h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

(Going offline now. See you in the... evening.)

I'm in a strange version of limbo at the moment, owing to some bureaucratic nonsense, but the general purpose of the area I w*rk in is to detect welfare fraud & prosecute those responsible. I have problems with the number of innocent people who get caught up in our processes by accident.

Just an idea Ivan & i am renowned for having daft ideas...but also renowned for having daft ideas that somehow work.

OK, ambition = running bookshop; sounds ideal for you. Plus wants to help out social stuff.

First, ask all your mates to dump those books which are cluttering up their place on you.Keep the best ones for yourself!

Do you have any sort of local outdoor market? Could you go around door to door or put ads asking for unwanted ; pay a very nominal amount to buy them outright & offer to enroll person in a book exchnage scheme ie:"You give me 10 books, i give you 10$, which you sure as hell need at the end of the month, you can either take the money or simply swap your books; normally i sell the books at 2$ each"

You very quickly gain a stock of second hand books & a customer base; downside is you have to give up your (presumably) Saturday morning & pay a nominal fee for a stall, but having had friends who have done this, they reckon it's worth it, both financially & socially (grand pi**up after market day finishes!)

And then you start searching for a nice cheap little shop to rent.

and then you tell the tossers at w**k to sod off.

zdt

The local market already has two well-established booksellers, and the almost-local market has two as well... That is the obstacle; market saturation. It's a good scheme, though. I suspect that's how they got started.

I've found a couple of jobs to apply for. Now it's just a matter of writing the applications. (That'll be about 10 pages for each, along with the covering letters and the standard application forms.)

Jobs in the same town, Ivan? Or are you thinking about moving elsewhere?

I hate job applications All that effort Mind you, this job I walked into

Any opportunity to be a consultant with the skills set and experience that you have? I can recommend it

There's no scope for me to be a consultant. Not yet, anyway. I have no particularly rare or unusual skillset to use as a selling-point, but I might pick one up in due course.

One of the job applications asks exactly the same questions as the last one I wrote (and got an interview on the basis of the application, and came second). So that's the effort halved, already. I just need to change some dates and add a couple of lines.

Forgot to mention - these jobs are both in Canberra still.

Much better if you've completed the process before And relatively recently too. Good luck. When are the closing dates?

Btw; I bet you have a lot more skills than you realise It wasn't until I sat down and wrote them down that I figured that I could do the job I'm doing now.

Fb

Closing date is 2 December.

The problem with my current skillset is that it maps very closely onto the sort of w*rk I'm trying to escape - focussed on IT and fraud detection. I need to decide which aspects to highlight, and which to play down, to make it look like a good skillset for some other sort of w*rk.

"That'll be about 10 pages for each, along with the covering letters and the standard application forms."

Ten pages of what That's surely not your CV!

If you have interviewed people regarding fraud detection, that'll stand you in good stead for customer service and welfare-related w*rk.

Just what i was about to say, Snaily! If you look at it from the other point of view, you are well equipped to do stuff like advocating peoples personal rights, challenging discrimination etc, 'cos you can then go & hassle the Mr Global Nasty type characters with a clear conscience.

Te he, Gawd help 'em if they get Ivan in a vile mood on a bad day with a !

zdt

The 10 pages of stuff is generally a 2-page detailed CV, a one-page Statement of Claims, and a page or so on each of the selection criteria. (Fb, here's another reason I keep putting off writing for the EG. Brain fatigue and aversion to writing structured texts.)

I've considered moving to the other side of the welfare sector - supporting the individual, rather than w*rking for government - but that isn't something I can do immediately on leaving this agency, for legal reasons. (Conflict of interest, Official Secrets Act, and so forth.) Even if I go there, I still need to do something else for at least a year before I can get involved. *sigh*

The closet-Capitalist in me also keeps reminding me that w*rking in welfare is no way to make a living. It would keep me afloat, it's true, but I'd end up on welfare myself on retirement - and I know what the government does to people on welfare.So there you go - it's the usual conflict between principles and practicalities.

Bookselling isn't exactly lucrative these days, either.

It is a very satisfying job, though, especially if you're working for a small company and you get some kind of say about what you stock.

Is it customary in Oz to write a page for each selection criterion when you have already filled out an application form? I'd never put more than a sentence for each one.

It's standard in the Australian Public Service to get a criterion like 'Well-developed analytical and conceptual skills and the ability to assist in the development of policy options and the implementation and administration of Government programs' (just to take one at random). The expectation is that the applicant will break this down into components, address each one, and provide examples from past w*rk as proof...

My favourite comes from a poorly-proofread job advertisement - 'Ability to w*rk as part of a team member [...].' *snigger* I silently corrected that by dropping the member, so to speak.

The application form only covers name, address, contact details, and whether I have any special needs like a wheechair-accessible interview room or an interpreter or whatever. There's usually also a question about whether one identifies as Aboriginal, but answering that is optional for some reason lost in the mists of time.

Oh, I see. Job application forms over here tend to up to ten pages long, with sections covering all the relevant experience and qualities.

I shoulda previewed that, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

Yep, I understand.

So really, there's the same amount of information required, but you get a template to put it all into and ours is more free-form. I think I prefer your version.

I think I do too.



G'night.

Having completed applications in both UK and Australian public services, I think I prefer the Aussie version. It gives you a lot more opportunity to blow your trumpet - aka explain exactly why your experience and skills so perfectly fit the position.

Funny you should say that about structured writing for the EG, Ivan I've been struggling to get down to write an Entry I've promised Paully; a general introduction to Orkney. I could face the 'conventional' structure of History, Geography, Getting There, Things to See etc etc etc It was at a complete standstill for three or four weeks, until the muse hit me and now it's developing into a virtual scenic drive around the place

The reason for my aversion to structured writing right now? Two huge documents I'm doing for work - to persuade politicians to put their money where their mouths are