about the wait guys, but we have been without our crappy free wireless internet for some time now and have been unable to post. Now that I'm at work for the government, though, I'm wide open to post as much as I like! lol
Last weekend we made a trip down to the Gold Coast to hopefully catch some sun and possible some surf! We weren't disappointed in the availability of either. Surfers Paradise is kind of like the Miami of the Gold Coast. There are tons of skyscraper-style buildings, but it's not for commerce. It's all for housing! The night scene is pretty bumpin' and the hostels there are great. They pick you up at the bus stop and they'll run you back as well. Actually, for all would-be backpackers, it's a job you can actually have...driver. Such a sweet gig and it pays better than waiting tables. We ran into a Canadian Vancouverite at the local tourist booth and she's a pharmacist and her boyfriend is an electrical engineer, who is working as a server. Nice to know we're making a contribution to the local economies.
We were pretty diligent about putting on our sun screen, so we didn't get too tanned, but we had a great time at the beach. In the afternoon we'd usually pick up a six pack of stubbies and head back to the beach to sit and relax. At night we'd usually opt for wine and lay down a blanket and watch the moon rise over the ocean.
On the second last day we went for a surfing lesson, and we were really lucky because we were the only ones who signed up that day so we basically got a private lesson. Andrea started off pretty tentatively but then just started heaving that board into the water and jumping into the surf. Both of us got up on the board several times (me practically every time), but after a while Andrea got pretty tired from fighting the waves, which were good that day, and her progress was stifled. I'm not sure if I should be mentioning this, but she did describe her swim suit situation as "I feel like I have the entire ocean in my bottoms." You can imagine why she was a little...ornery.
That night we tried to chill out at one of the three Irish pubs in Surfers, but got rebuffed by the first one because I wasn't presentable enough to get in. To get in to an Irish pub. What was my gaffe? No shoes, only flip flops. These bastards had the worse 'live band' in there, which was basically a one man karaoke show, and a paltry band of customers on a slow night, and I got rebuffed. Not an Irish bloke amongst the lot of 'em, you can imagine. So we ended up at an even crappier Irish pub, but no music. Aww shucks! :P
That night the hostels in Surfers have what's called the "Big Night Out", BNO for short, with which they take you to 4 different bars on a pub crawl. It's a bit legendary, but after surfing all day we were surprisingly tired, and we're also 26 and a couple...not really pub crawl material. We are 'grown ups', after all. That night we were treated to the spectacle of two of our roommates in the dorm celebrating their newfound mutual attraction. I'm SO glad we saved that $10 by not getting a private room. We had a good laugh the next morning over breakfast, that's for sure!
This week we've settled down a bit more and got a lot of stuff done. Andrea arranged someone to deliver and install a previously owned washing machine, we bought some more kitchen stuff and living stuff, and today she's heading out to get a vacuum cleaner. Andrea's main priority in life is to make sure the world around her is clean, so today her mind should be satiated.
We've learned a few big tips on moving house and starting anew, and I will repeat some of them here:
1. Buy a good knife for cooking. You'll be replacing those crappy knives in about 2 days anyways.
2. Buy a good iron/ironing board if you are a professional. Used irons are a great deal, but that $10 you save on a used one will cost you the first time that thing overheats and burns your shirt to pieces.
3. Always leave early. You can never trust a map to determine how long it will take you to walk somewhere. Maps don't include hills!
4. Everything is transient. Just because you had nice, stable, free, wireless, broadband internet yesterday, doesn't mean that your girlfriend won't download 2GB worth of television shows and get that connection shut down until the end of the billing period.
5. Never underestimate the value of a contact, friend, neighbour, or family member. We have been blessed with great support while we've been here and all of that help would not have been available if we'd moved to Sydney or some other such place. Take people up on offers when you can if you could really use the help. Life's too short to learn everything the hard way.
Well, hopefully we can secure internet in the next couple of weeks. I could write several posts on the crappiness that is Australia broadband...but I'll save that for later.
Cheers!
Chris
Last weekend we made a trip down to the Gold Coast to hopefully catch some sun and possible some surf! We weren't disappointed in the availability of either. Surfers Paradise is kind of like the Miami of the Gold Coast. There are tons of skyscraper-style buildings, but it's not for commerce. It's all for housing! The night scene is pretty bumpin' and the hostels there are great. They pick you up at the bus stop and they'll run you back as well. Actually, for all would-be backpackers, it's a job you can actually have...driver. Such a sweet gig and it pays better than waiting tables. We ran into a Canadian Vancouverite at the local tourist booth and she's a pharmacist and her boyfriend is an electrical engineer, who is working as a server. Nice to know we're making a contribution to the local economies.
We were pretty diligent about putting on our sun screen, so we didn't get too tanned, but we had a great time at the beach. In the afternoon we'd usually pick up a six pack of stubbies and head back to the beach to sit and relax. At night we'd usually opt for wine and lay down a blanket and watch the moon rise over the ocean.
On the second last day we went for a surfing lesson, and we were really lucky because we were the only ones who signed up that day so we basically got a private lesson. Andrea started off pretty tentatively but then just started heaving that board into the water and jumping into the surf. Both of us got up on the board several times (me practically every time), but after a while Andrea got pretty tired from fighting the waves, which were good that day, and her progress was stifled. I'm not sure if I should be mentioning this, but she did describe her swim suit situation as "I feel like I have the entire ocean in my bottoms." You can imagine why she was a little...ornery.
That night we tried to chill out at one of the three Irish pubs in Surfers, but got rebuffed by the first one because I wasn't presentable enough to get in. To get in to an Irish pub. What was my gaffe? No shoes, only flip flops. These bastards had the worse 'live band' in there, which was basically a one man karaoke show, and a paltry band of customers on a slow night, and I got rebuffed. Not an Irish bloke amongst the lot of 'em, you can imagine. So we ended up at an even crappier Irish pub, but no music. Aww shucks! :P
That night the hostels in Surfers have what's called the "Big Night Out", BNO for short, with which they take you to 4 different bars on a pub crawl. It's a bit legendary, but after surfing all day we were surprisingly tired, and we're also 26 and a couple...not really pub crawl material. We are 'grown ups', after all. That night we were treated to the spectacle of two of our roommates in the dorm celebrating their newfound mutual attraction. I'm SO glad we saved that $10 by not getting a private room. We had a good laugh the next morning over breakfast, that's for sure!
This week we've settled down a bit more and got a lot of stuff done. Andrea arranged someone to deliver and install a previously owned washing machine, we bought some more kitchen stuff and living stuff, and today she's heading out to get a vacuum cleaner. Andrea's main priority in life is to make sure the world around her is clean, so today her mind should be satiated.
We've learned a few big tips on moving house and starting anew, and I will repeat some of them here:
1. Buy a good knife for cooking. You'll be replacing those crappy knives in about 2 days anyways.
2. Buy a good iron/ironing board if you are a professional. Used irons are a great deal, but that $10 you save on a used one will cost you the first time that thing overheats and burns your shirt to pieces.
3. Always leave early. You can never trust a map to determine how long it will take you to walk somewhere. Maps don't include hills!
4. Everything is transient. Just because you had nice, stable, free, wireless, broadband internet yesterday, doesn't mean that your girlfriend won't download 2GB worth of television shows and get that connection shut down until the end of the billing period.
5. Never underestimate the value of a contact, friend, neighbour, or family member. We have been blessed with great support while we've been here and all of that help would not have been available if we'd moved to Sydney or some other such place. Take people up on offers when you can if you could really use the help. Life's too short to learn everything the hard way.
Well, hopefully we can secure internet in the next couple of weeks. I could write several posts on the crappiness that is Australia broadband...but I'll save that for later.
Cheers!
Chris
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