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Bryan1

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Joined: 22/02/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 1344

Posted: 10:50pm 22 Sep 2014

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G'day guy's,
Well this is now the 4th application to a labour hire company about a job and get this on my resume wasn't site work, it was but worded wrongly as it seems. What is this world coming to where only the last 5 years is relevant to employment. I told the guy that it's more than likely I was doing site work before these guys that got the job were even born and I DO the experience to do the job.

Now as I was typing an email to a guy in Vic about setting him up off the grid an email came up for DOME ( Don't Overlook Mature Employees) about their annual meeting. I did reply if I don't have a job I will come along and have a talk and a vote. Well I may just have to go to that meeting and say my peace and mention what I have had in store for years and taken it across the country. Hell would be setting up a sweatshop for industrial sewing be out of fashion for older people. I think not if I can get a chance to talk with with this DOME mob it may open some eyes.

Lucky for me got 3 separate battery deals going and sent an email off to Taiwan about the 3kw inverters as Selectronic only sell the SP anymore so that will keep up us above water.

I did have have a chat with a mate in the industry about the bearing shortage and got told it's even worse bearing companies can't keep up with short lived bearings as the bearing life span should be measured in years they are changed out monthly and that is the norm.

Ah todays society where waste is beyond reality.

Grogster

Admin Group

Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9306

Posted: 01:25pm 23 Sep 2014

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I am 40 and run my own business. It is just a one-man band, like so many others, but I do have a casual employee to assemble boards for installs. I use a fella who is in his late 50's. He has been a technician all his life, so I was more happy with the experience factor there, then to get someone who is younger - full of energy and enthusiasm maybe, but if something does not go right, they are stuck, cos they lack the practical experience that comes with age and time in a given job.

With age, comes wisdom, and my fella can not only assemble and test each unit, but has also come up with some really good suggestions for changes to the design, to make it better and/or easier to assemble.

I encourage that, as it makes the product better at the end of the day, but I know there are plenty of people who will want their workers to just do what they're told and not offer any suggestions etc - do the work you're paid for, and shut the hell up - that kind of attitude is, unfortunately, quite common, as bosses seem to feel like they must be the "Dominant Male/Female".

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

powerednut

Senior Member

Joined: 09/12/2009
Location: Australia
Posts: 221

Posted: 08:52pm 25 Sep 2014

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makes the work till your 70 thing kinda scary huh. and the must apply for x jobs before you get a welfare check (dole) really scary for the people who don't have experience yet.

anyway, enough politics.

I've been on the interviewing side a couple of times over the last few years and people who can do a reasonable job of applying for a job are pretty few and far between. A lot of the time it is as simple as people not answering selection criteria, and other times people spit out a generic "fits all jobs and any person" application. My biggest tip out of it is tailor your application (including resume to highlight relevant experience) for each and every job. Answer every part of the selection criteria.

Don't get disheartened if you don't get a job straight away. quite often it'll come down to numbers.. 1 job, 100 applicants, maybe 10 of whom are time wasters. 30 who can do the job really well, 1 who will stand out just that little bit more from the others for some reason.

I've got a different view on the age thing though. I hate my technical skills not getting taken seriously because I don't look like gandalf the grey.

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