Contingencies - Part I

Back in the US, as Steph and I planned our itinerary on my couch, everything seemed so...straightforward. After enjoying ourselves in New Zealand, all we needed to do was get ourselves to Sydney with enough money left over to cover living expenses for a couple of weeks until we found work, and then everything else would fall into place. Our plan called for us to work and save for a few months in Sydney until it started to get cold, then use the money to head north in search of warmer weather in Cairns, home of the Great Barrier Reef. From there, we'd head over to Perth in WA, which was, according to our guide book, in a labor shortage. All you needed to do was register with the appropriate temp agency and you'd be sorted in no time. After a few months making good money in Perth, we'd get back on the road and end up in Melbourne for a few months, picking up casual work if we needed it, before heading back to the US.

The first hints that things might not go perfectly according to plan was in New Zealand, where we heard rumors that times were getting tight in Australia, and that people were having a hard time finding work. We also met a few people, however, who were able to find restaurant or bar work after only looking for a day. We didn't think too much of it at the time; after all, most other backpackers were 18 or 19 years old without much, if any, work experience. Surely, we thought, with college degrees and a year or two of real world experience, we would have no trouble standing out in the backpacker crowd.

And things in Sydney did actually start off quite well. Within a few days of arriving and settling into our new hostel, I picked up a work for accomodation gig. I would stay for free in exchange for two hours of my time, from 6AM to 8AM every morning, cleaning the hostel common rooms. While I wasn't crazy about the hours or the work itself, I mean, who wants to get up at 6AM every day and clean up rooms where there had been a huge party the night before, it was nice because it took care of my biggest expense, rent. A couple of days after that, I found out the hostel was looking for a room cleaner, which Steph took them up on. Again, not great work, but it meant that were staying for free.

A week after we arrived in Sydney, we decided to begin our job searches in earnest. I finished my cleaning at 8AM as usual, went to wake up Steph, and headed to the kitchen to start making breakfast. When she came in, she told me there had been a guy knocking on the room door, waking everyone up in the process, looking for me. I should go to reception she said. Oh shit, I thought, what did I do? I JUST started this cleaning job and I lost it already? Well, not really. As it turns out, one of the guys staying in the hostel is a mover, and he had hurt his back the previous day, and would I mind subbing for him that day for $17.50/hr in cash? Ten minutes later I was in the truck headed to the suburbs, and eight hours after that I was back in the hostel with $140 in my pocket. Given how easily I fell into that job, I was looking forward to starting a formal job search the next day, anticipating locking something down within a week.

The next day, polished resumes in hand and brimming with confidence, we began making calls and emailing resumes to recruiters and temp agencies. We had some initial success too; Stephanie got a call from a banking recruiter the same day she emailed him, and I got a call from an agency within 30 minutes of submitting my CV. We set up interviews, both of which went well, and we waited. "The market is a little slow right now, but give us a couple of weeks and we'll find you something" was the story we both heard. Not wanting to put all of our eggs in one basket, we kept up the job search in the meantime, routinely spending three to four hours a day doing nothing but emailing recruiters and applying for jobs online.

One morning as we sat down for breakfast, I noticed a yellow flyer taped up in the kitchen. Travelling? And want to travel for FREE? Hand out flyers two hours a day. I called the number, spoke to a guy named Dane at a company called Tribal Travel, who told me to come in and talk to him. Steph and I paid him a visit, and each signed up for a couple of shifts. The "work" entailed walking up and down the same small stretch of road in Kings Cross, ignoring the vagrants, drug addicts, hookers and bouncers (harder than it sounds in KX), and hand out flyers to fellow backpackers. In exchange for the two hours of work, we'd get $20 in travel credit, which could be redeemed for things like surfing lessons or sailing the Whitsundays. In addition to being painfully boring, it sucked because I don't like it when people try to hand me flyers when I'm walking down the street, and now I was that guy. That said, it was work, and each day I got closer to being able to do the things I wanted to do for free.

The next afternoon, after wrapping up my cleaning and my flyer shifts, I was just about to head out for another afternoon of submitting resumes when I spotted a business card on the floor of our room. Craig Danvers, Accounting Recruiter, Robert Half. I picked it up and stuck it in my wallet, thinking I might have more luck emailing someone directly instead of sending email after email to jobs@tempagencyx.com.au and wedontreadthis@nojobshere.com. Turns out I was right, as I got a call the next day, and set up an interview for two days after that. I wasn't actually sure who the agency was, but Steph said that her sister used Robert Half all the time back in the US, and that if you got an interview, they would definitely find you a job.

To be sure, this interview did look a lot more promising than the first one. There, the "interview" consisted of 10 minutes of paperwork and a 5 minute chat about my resume. The email from Craig Danver's assistant suggested that this interview would be much more involved, and it was. There was a 30 minute, detailed interview and a 70 question Excel skills test on top of the usual load of paperwork. As the interview was wrapping up, I asked him how the market was, and what he thought my chances would be. Two years ago, he began, when I first started here, I was getting people work within a day or two. Even people fresh off the boat from China were getting temp jobs, nevermind that they didn't speak any English. Things are different now, mate. I mean, we even had to lay off four of our own recruiting staff because the work just isn't there. Listen, you're a qualified guy, but honestly, the odds just aren't very good for you right now. The few jobs that are coming across my desk are going to Australian citizens. It sucks, but an Aussie will beat you out every time mate, every single time. If I were you, you know, travelling around, and I had some money in the bank, honestly, I would go sit on a beach in Thailand mate.



Part two here.