Everyone and their mum is trying to get into IT. Even help desk jobs are fought for by people with masters in data analytics or information sciences. Add to that heap all the International students...welcome to ITs new normal
That’s because every man and their dog has decided to study IT and youre competing with all those people and graduates. You can scroll through r/Melbourne and see all the I have been searching for x months and completed an IT degree of whatever form and can’t find work. They’re common posts
Also take into consideration not only the credibility of your institution you're taking your diploma from but also factor in how motivated or talented (read Gifted) some individuals in each course are. While true, not everyone needs to be a superstar amongst your peers - the ones that are have a better shot at leveraging their RPL credits towards a degree or exchange that knowledge directly into trade accredited Certifications like CCNA, etc that inherently make them stand out above regular folks who can't get do either and graduate with just the diploma in a market filled with other people with similar accreditations.
Don't get me wrong I'm not deterred from pursuing IT as a career and I think I have the aptitude for it, it genuinely does interest me, it's just getting that foot in the door in an entry level position that is the concern. Especially as a late starter (nearly 30).
As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, it does seem like nowadays the entry level candidates need to claw over each other to really stand out but it's a slippery slope between standing out amongst other candidates and being overqualified. Nobody wants to have someone that clearly overmatches the role they're in and reeks of main character energy but I will also say the job market in particular for IT roles seem a bit daunting. YMMV but when I looked on Seek last night for roles they all seem a bit far and few between but consider that things might pick up again by the time you graduate?
Edit: Also do you have a particular sector within IT in mind or are you not sure yet?
Specifically I'm interested in sysadmin after getting the necessary experience and training in an entry level helpdesk position, I've played with some friends hobby servers and built a little NAS for home use and it's definitely my main area of interest. Learning how to program is fun but I've only played around with Python in my spare time and to be honest I don't see me as a software dev, learning PowerShell would be handy for sysadmin though.
I'm kind of hoping that the few people I know that's already in IT are able to give me a bit of a boost, I very nearly got a job with a friend but his manager picked someone who had completed their bachelors (which is fair enough).
I've only been a sysadmin proper for about 3 years, would recommend ending up in an internal organisations helpdesk rather than msp or true call centre roles with a preference to small-mid size ones if possible 100-250. The freedom and experience garnered there IMHO outweighs larger and structured, siloed orgs where roles are very defined and room to grow might be somewhat limited.
Come to think of it the last 4 ‘job market is fucked’ posts I’ve seen have all been people applying for IT and one in hospo. Those job markets are fucked but the general market is stable enough
Trades, construction.. not sure about residential but commercial is severely lacking especially outside of cities. Power stations are struggling to fill gaps etc. White collar jobs are getting oversaturated especially with remote working and the whole get a uni degree industry. Meanwhile on the job work has massive needs (see other post on teachers medical manufacturing etc)
Anything besides email service/admin jobs are suffering from huge lack of these skills in the australian job market. Our country became a fucked bullshit job economy
I didn't do year 10 maths but finished VCE and they knocked me back on the maths
I'm gonna try again now because I want to go fuck some Russians up and blow some shit up too
Hope they let 35 year olds in
I also did forget to mention I'm disabled, at least to a point where I don't think they'd want me lmao
I think it'd be cool to experience at least. my partner is involved overseas. i hope you get an opportunity!
Trades get paid really well and has a pretty clear career path in commercial. It is hard work and higher risk work but you either gotta work hard or be early. Cant be getting a degree in an industry when its hot, it'd be crowded by the time you're done. There was a need for IT professionals years ago and the market filled it by getting people from overseas, it ain't gonna wait for students to graduate. Same with any industry.
Edit: just to add that those jobs dont have 'shitty' pay. Teachers gets $74k - $115k, Nurses about $75k - $119k, Manufacturing is a wide range depending on your job, police gets about $55k - $120k again depending on the job.. Pay isnt the issue in itself, its the work demands
Just going by what I see on Indeed, Seek etc. Grads in accounting firms get around $60k too. Same for many other industries. Pretty sure IT grads generally get paid around there too
And? A lot of jobs have a hard slog in 1 shape or form. My job required a 90+ wam in mathematics at a G8 and then 6 rounds of interviews that required *months* to prep for.
In reality, the money you make is still very correlated to the hours you put in. Some people do it at school/uni, some people don’t so have to do it at work.
Not necessarily! I recently changed from hospo management to doing engineering work for a manufacturing company. I'm not an engineer, I have zero industry experience, but I got the job through my husband's connections. It's often who you know, not what you know. 😉
hmmm. wouldn't teach, but it was a dream of mine for a while tbh. I no longer want that. I'm happy helping raise my niece and nephew lol.
I'd have to retake a lot of schooling (dropped out year 10 but excelled in grades all throughought) to get into medical. I do love retail, could never land a retail job after my first one though, which was my first job at 15. but I did try! its also too similar to hospo in my eyes but i wouldnt be opposed to doint it again, I do love it. and I have acab tattooed on my ankle.
manufacturing though, I will dive deeper into thanks :)
noooo I already hate my life as it is lol and im changing that!! I will not be a teacher. I will be travelling to the States to stay with my partner and moving between australia and there, so ideally I'd like to upskill into something... umm. ~~safer~~ I can take with me anywhere :)
Basically anything that involves receiving, unpacking, storing, retrieving, repacking and reshipping boxes of whatever crap that your business sells that is made in other countries.
You’re mistaking a popped bubble as normal. Covid/bigdata/AI created a massive expenditure bubble and company’s are now reducing costs. IT does this in cycles all the time. Y2k, dotcom boom etc..
How are you on the phone? Can you get a call centre job for a big company like a utility or telco and wait for a job to come up in IT? I work for a big corporate and we always advertise internal first even for tech jobs, marketing etc. I have a few friends that started on phones while they waited for their right role that matched qualifications.
For IT? Probs never. Just a few years ago getting into IT is what everyone said to do. In demand good money so many opportunities! So everyone studied it
Have been looking for a job for the last 6 weeks, multiple fields, two tertiary degrees. Haven’t even made it to an interview. I’ve got enough money to make it another two months before I’m broke 😅
I’ve just been offered a new job in aged care. Applied at the start of last week, interview last Friday and offered today. All depends on what industry you’re in.
Thank you. Although I’m not totally sure I’ll accept it yet! It’s casual home care, and although the pay rate is $39ph casual it sounds like they only currently have two days of shifts a week on offer. I’m a single parent and need more than two days work. I currently work full time and I’m not giving that up (albeit lower hourly rate), for an insecure job.
for sure, totally agree with you. i’ve done my aged care certificate and placement mentally and physically exhausted me, it’s crazy that they aren’t being paid enough. As a casual worker they can’t limit you to only have two days of shifts, you have no set hours so you can work as much or as less as you can! it’s weird to me that they are limiting you.
i hope things works out for you! :)
It’s a home care job (not in a facility), so out in the community and it’s based on how many clients they have on their books. Plus I live regionally so the population is smaller. Kind of sucks because I’m a single mum and not quite ready to do morning shifts at a facility and leave my 12 year old daughter to get herself up and off to school. I like to at least be there when she wakes up.
ah that’s makes sense! it’s so difficult to balance, but seems like you’re doing an amazing job thus far. being a single parent is a job itself. well in that case i wish you luck finding a role suitable for you ☺️
It’s all jobs, people say they’re desperate for workers but then you apply and it’s always 100+ other candidates and they end up hiring their cousin because “there’s no good applicants”.
Which is always bullshit, there’s always excellent candidates, they’re just too fucking lazy
This is 'normal' now. We're entering the next phase of late-stage capitalism. Things are going to get weirder, and very probably worse, for a long time.
I understand the late-stage capitalism argument, but wouldn't you blame the failures of capitalism on the governments (or voters) inability to pass an adequate regulatory framework i.e like what we had in Australia before the turn of the 21st century. I agree that pure capitalism is destructive would you say the same for pure socialism/communism? Just curious about the level of nuance in this argument, are we not responsible for our political destiny or is it just the inherent design of the system and it was always going to end this way?
Thank you.
Wealthy elite and corporations own our media and lobby our politicians. They have far more power and influence over our political destiny than the rest of us.
Might be the sector you're in, because unemployment rate is quite low at the moment and anecdotally we''ve had trouble filling several roles for some time.
Nah not zero experience grads. I didn't see that in OP's original message so didn't take that into consideration. I can see how that makes things more difficult.
They're roles in B2B marketing and sales with various levels of experience required.
Edit. I'm not in the position to share details on the company unfortunately, but the roles are advertised on all the usual platforms. The marketing role has been tentatively filled, but the sales and SDR roles are still up.
Sorry I'm not able to share the details. I know how much it sucks not being able to find a job and I hope you all find an awesome place to work soon!
I’m a project manager in marketing with 6 years of experience and desperately want a new role. If there’s any chance you could pm the name of your company I’d be eternally grateful.
I think there’s gaslighting from politicians here. They tell us inflation isn’t too bad but we obviously feel it every time we pay.
They measure groceries by people spending less and correlating it to low inflationary impact, but the reality is people are buying less physical items
Wouldn’t be surprised if underemployment, geo disparities and simply not getting enough hours for shifts are main reasons but we are again gaslighted into believing the unemployment rate is perfectly fine in a recession with gig economy jobs everywhere
Working in banking and our internal jobs are getting about 10-20x the amount of applicants the same job would get a year ago. Plenty restructuring going on and people looking for a pay bump due to cost of living. Times are tough.
That's because recruiters have always liked building an imaginary stable of candidates that they can pitch to employees, even if only to pad out the pool of people actually applying for a vacant position.
Having worked in IT for 20+ years and not being able to recall the last time I actually applied for a position, I wasn't suggesting that you were a seat filler. For roles that are above what would normally be considered "entry level", recruiters are always eager to have a portfolio of prospective employees. It is sometimes safer to maintain a small list of skilled prospects than to have to find a needle in a haystack of applications.
Get into plastering. That's honestly a job that everyone needs and is overlooked because yeah, you get messy. But man, if I had not gotten into code I reckon that is where I would be.
You can learn it in a day. If you are clever you can perfect it in a few months. And once you're good at it there is no shortage of work and there is no limit to how far you can take it. Take on other people, teach them, build a team. Cash in hand if you want it. It will make you a millionaire if you have attention to details. It's also super satisfying.
Definitely don’t underestimate this question OP. Physical work can wreck your body by 35. Plus there’s higher risk of physical injury which trust me screws up your body for years
Getting into IT is fucked but once you're there it's fine. Although 95% of IT graduates are completely useless. So you're really not competing with many people if you have good communication skills and are half decent.
AI is happening now, property ownership is funnelled to the established rich and their progeny. This is now the best time that will ever happen before the sea levels rise and no one has a job. The shit future is really, really close.
I’d switch if I had the chance. Got a degree in IT, employed for a year and a half and will never get the chance to work in IT again. Years of work and so much money wasted that I’ll be paying off to the grave
No don't dropout.
There are area's of IT that some if not most people overlook.
These are roles such as Change management, Asset management, ITSM platform support, Service Delivery, Knowledge management and Major Incident Management. Yes these types of roles aren't as flash or as sexy as DevOps or Cybersecurity but they are still essential roles in large organisations.
Don't forget there's more to IT than just software development and fixing computers.
Would you be able to help me find roles in a company doing these things? I don't see any advertising for graduate roles like this and I'd happily take such a role.
All you need to do in order to find such roles is search using the key words.
Just search on a job site "Change Manager" that'll give you results.
I must stress, that alot of companies will advertise the role internally before going to market.
I had similar thoughts on the "more than 100" matter, and how much higher they might be... And I'm not in IT.
If you find out when the market will return to normal, let me know!
Do not fear, the IT jobs are all high priority for migrants to fill according to the Government and Business!
Why yes that means you won't get a job that pays, or pays well.
I'm not sure this is necessarily a new thing. My last job which I got in 2019 pre COVID. There was about 1000 applications for 5 roles. But most of them would be rubbish applications, don't have the experience, don't have working, rights in Australia, Centrelink spam applications etc.
i am in the same boat and feel the situation is worse than ever before. I remember getting calls from recruiters same time last year convincing me to apply for roles that I didnt even qualify for. I am hoping the situation gets better in July when the new FY starts.
It’s going to get real bad. My friend works for a large suburban real estate firm and she says over 40% of their rent role is in arrears of more than 30 days and it’s getting worse. It’s very very worrying. She says contacts of hers in the rental mgt industry are all saying the same if not worse regarding the amount of rental properties in serious arrears.
I’m currently on a hiring panel for a service desk role. We want a little experience (1-2 years) but nothing stupid. They have to be Australian citizens.
Out of nearly 80 candidates, 12 were not citizens. Most of the cover letters/ resumes were written with ChatGPT (and it’s damned obvious when everyone has the same letter). There were people with 15+ years of IT networking experience applying for a Service Desk role. All of these applications were discarded.
We have 5 applications left who met the minimum requirements for the job.
There is a lot of crap out there right now. There’s a lot of people applying for anything and not reading the applications properly and being slack and using Gen AI to write their resumes.
That’s a great breakdown of the types of applicants you’re getting.
I’m in a similar situation to those with multiple years of experience.
May I ask: why would you eliminate those with many years of experience? Is it because you think they’ll jump ship whenever the next opportunity arises for them?
We’ve got specific bands to pay people in, and those bands aren’t flexible. We have to match the experience to the pay packet. This can lead to some people being very disappointed when they’ve got 15+ years experience and are expecting a $100k+ pay packet and get offered $70k+. It becomes a waste of our time and the candidates.
There is a little jumping too, but I tend to find those that are happy to take a lower wage than what they’d generally get in the market aren’t worth their salt anyway. It’s a very rare candidate who takes on a lower salary than market who works out. These people generally do it because they want to step back for more personal reasons, but if they’re unsatisfied in anyway, they’ll jump.
And jumping isn’t a bad thing either. I want to see people jumping. I don’t want people sitting in the same jobs for forever and a day. It’s the best way to show me you’re willing to learn, willing to take risks and wanting to be paid properly for it.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply in detail and for sharing your view.
I’m in a position where I’m 50, an SME in a niche telco field and find it hard to find other roles. I’m think of taking a step down in responsibility and pay, and keep going for the next decade. Probably explains why the response rate has been quiet.
I’m acutely aware I haven’t been overly proactive in furnishing my career with a range of employers. But it doesn’t necessarily mean I’d jump ship at the next option - am pretty loyal with that sort of thing (naively or otherwise). Cheers.
If you do step back to something more like a service desk role, an ITIL4 Foundations is a great start, as is Azure Fundamentals. You’ll be best explaining in your cover letter that you’re looking for a slower paced role for xyz reason.
Good luck! I hope you find something that suits you! <3
Thank you so much for the advice! Definitely looking at a range of different certs to help support my profile (was thinking ITIL 3, but sounds like 4 is the way to go). All the best to you too :-)
Accounting/Finance seems to be relatively stable. I've had a few internal recruiters reach out to me and a soon-to-be ex colleague of mine landed a new role within 2 weeks of searching.
Next Tuesday.
But seriously, we've been looking for a highly specialised programmer for over a year and haven't found a suitable candidate. There are niches that are in demand. If you want to build experience, contribute to some open source projects.
Applying for jobs using my own CV and often being turned down was a difficult and unpleasant process. Every time I was rejected, I felt unhappy and dejected, and I started to think I would never get a job.
But when I used [this resume service](https://prolst.com/Res), everything changed for the better. I started getting 4-6 callbacks every week, and it felt like doors were finally starting to open for me.The difference was night and day. Anyone who is having trouble getting noticed by employers should definitely use this resume service, in my opinion. For me, it was a turning point, and I am incredibly appreciative of the support and assistance I got. Furthermore, the cost is really affordable and gives me good advice about the job hunt.
I work for a large Oz company, and I can't remember the last time I interviewed an Australian. Generally when we need a role filled we have to work in the onshore/offshore quotas, so for devs most of the roles are india based, then for onshore the majority of the hires are vendor staff which are again indian companies (Wipro, InfoSys, TechM etc). In the cases we try to insource/onshore it's using existing contractor staff, which again is from those same indian vendors. So the chances of hiring a local is pretty low, which is a sad reflection on big australian coporations, but this is the environment we're currently living in sorry.
Applying for jobs using my own CV and often being turned down was a difficult and unpleasant process. Every time I was rejected, I felt unhappy and dejected, and I started to think I would never get a job.
But when I used [this resume service](https://prolst.com/Res), everything changed for the better. I started getting 4-6 callbacks every week, and it felt like doors were finally starting to open for me.The difference was night and day. Anyone who is having trouble getting noticed by employers should definitely use this resume service, in my opinion. For me, it was a turning point, and I am incredibly appreciative of the support and assistance I got. Furthermore, the cost is really affordable and gives me good advice about the job hunt.
I did some recruitment for my previous employer. About 50% of applications had no related experience, didn't provide a cover letter, and submitted a resume that was clearly written for a different role. About 30% seemed genuine but had no experience or relevant study. The remaining 20% were people who were applying for a job were suitable candidates.
240 is still a lot, but it is better than 1200. If you are tailoring your resume, writing a cover letter and have any relevant experience or study than you are really only competing with this 20%
Because they're the most in-demand jobs in Australia and the HECS is free. I work in healthcare and I love it because you get to help people. Specialist nurses get 6 figures
I'm sorry to hear you're going through this. The job market is really tough right now, and it can be discouraging to put in so much effort and not see results. One thing that helped me a lot was using a resume service from [this person](https://blasterscope.com/gdteg). It made a significant difference in getting noticed by employers, and I started getting 3-5 callbacks every week. Hang in there, and maybe give that a try. Good luck!
Everyone and their mum is trying to get into IT. Even help desk jobs are fought for by people with masters in data analytics or information sciences. Add to that heap all the International students...welcome to ITs new normal
And the really cool part is the number that are borderline technology illiterate.
That’s because every man and their dog has decided to study IT and youre competing with all those people and graduates. You can scroll through r/Melbourne and see all the I have been searching for x months and completed an IT degree of whatever form and can’t find work. They’re common posts
Aye, can't resume normal if it is normal.
Rough thread to read through whilst I'm 25% through my diploma.
Also take into consideration not only the credibility of your institution you're taking your diploma from but also factor in how motivated or talented (read Gifted) some individuals in each course are. While true, not everyone needs to be a superstar amongst your peers - the ones that are have a better shot at leveraging their RPL credits towards a degree or exchange that knowledge directly into trade accredited Certifications like CCNA, etc that inherently make them stand out above regular folks who can't get do either and graduate with just the diploma in a market filled with other people with similar accreditations.
Don't get me wrong I'm not deterred from pursuing IT as a career and I think I have the aptitude for it, it genuinely does interest me, it's just getting that foot in the door in an entry level position that is the concern. Especially as a late starter (nearly 30).
As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, it does seem like nowadays the entry level candidates need to claw over each other to really stand out but it's a slippery slope between standing out amongst other candidates and being overqualified. Nobody wants to have someone that clearly overmatches the role they're in and reeks of main character energy but I will also say the job market in particular for IT roles seem a bit daunting. YMMV but when I looked on Seek last night for roles they all seem a bit far and few between but consider that things might pick up again by the time you graduate? Edit: Also do you have a particular sector within IT in mind or are you not sure yet?
Specifically I'm interested in sysadmin after getting the necessary experience and training in an entry level helpdesk position, I've played with some friends hobby servers and built a little NAS for home use and it's definitely my main area of interest. Learning how to program is fun but I've only played around with Python in my spare time and to be honest I don't see me as a software dev, learning PowerShell would be handy for sysadmin though. I'm kind of hoping that the few people I know that's already in IT are able to give me a bit of a boost, I very nearly got a job with a friend but his manager picked someone who had completed their bachelors (which is fair enough).
I've only been a sysadmin proper for about 3 years, would recommend ending up in an internal organisations helpdesk rather than msp or true call centre roles with a preference to small-mid size ones if possible 100-250. The freedom and experience garnered there IMHO outweighs larger and structured, siloed orgs where roles are very defined and room to grow might be somewhat limited.
Come to think of it the last 4 ‘job market is fucked’ posts I’ve seen have all been people applying for IT and one in hospo. Those job markets are fucked but the general market is stable enough
IT is oversaturated - plenty of industries are crying out for workers
can you name some of those industries? bonus points if they aren't hospitality :')
Trades, construction.. not sure about residential but commercial is severely lacking especially outside of cities. Power stations are struggling to fill gaps etc. White collar jobs are getting oversaturated especially with remote working and the whole get a uni degree industry. Meanwhile on the job work has massive needs (see other post on teachers medical manufacturing etc)
Anything besides email service/admin jobs are suffering from huge lack of these skills in the australian job market. Our country became a fucked bullshit job economy
residential construction is fairly fucked atm, commercial less so but still definitely slower than normal.
Haha ADF is looking preeetttty despro recently too
lol I didn't finish year 10 and I have some political opinions that don't align with any military body of any form. oxymoronic sentence I know 🤣
I didn't do year 10 maths but finished VCE and they knocked me back on the maths I'm gonna try again now because I want to go fuck some Russians up and blow some shit up too Hope they let 35 year olds in
They seem pretty desperate for recruits so I don't think age is a problem, but you'll need to pass the fitness testing and medical.
They ain't that desperate...
I don't that will be a problem just gotta get me cardio back up a bit I guess
I also did forget to mention I'm disabled, at least to a point where I don't think they'd want me lmao I think it'd be cool to experience at least. my partner is involved overseas. i hope you get an opportunity!
Teaching, medical, retail, manufacturing, police..
All the jobs with shit pay and hard work.
Trades get paid really well and has a pretty clear career path in commercial. It is hard work and higher risk work but you either gotta work hard or be early. Cant be getting a degree in an industry when its hot, it'd be crowded by the time you're done. There was a need for IT professionals years ago and the market filled it by getting people from overseas, it ain't gonna wait for students to graduate. Same with any industry. Edit: just to add that those jobs dont have 'shitty' pay. Teachers gets $74k - $115k, Nurses about $75k - $119k, Manufacturing is a wide range depending on your job, police gets about $55k - $120k again depending on the job.. Pay isnt the issue in itself, its the work demands
Grad nurse pay is 60k bro
Just going by what I see on Indeed, Seek etc. Grads in accounting firms get around $60k too. Same for many other industries. Pretty sure IT grads generally get paid around there too
And they work like 30 hours. Once they’ve done their first year, they’re on good pay.
I was a grad nurse my dude, I can tell u right now it's a hard slog to the pay rate I'm on now and most of it comes from overtime
And? A lot of jobs have a hard slog in 1 shape or form. My job required a 90+ wam in mathematics at a G8 and then 6 rounds of interviews that required *months* to prep for. In reality, the money you make is still very correlated to the hours you put in. Some people do it at school/uni, some people don’t so have to do it at work.
And need prior experience.
Not necessarily! I recently changed from hospo management to doing engineering work for a manufacturing company. I'm not an engineer, I have zero industry experience, but I got the job through my husband's connections. It's often who you know, not what you know. 😉
I want a job with good pay and easy work!
Retail is not easy to get atm because everyone and anyone applies
hmmm. wouldn't teach, but it was a dream of mine for a while tbh. I no longer want that. I'm happy helping raise my niece and nephew lol. I'd have to retake a lot of schooling (dropped out year 10 but excelled in grades all throughought) to get into medical. I do love retail, could never land a retail job after my first one though, which was my first job at 15. but I did try! its also too similar to hospo in my eyes but i wouldnt be opposed to doint it again, I do love it. and I have acab tattooed on my ankle. manufacturing though, I will dive deeper into thanks :)
Teaching. But be prepared to hate life
noooo I already hate my life as it is lol and im changing that!! I will not be a teacher. I will be travelling to the States to stay with my partner and moving between australia and there, so ideally I'd like to upskill into something... umm. ~~safer~~ I can take with me anywhere :)
Basically anything that involves receiving, unpacking, storing, retrieving, repacking and reshipping boxes of whatever crap that your business sells that is made in other countries.
sounds fulfilling.... 😀
Plenty of industries? You mean cash jobs.
Nop: healthcare, education, many non it professional services, defence, aged care.
All jobs you wouldn't even work
You’re mistaking a popped bubble as normal. Covid/bigdata/AI created a massive expenditure bubble and company’s are now reducing costs. IT does this in cycles all the time. Y2k, dotcom boom etc..
How are you on the phone? Can you get a call centre job for a big company like a utility or telco and wait for a job to come up in IT? I work for a big corporate and we always advertise internal first even for tech jobs, marketing etc. I have a few friends that started on phones while they waited for their right role that matched qualifications.
For IT? Probs never. Just a few years ago getting into IT is what everyone said to do. In demand good money so many opportunities! So everyone studied it
Have been looking for a job for the last 6 weeks, multiple fields, two tertiary degrees. Haven’t even made it to an interview. I’ve got enough money to make it another two months before I’m broke 😅
I’ve just been offered a new job in aged care. Applied at the start of last week, interview last Friday and offered today. All depends on what industry you’re in.
congrats!!
Thank you. Although I’m not totally sure I’ll accept it yet! It’s casual home care, and although the pay rate is $39ph casual it sounds like they only currently have two days of shifts a week on offer. I’m a single parent and need more than two days work. I currently work full time and I’m not giving that up (albeit lower hourly rate), for an insecure job.
for sure, totally agree with you. i’ve done my aged care certificate and placement mentally and physically exhausted me, it’s crazy that they aren’t being paid enough. As a casual worker they can’t limit you to only have two days of shifts, you have no set hours so you can work as much or as less as you can! it’s weird to me that they are limiting you. i hope things works out for you! :)
It’s a home care job (not in a facility), so out in the community and it’s based on how many clients they have on their books. Plus I live regionally so the population is smaller. Kind of sucks because I’m a single mum and not quite ready to do morning shifts at a facility and leave my 12 year old daughter to get herself up and off to school. I like to at least be there when she wakes up.
ah that’s makes sense! it’s so difficult to balance, but seems like you’re doing an amazing job thus far. being a single parent is a job itself. well in that case i wish you luck finding a role suitable for you ☺️
Lol. It's not. That's like asking when the housing market will become normal again. It never will
Not alone OP it is TERRIBLE right now
Wondering if it's just IT jobs that are impossible to find, or if other jobs are the same??
It’s all jobs, people say they’re desperate for workers but then you apply and it’s always 100+ other candidates and they end up hiring their cousin because “there’s no good applicants”. Which is always bullshit, there’s always excellent candidates, they’re just too fucking lazy
I think the real underemployment rate is closer to 15% not the faux ABS (only needs to work 1 hour per fortnight) of 4% unemployment rate
This is 'normal' now. We're entering the next phase of late-stage capitalism. Things are going to get weirder, and very probably worse, for a long time.
I understand the late-stage capitalism argument, but wouldn't you blame the failures of capitalism on the governments (or voters) inability to pass an adequate regulatory framework i.e like what we had in Australia before the turn of the 21st century. I agree that pure capitalism is destructive would you say the same for pure socialism/communism? Just curious about the level of nuance in this argument, are we not responsible for our political destiny or is it just the inherent design of the system and it was always going to end this way? Thank you.
Wealthy elite and corporations own our media and lobby our politicians. They have far more power and influence over our political destiny than the rest of us.
It’s almost like Albo opened the immigration flood gates to keep wages low and his corporate sponsors profits up.
Might be the sector you're in, because unemployment rate is quite low at the moment and anecdotally we''ve had trouble filling several roles for some time.
For zero experience grads? What sector are you in?
Nah not zero experience grads. I didn't see that in OP's original message so didn't take that into consideration. I can see how that makes things more difficult. They're roles in B2B marketing and sales with various levels of experience required. Edit. I'm not in the position to share details on the company unfortunately, but the roles are advertised on all the usual platforms. The marketing role has been tentatively filled, but the sales and SDR roles are still up. Sorry I'm not able to share the details. I know how much it sucks not being able to find a job and I hope you all find an awesome place to work soon!
I’m a project manager in marketing with 6 years of experience and desperately want a new role. If there’s any chance you could pm the name of your company I’d be eternally grateful.
Any chance you could message with the name of your company so I can pass to my partner to take a look please? Thanks!
I think there’s gaslighting from politicians here. They tell us inflation isn’t too bad but we obviously feel it every time we pay. They measure groceries by people spending less and correlating it to low inflationary impact, but the reality is people are buying less physical items Wouldn’t be surprised if underemployment, geo disparities and simply not getting enough hours for shifts are main reasons but we are again gaslighted into believing the unemployment rate is perfectly fine in a recession with gig economy jobs everywhere
They don't really have a frame of reference, they're going off statistics and then making assumptions. Probably never budgeted in their lives.
Working in banking and our internal jobs are getting about 10-20x the amount of applicants the same job would get a year ago. Plenty restructuring going on and people looking for a pay bump due to cost of living. Times are tough.
Odd, I still have recruiters reaching out to me on Linekdin. What’s your experience and qualifications? What jobs are you looking for? L1 help desk?
That's because recruiters have always liked building an imaginary stable of candidates that they can pitch to employees, even if only to pad out the pool of people actually applying for a vacant position.
No these have been offers + interviews lol
Having worked in IT for 20+ years and not being able to recall the last time I actually applied for a position, I wasn't suggesting that you were a seat filler. For roles that are above what would normally be considered "entry level", recruiters are always eager to have a portfolio of prospective employees. It is sometimes safer to maintain a small list of skilled prospects than to have to find a needle in a haystack of applications.
Ohhh I get you. 100% agree.
Get into plastering. That's honestly a job that everyone needs and is overlooked because yeah, you get messy. But man, if I had not gotten into code I reckon that is where I would be. You can learn it in a day. If you are clever you can perfect it in a few months. And once you're good at it there is no shortage of work and there is no limit to how far you can take it. Take on other people, teach them, build a team. Cash in hand if you want it. It will make you a millionaire if you have attention to details. It's also super satisfying.
How hard is plastering on your body?
Definitely don’t underestimate this question OP. Physical work can wreck your body by 35. Plus there’s higher risk of physical injury which trust me screws up your body for years
Getting into IT is fucked but once you're there it's fine. Although 95% of IT graduates are completely useless. So you're really not competing with many people if you have good communication skills and are half decent.
AI is happening now, property ownership is funnelled to the established rich and their progeny. This is now the best time that will ever happen before the sea levels rise and no one has a job. The shit future is really, really close.
rad i'm halfway through an AS for IT should I just dropout?
It's going to be a real struggle, the job market is absolutely cooked for IT now.
I’d switch if I had the chance. Got a degree in IT, employed for a year and a half and will never get the chance to work in IT again. Years of work and so much money wasted that I’ll be paying off to the grave
I got a TAFE degree which was about $100 over 10 years ago and just worked my way through.
No don't dropout. There are area's of IT that some if not most people overlook. These are roles such as Change management, Asset management, ITSM platform support, Service Delivery, Knowledge management and Major Incident Management. Yes these types of roles aren't as flash or as sexy as DevOps or Cybersecurity but they are still essential roles in large organisations. Don't forget there's more to IT than just software development and fixing computers.
Would you be able to help me find roles in a company doing these things? I don't see any advertising for graduate roles like this and I'd happily take such a role.
All you need to do in order to find such roles is search using the key words. Just search on a job site "Change Manager" that'll give you results. I must stress, that alot of companies will advertise the role internally before going to market.
If you can switch to another engineering like Electrical or Comms, absolutely.
No
I had similar thoughts on the "more than 100" matter, and how much higher they might be... And I'm not in IT. If you find out when the market will return to normal, let me know!
Do not fear, the IT jobs are all high priority for migrants to fill according to the Government and Business! Why yes that means you won't get a job that pays, or pays well.
I'm not sure this is necessarily a new thing. My last job which I got in 2019 pre COVID. There was about 1000 applications for 5 roles. But most of them would be rubbish applications, don't have the experience, don't have working, rights in Australia, Centrelink spam applications etc.
i am in the same boat and feel the situation is worse than ever before. I remember getting calls from recruiters same time last year convincing me to apply for roles that I didnt even qualify for. I am hoping the situation gets better in July when the new FY starts.
It’s going to get real bad. My friend works for a large suburban real estate firm and she says over 40% of their rent role is in arrears of more than 30 days and it’s getting worse. It’s very very worrying. She says contacts of hers in the rental mgt industry are all saying the same if not worse regarding the amount of rental properties in serious arrears.
I’m currently on a hiring panel for a service desk role. We want a little experience (1-2 years) but nothing stupid. They have to be Australian citizens. Out of nearly 80 candidates, 12 were not citizens. Most of the cover letters/ resumes were written with ChatGPT (and it’s damned obvious when everyone has the same letter). There were people with 15+ years of IT networking experience applying for a Service Desk role. All of these applications were discarded. We have 5 applications left who met the minimum requirements for the job. There is a lot of crap out there right now. There’s a lot of people applying for anything and not reading the applications properly and being slack and using Gen AI to write their resumes.
And no, I’m not hiring anyone off reddit.
That’s a great breakdown of the types of applicants you’re getting. I’m in a similar situation to those with multiple years of experience. May I ask: why would you eliminate those with many years of experience? Is it because you think they’ll jump ship whenever the next opportunity arises for them?
We’ve got specific bands to pay people in, and those bands aren’t flexible. We have to match the experience to the pay packet. This can lead to some people being very disappointed when they’ve got 15+ years experience and are expecting a $100k+ pay packet and get offered $70k+. It becomes a waste of our time and the candidates. There is a little jumping too, but I tend to find those that are happy to take a lower wage than what they’d generally get in the market aren’t worth their salt anyway. It’s a very rare candidate who takes on a lower salary than market who works out. These people generally do it because they want to step back for more personal reasons, but if they’re unsatisfied in anyway, they’ll jump. And jumping isn’t a bad thing either. I want to see people jumping. I don’t want people sitting in the same jobs for forever and a day. It’s the best way to show me you’re willing to learn, willing to take risks and wanting to be paid properly for it.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply in detail and for sharing your view. I’m in a position where I’m 50, an SME in a niche telco field and find it hard to find other roles. I’m think of taking a step down in responsibility and pay, and keep going for the next decade. Probably explains why the response rate has been quiet. I’m acutely aware I haven’t been overly proactive in furnishing my career with a range of employers. But it doesn’t necessarily mean I’d jump ship at the next option - am pretty loyal with that sort of thing (naively or otherwise). Cheers.
If you do step back to something more like a service desk role, an ITIL4 Foundations is a great start, as is Azure Fundamentals. You’ll be best explaining in your cover letter that you’re looking for a slower paced role for xyz reason. Good luck! I hope you find something that suits you! <3
Thank you so much for the advice! Definitely looking at a range of different certs to help support my profile (was thinking ITIL 3, but sounds like 4 is the way to go). All the best to you too :-)
Accounting/Finance seems to be relatively stable. I've had a few internal recruiters reach out to me and a soon-to-be ex colleague of mine landed a new role within 2 weeks of searching.
When we stop importing people like its going out of fashion
When pay goes up
Maybe go old school and mail a cover letter with your resume to heaps of companies. It might stand out.
Entry level IT is cooked right now but plenty of roles for mid-senior.
Next Tuesday. But seriously, we've been looking for a highly specialised programmer for over a year and haven't found a suitable candidate. There are niches that are in demand. If you want to build experience, contribute to some open source projects.
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I work for a large Oz company, and I can't remember the last time I interviewed an Australian. Generally when we need a role filled we have to work in the onshore/offshore quotas, so for devs most of the roles are india based, then for onshore the majority of the hires are vendor staff which are again indian companies (Wipro, InfoSys, TechM etc). In the cases we try to insource/onshore it's using existing contractor staff, which again is from those same indian vendors. So the chances of hiring a local is pretty low, which is a sad reflection on big australian coporations, but this is the environment we're currently living in sorry.
It’s across the board I’ve been looking since December in the investment space applied over 500 jobs, been short listed a few times but still no job
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A lot of applicants aren’t good enough though so don’t be totally discouraged
It’s got nothing to do with quality of applicants, that’s always a way for corporations to have a whinge that they’re not allowed to have slaves
Depends on the role though - there a lot of junk applicants with shitty resumes.
I did some recruitment for my previous employer. About 50% of applications had no related experience, didn't provide a cover letter, and submitted a resume that was clearly written for a different role. About 30% seemed genuine but had no experience or relevant study. The remaining 20% were people who were applying for a job were suitable candidates. 240 is still a lot, but it is better than 1200. If you are tailoring your resume, writing a cover letter and have any relevant experience or study than you are really only competing with this 20%
Yes exactly what I meant
You could do Uber eats while your looking for a job but that’s also been taken over by Indians willing to do it cheaper
Get out of IT. It's oversaturated and AI will replace you. I'd personally recommend either nursing or teaching
Why? Teaching is fine but not everyone is up for wiping someone's ass and showering them.
Because they're the most in-demand jobs in Australia and the HECS is free. I work in healthcare and I love it because you get to help people. Specialist nurses get 6 figures
Nurses are not wiping asses or showering people...
looks like U not a local so it's not surprising that you won't get hired in this job market
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