VirtuaLife

"The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one."

i guess i'm one of those lucky people who, when it comes to jobs, gets what i want. within reason of course; i can't exactly see myself applying or a CEO position at the moment and being successful for it! no, but for jobs within my scope, in-demand jobs, jobs that i WANT... my strike rate has generally been pretty good. It is God's hand on my life, truly; and made possible because I dared to dream of this security as a blessing unto others.

Even as the memories fade, I'd like to take a trip down memory lane and pay a tribute to the jobs that were, that defined me. The interesting jobs,the silly jobs! And other notables in-between.

1999 (12 years old) - being the fat tub of icecream that i was, i got conned by by sister into delivering leaflets for the local news distribution. pay was a glorious 6 cents per household. or was it 4 cents! Yukkk! do the math, there. I'm not even sure if 6 cents of food gave me enough energy to walk between each house! if it didn't then, well, i guess the weight loss objective was always a safe one. i did that for 3-4 months, until i gave up folding leaflets and walking with a stupid raincoat on the dodgy delivery days.

2001 netted my first real job. after being rejected by Coles to work in their stocking aisles (apparently i was too slow on the visual recognition test - i call that a load of bull!) i went for a spin with Dick Smith Electronics. got offered a job at Bunnings warehouse, too, and had to make a choice between them. i sided with air-conditioning. for that choice, i paid the consequences for 6 years. well, i got paid, rather, and this time earning significant amounts. i really relished the period of 2004-2005 where i was basically working at doublt time all the time... 3-5 hours of work per week would net me about $120-200. now that was SWEET. made me rather lax, unfortunately.

2004 I also had a contract as a database analyst and market researcher with Smorgan Steel. glorified telemarketing role, really, but it was scarily autonomous. i had my job description, got given a desk, endless supply of coffee, stationery and free roam of the compound. and $18 per hour. not bad for a still-17 years old tyke who hardly knew what he was doing. i rmemeber some of the workers offering to take me out (some were motorbike enthusiasts and others liked... THOSE clubs) I finished my work brief in 2 weeks that they'd allocated me for 6 weeks so they had to scramble for more work. Damn, i was an honest bloke back in those days... didn't even think to lengthen my working time =P

2006-08 saw a whole plethora of jobs fall on my head, with 100% strike rate in all of them. I was getting pretty deep into physio at theis time so the nature of the jobs became more focussed. In no particular order, i started sports training as a L1 trainer, did a stint of mystery shopping (and found out kat was doing the same thing as me! arghh) worked with the AUS govt's after-school care program as a children's educator, was a university tutor, followed a football team for a whole season as the not-yet-physiotherapist, became admin for the (UQ) university's biggest library (as well as the more mundane of shelving books), worked as a statistics compiler with a uni professor, and did volunteer work at greenslopes hospital and workplace helath and safety queensland. wah! i still feel so touched looking back at that list. and i will still never know why i was accepted so quickly into some of these jobs, despite my relative ignorance of the required skills... which is why I give this period as a testament to God's work in my life at this point. Any job I wanted, i could have...

well, okay, now i remember one job that i did not get. it was to be the day spa manager and client servicer for a 5-star hotel based in the city. i applied too late (the position was already filled) and they never got back to me about further vacancies. maybe that was God's way of saying to me to keep my eyes off all the cute girls coming through O.o I've always maintained, without substantive evidence, that God has always been a bit wary of my predisposition towards girls. Hey, if I were God i would be too! now... what am I saying...

for the 2009 period I was, for the first time since 13 years old. jobless. I killed dick smith (6 years service!), let go of sports training, wrapped up my contracts with uni, shelved mystery shopping, and ... the list goes on. many friends jumped into that boat... i think kat gave up her job as well, sarah stopped working at the bookstore, quite a few physio students killed their income stream to concentrate on studies. i lasted 12 months whittling away at all the black (about 7K + 1k government stimulus grant) in my bank and ended up with a mere $32 in my account after paying off the post-holiday credit card debt! arrrr.

updates on the current job situation next time ^^