On Fri, 13 Aug 2004 08:53, Carl Cerecke wrote: > Wesley Parish wrote: > > I would love to! I even know a little bit of German. Go for it if you possibly can.
> [ major snippage] > > I don't know you at all Wesley, but, in an effort to get this back on > topic (a little), here are some things I do know: > > You appear to have some Linux knowledge, and seem to have above average > intelligence. > Unemployment is the lowest it has been in NZ for 17 years. Statistics, may say that, but as we all know statistics are lies for politicians to manipulate. There is a huge underclass of people who are not formally unemployed, but not properly employed either. The revolving doors of the training establishments and subsidised work schemes really do skew the statistics. The sickness and invalid beneficiaries don't show as "unemployed" either. At the other end of the age range there are all sorts of benefits onto which one can get dumped without showing up as "unemployed". > I can't quite figure out why you are complaining that you can't find a > job. (Maybe not your "ideal" job, but the jobs are there...) No, not for Wesley unfortunately. > Is there something I'm missing? Quite a lot actually. The employment laws are now weighted so heavily in favour of the employee that it's amost impossible to get rid of an employee who is unsuitable unless they are a proven criminal. This is now having the unfortunate effect on employers that if a possible employee is in any way 'different' they get absolutely no chance of even demonstrating that they are able to do the work required. No job there. Similarly with qualifications. No HR drone is going to take on anybody who is not academically qualified for the job b/c they will get a severe rap if perchance the employee is not right for the work, even if their obvious inate intellegence and work record seem to be acceptable. No job there. The other side of the coin is that if you are obviously fairly intelligent you will have absolutely no chance of getting a boring serf/drone type of job b/c the foreperson who is going to employ you will be frightened that you will either displace them, or that you will just not turn up for work one day b/c you are sick of the drudgery. No job there. At the moment, authoring is probably the best line of work for an 'out of the square' , yet literate and intelligent person. The schools have given up teaching English for English speakers, so that leaves a niche. I know somebody who made an absolute fortune writing (shudder) MS Word and Exel macros. Outward migration is also a possibility. -- Sincerely etc., Christopher Sawtell
