Tag Archives: Employment
A hot niche in an otherwise depressed IT job market
Posted on 23. May, 2003
Every few weeks I get a call from various head hunters looking for webMethods skills (mostly for Melbourne projects). So if the exciting and challenging area of EAI gets you going, maybe you should get skilled up on webMethods. The rates look good as there's not many people out there with webMethods skills, let alone experience. I have webMethods on my CV as I did a one week course covering the core suite of products and how to implement them, but we never managed to win a client, so I'm hesitant to drop myself in it without commerical implementation experience. webMethods is a reasonably complex set of products, you need to be really sure of what you're doing to implement it correctly. So anyway, just a tip on a niche where demand actually seems to outstip supply in the IT job market.
Another area of the job market that continues to be hot particularly in Europe is Interwoven. Again the rates are good, and most of the projects actually sound quite interesting. Pity my Interwoven training was never put to good use. As with webMethods I did all the courses, but never got a chance to work on a commercial project. Maybe I should brush up on Interwoven.
www.webmethods.com
Pilot - Specialist Service Officer
Posted on 02. Jan, 2003
Well, I had an interesting afternoon. I spent a couple of hours at Defence Plaza in Sydney discussing ADF Pilot options with a careers adviser (an Army Corporal). I watched a video, submitted all my education particulars and went through the different pilot options and what's involved. I asked lots of questions about competition for places, age, educational levels, and relevance of flying experience. All the questions were well answered in a very upfront realistic way which was very helpful. There was a little bit of pressure to apply on the spot which was interesting.
The position that seemed to suit me best was an ADF Pilot - Specialist Service Officer which is a minimum 6 year term where you do a shortened direct entry officer training course at Duntroon (ACT) and an initial flight selection and training in Tamworth (NSW). The end goal is conversion to Chinook, Iroquois, Kiowa or Black Hawk helicopters for the Army aviation regiments based in either NT or Qld.
Predicting whether I would actually make pilot selection for conversion to an operational unit is tricky. There are both positive and negative factors I can realistically see that would influence my success, and the pilot selection program seems particularly competitive. Right now they were assessing 230 applicants, and only screening 8 at a time.
The response to question as to whether pilot experience would assist my application was particularly interesting, and obvious on reflection, they actually prefer applicants with less or no flying experience so they can assess their flying aptitude on a par with other applicants, and to also train them in a military way, rather than deconditioning the pilot from their existing civil aviation training. The example given to me was the high number of 737 pilots who applied when Ansett collapsed to fly the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) that the RAAF had recently acquired. Most were knocked back.
My quick conclusion is that this is probably not a smart option for me at present, but perhaps when I finish my degree at the end of 2003 I will reconsider. Age did not seem to be as much of factor as I had thought. We'll see what happens, there must be some way to pursue my passion for flying effectively!
http://www.defencejobs.gov.au/...
What Should I Do With My Life?
Posted on 02. Jan, 2003
PO Bronson poses this timely (for me) question in his new book. Fast Company have a summary also written by Bronson of the book that had me engrossed through all eight pages. Well worth a read, and I'll be picking up the book as soon as possible. [via CM]
UPDATE: Damnit, $AUD60 to buy and ship it to Australia from Amazon.. too expensive, have to wait till it's available in Australia.
http://www.fastcompany.com/...
White-collar sweatshops batter young workers
Posted on 10. Dec, 2002
Interesting opinion piece on the sweathshop approach that dominates many of the large consulting and financial firms: "For years, exclusive firms have kept labor costs low by squeezing blood out of their hires" [via Benn, Adrian etc]
http://www.usatoday.com/...
Managing Change: Keeping a Lid on Staff Worries
Posted on 02. Mar, 2002
http://australia.internet.com/...
Information Technology job market picking up?
Posted on 03. Feb, 2002
If this is any indication of the job market picking up, I've started to receive more frequent head hunter emails again. I even had one for a webMethods project in France, pity I wouldn't class myself as a webMethods guru.
Retaining Employees
Posted on 07. Jan, 2002
"Insightful article on employee retention." [via CM via FoRK]
http://www.loudcloud.com/...
The Wages of Knowledge Work
Posted on 06. Dec, 2001
Follow on article from Bennett's previous article on the employment and wage expectations of knowledge workers. Interesting read.
http://australia.internet.com/...
Voluntary Redundancy: An Offer You Can’t Refuse
Posted on 14. Nov, 2001
As always, an interesting article from Bill Bennett. Timely advice for many of us at the moment in IT. Keep a level head and think of it as a "catalyst" to do new things.
http://australia.internet.com/...
Casual Dress Code: Reports of its Death are Premature
Posted on 26. Sep, 2001
Excellent article by Bill Bennett on the evolution of IT fashion over the years, and the state of casual dress in the workplace today.
http://australia.internet.com/...
Coles Myer Sheds 1,000 Jobs
Posted on 25. Sep, 2001
As sad as this is, what I found amusing was the name of the spokesperson for Coles Myer regarding the job cuts, "Mr Flick".
http://www.smh.com.au/...
IT jobs face big chill
Posted on 02. Jul, 2001
"The Olivier Internet Job Index for last month shows a 9.7 percent decline in the number of jobs advertised on the Internet, which is less than a quarter of the jobs advertised in the sector this time last year."
http://www.zdnet.com.au/...
kuro5hin.org || Time To Telecommute
Posted on 18. May, 2001
Interesting dicussion at kuro5hin on telecommuting. There are some intelligent responses in the thread that are worth a look. [via CM]
"For all the hype, telecommuting hasn't really caught on. But it isn't like the fiction of a paperless office. There is real potential to reduce the number of miles we drive as a nation. Assuming 80 million people burn two gallons of gas per day for 200 days, they are consuming 32 Billion gallons of gas a year, spending 50 Billion on gas alone (never mind depreciation and maintainence costs), while fraying our nerves, colliding with other cars, polluting, and depleting a finite resource."
http://www.kuro5hin.org/...
Net addicts cost millions
Posted on 15. May, 2001
"It is almost like a craving in the brain where people stay on the internet."
http://australianit.news.com.au/...
First store front recruiter in Sydney?
Posted on 04. May, 2001
I noticed a new store has opened up in Westpac Plaza leading up from Wynyard station, it's actually a recruitment firm, sitting between a clothing shop and a Jewellery shop. The store is a cross between a real estate agent and a CentreLink office, they have jobs on cards in the window and more jobs inside on a board. There's a high preasure recruiter manning a desk inside ready to pounce on anyone who pauses to browse jobs in the window, encouraging them to come in and look at the other jobs on the board inside and have chat (ie. hand over their resume and have a preliminary interview, and convince them to leave their current job). It'll be interesting to see if these take-off and how long this store will stay around.
http://www.tcob.com.au/...
Demand drops for Java and entry-level techies
Posted on 10. Apr, 2001
Techies.com has published the latest Tech Skills Demand Index, the top 5 are Unix, C++, Java, SQL and Visual Basic. I suggested to an editor at The Australian a while back that they publish a similar weekly tech index of skills based on job ads, they never seemed to get around to it though. Oh well, I thought it was a good idea, it gives a useful indication of where the demand for skills are at the moment.
http://home.techies.com/...
Some sobering advice
Posted on 19. Mar, 2001
While you and I may not agree with all that Levy says in this article, it's certainly grounding advice which reminds you that the only real benefit you should expect from a company is your paycheck, and not a nice chair or fast laptop. Well worth a read.
http://www.netslaves.com/...
Higher salaries in e-commerce jobs a myth
Posted on 09. Oct, 2000
ZDNet: "A survey by an executive recruitment firm has found it is a myth that e-commerce companies always pay their staff more than their "bricks and mortar" counterparts."
http://www.zdnetasia.com/...
