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| Between us, we have experienced the following range of jobs, and the idea is to give a bit of a run down on them...
as well as various periods of unemployment, some of it on benefits, and some of it with no income at all. Apart from the "natural progression" from learning at school to taking a job and making a career from it in order to be a useful member of society who can take a partner and raise a family of their own, perhaps you only need to learn enough to get by, work in any job you are satisfied with to earn enough to have a comfortable life, great holidays and happy people about you? The teacher knew someone at one of the city's clothing stores, and they wanted some cheap labour to work in the store during busy periods. My working career began wrapping clothes purchases and doing general customer service. As I was a casual working Friday nights and Saturday mornings, my wages were better than some of the permanents. When I worked the full 5 1/2 day week during school holidays, I was paid the grand amount of $25 (before income tax!) As the outlet was quite friendly, and the staff all got along quite well, it was very pleasant to work there. I learnt that it didn't really matter what the job was, if the people were all positive and pleasant, you quite enjoyed your day at work. A bunch of years later, I was in a hardware store and asked if they needed any part time or casual staff. I started working that Saturday as a casual! It turned out to be one of my most rewarding jobs! It was very satisfying when customers who came in with some fragments of something they were trying to replace, or stories of what they were trying to do, and I was able to send them on their way with a smile and the things they needed. I had so many compliments (especially from ladies) who commented that they had NEVER received customer service as good as I gave them. This job taught me that exceeding a customer's expectations and getting that immediate feedback was a very satisfying feeling indeed. I also learnt that most retailers only allow minimal time for staff to interact with customers as they are expected to run and face floor stock with the bare minimum of staff numbers. When I'd paid all my bills and had a little to spare in the bank, I decided one day that the job I had was a dead end one and that a change was necessary, so I resigned! I went down to the employment office the next day (when it was easier to find jobs) and saw a job card to be a train driver! I'd always admired the guys hanging out of the country trains when I was a kid, so I thought "Why not?".... This was another really good job. Lots of travel!! And back then, there were relieving assignments where you got to stay at a country depot whilst someone else was on holidays. I met lots of interesting people, and got to practise my swearing and story telling. The pay was quite good (especially when bolstered by the living away from home allowance!) I really enjoyed the travel and interactions with people I'd normally never associate with. A mate of mine worked for 10 or so years at a car yard doing odd jobs and cleaning cars. One day he asked if he could have a go at selling the cars. He turned out to be their best sales person! He arranged for me to have an interview and next thing I was selling used cars! The yard I got to work in only had the manager and me working at it. The manager liked to talk about his sexual conquests, and expected me to enlighten him with stories of my feats as well. I didn't play his game, and found myself back out in the street after only 2 weeks. I'd sold 5 cars in that fortnight and got commission for 2 of those! I enjoyed the customer interaction. I told people what the good and bad points were with each car and got them to make up their own mind as which was the best fit for the dollars they wanted to spend. In a lot of cases there were no matching cars on the lot as it was quite small, and most of the cars were more worthy of going to the wreckers than to go back out on the road again! Apart from finding how cut throat some people can be, the main lesson learnt from this job: If you never ask, you never know! My training to become a Project Manager was the proverbial "Trial by Fire". The last chap given charge of Year 2000 for all the Information Technology (IT) systems at a large retailer took another job and left a vacancy that had to be filled in a hurry. The middle level manager who was asked to recommend a replacement told me that he was looking for someone with "terrier-like qualities" and I sprang to mind! It was sort of a "right time, right position" situation that I grasped with both hands and worked my butt off making sure all the risk was addressed in the next 18 months. If you know anything about the time leading up to the 1st of January, 2000, you'll know that only the people and systems you hadn't got to would be caught out when their calendar functions didn't work correctly. If the 1st of January came and went like just another day, then you'd done your job properly! I had a small team directly reporting to me, and some test hardware that I needed to control. The people who looked after the systems and ultimately needed to perform the testing of them worked for other managers and were largely unconcerned that their systems would fail. That wasn't sufficient for senior management, and I had to find ways to get all the systems and interfaces checked and tested. Lots of negotiation! My next challenge was looking after a support team for a big retailer. The team was responsible for the 24x7 support of all the Head Office reference and pricing information which got sent to all the stores. When I first took over the team, there were 4 trainees and 4 tired contractors. The trainees didn't know enough to be able to provide after hours support, and the contractors were tired of carrying the pager every fourth week as it used to go off quite often. I had to quickly understand who was capable of what, what the computer systems were trying to do, where the instability points were, and identify what I was allowed to do about the whole mess! My management added some additional challenges - convert from a reliance on contractors to permanent staff, and reduce the frequency and severity of the problems whilst also reducing costs. If that wasn't enough, I was also given charge of another team who were testing the GST program changes. In order to deliver on all of this, I ended up getting offside with my management (bad move), but made sure that my ultimate customer was very happy with the service they were getting. I worked on getting the correct contractors in this team for delivery; promoted trainees as fast as I could get them skilled up, and manoeuvred non-performers into other areas. This was a thankless job which involved me also carrying a pager and being on call 24x7. A previous manager asked me if I would be interested in a job back with him. I asked what it was and was told a Project Manager and "apprentice" to the Technical Manager in the area as he would be retiring in a few years time. The Technical Manager is not interested in having an apprentice, so he refuses to work with me on any part of his job. The projects in this area are to do with business-to-business e-commerce, or sending business documents electronically from application systems in one organisation to application systems in another. This is quite interesting and varied. The work involves mapping EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) standards into a Gateway tool, working with suppliers and areas of the retail business on new electronic business documents, and providing information on what is available on the Internet. A Clerical Assistant is someone who gets to shuffle paper around that is paid less than a Clerk and usually because they have no qualifications. I tried my hand at being a Clerical Assistant a couple of times, and both times it was only for a few months. The first attempt was for a big national employer. I got to count bits of paper that got sent in from the branches (which had been counted there before they were sent), in order to reconcile national figures. The job was not very rewarding, and the chap who sat behind me used to crack jokes all day. I struggled to keep my place in the silly bits of paper, and one day I turned around and asked him to please stop with the jokes. The supervisor of the area decided I was a troublemaker from this! I suggested that as I was not enjoying the Clerical Assistant Grade 2 job, perhaps they could demote me into a different position? They initially suggested I should resign. The next morning, I was whisked away into a different area and given the demotion. As a Clerical Assistant Grade 1, I was responsible for helping with a mail run, and nothing much else. The guy before me (whom they had promoted into my old job) had failed to get anything much done in this role, but by 10AM I was asking for more work. By the end of a few weeks I was that far in front with my work, and had cleaned out an old store room and organised it into a useful area again. I was getting bored and actively looked for alternate employment. My second attempt at being a Clerical Assistant was for a large automobile manufacturer. Sadly, again the work was almost menial. It was all about shuffling bits of paper for each of the basic components that made up each part of a new model. There were no pictures or anything exciting about being involved in a new car's production, just numbers and names on sheets of paper. On my way to work for day 7, I was cleaned up off my motorbike and never succeeded in going back there. To become a cab driver means going for a cab driver's test, then getting a shift driving a cab for one of the cab owners. Most cab companies provide training for getting the licence (for a fee). I got my licence (which was a bit nerve racking, but the tester helped me through!) and then got the night shift for one of the owners. There were no clues on which ranks to sit on and when in order to get the regular jobs. This was all stuff you needed to pick up on the job. I tried everything from city ranks to Tullamarine and over to Dandenong (which I was told I was not allowed to take a fare from), but failed to take more than $70 in fares for a whole week. As the cab owner was so annoyed I was not earning a whole lot more, I didn't end up taking my $35 for the week before I threw in the towel as "too hard". |
| All original work unless otherwise shown For problems or questions regarding this web contact Mike. Last updated: Monday, 06 September 2004 09:55 PM . |
