Contingencies - Part II

If you haven't read the first part of this post, do so here.

Well then....but I mean....he's just one recruiter, right? Things can't be that bad everywhere, right? Surely there are two office jobs for the two of us doing something, ANYTHING, in a city of over 4 million people, right? I was determined to give it at least another week. Back to the grind: see a job, write a cover letter, send a CV. While most of the time I heard nothing, as if my application had been sucked into a black hole, sometimes I was graced with an email reply. "Dear BLAKE MCGUIRE", they usually started, "Thank you for your recent application for Position 301268130-A. While you had a very impressive application, unfortunately you were not a close enough match for the position to gain an interview slot." Four years of college, two years of solid work experience, and I couldn't even get a damn interview, much less a job, pushing paper or answering tech support calls.

Thankfully, after another week, I got a callback on one of the jobs I applied for online. The role you were applying for has already been filled, the voice on the other end of the phone said, but I'd still like to meet you. That way if, you know, something comes up, we'll already have you in our system and we can call you then. How's 11am on Tuesday sound? Sounds great Grant, looking forward to it! Another interview, but basically the same story. Times are tough, he said, but he did see some signs of life. In fact, he'd just had a conversation with a client about a data entry type role that I might be great for. He'd keep me posted, he said. After a week, where I heard nothing other than that the client was still "considering options", I sat down to reevaluate my job search.

Maybe I had set my sights a little high, maaaybe I had been a tad unrealistic, expecting to waltz into Sydney during the middle of a worldwide economic downturn and score a well paying office job in a week or two. That's fine though, because surely, there is always restaurant or bar work, right? And anyway, maybe this would be for the best. After all, I'll probably be working in an office for the rest of my life, so a few months waiting tables, or hell, even washing dishes, wouldn't be so bad would it? Sure I didn't have much experience, but it's just waiting tables, how hard could it be? Still, not wanting to take any chances, I made a separate waiting CV, "polished it up" (lied a lot), printed out thirty copies, and took to the streets.

Are you hiring? Nope sorry mate. Any chance you guys are hiring? Not at the moment, no. Repeat ad nasueam, ad infinitum. After a few days of this, I began to notice a trend. And that trend was I was shit out of luck. I'd stopped by at least seventy places, maybe three of which were hiring, but they were all looking for someone who had been waiting tables or making coffee for years, decades, millenia even. Even Starbucks, where Steph and I had worked before coming to Oz, was only hiring permanent residents.

As I sat under the trees in Centennial Park, I reevaluated...again. So maybe finding work in Sydney just wasn't going to happen. I began thinking through my options. Number one was stick it out in Sydney and keep looking for work. A previous recruiter had told me that things always ease up a bit in the winter as the horde of backpackers make their way to Brisbane to escape the cold and rain of Sydney, and therefore my chances would improve. A second option was to use the money I had left in my travel fund to head up the East Coast myself and see the highlights of Australia, then head home early. The third option would be looking for fruit picking work in a rural area and extend my stay that way.

I quickly ruled out the first option. While Sydney is a great city, I'd already been there for six weeks, and had seen what I wanted to see. If I stuck around and kept looking for work and didn't find any, I wouldn't have enough money to do much else in Australia other than get to Melbourne and go home. The second option had potential, because at least I would get to see some of the best sights that Oz has to offer. The downside, though, was that I'd almost be guaranteed to be heading home way ahead of schedule, something I wanted to avoid.

The third option, fruit picking, had potential too. Not that history or common knowledge had been in any way helpful up to this point, but fruit picking was supposed to be readily available year round. The jobs were said to be ripe for the picking. Sorry, couldn't resist. Anyway, to add to that, I was honestly captivated by the idea of the work. While no doubt waxing romantic about the work itself, as it would surely be monotonous and backbreaking, the idea of putting in an honest days work in the hot sun with a group of other backpackers really appealed to me. Forget office work. I'd have the rest of my life to work in an office after all. I liked the idea of getting back to basics, and some good old fashioned hard work never killed anybody. Sure, the work would suck, but we'd form tight bonds with those around us, and help each other through it, as we'd all be working towards the common goal of getting the hell out of there.

As I walked back to the hostel, I had my mind made up. Fruit picking it was. Or so I thought.

To be continued, again....