travel skills develop – all about information
opportunities avail to us in postmodern world, vast.

division of labour – make one specialised.

the market – the predominant institution of our time – jobs

Arriving in a new country you have nothing, except your skills. At the street level you are nothing. That’s where you begin. Being unemployed is quite a scary.

job hunt:
filtering out all the jobs you don’t have a chance in:

ones you don’t have prev. exp in and require it.
one you can’t get because of visa

generating/locating leads – some more promising than others, but it could always be the unpromising ones that get you a job.

like sales – it’s the market again.

the job market can determine you direction in life, unless you are outside the market – have money, study instead.

if you have no skills, you have to start at the bottom and hope to find a job with training. that’s hard.

immigrant: nothing, no contacts, only have skills. against all others applying.

feelings: insecurity, helplessness, frustration

the market, experiencing it in a pratical sense. its the market i’m up against. information important.

to get job:

contacts
specialist skills

confidence & lying:
unconfident lie to avoid retribution
confident in abilities lie about experience

dub like a euro city – old, no sky, canal

call centre – impersonal, deal with my people, pace important, “mature”

25 euro – the market & market leads

I’ve only been here a week, and prehaps expecting too much, but it is proving hard to find a job – any job. Having only a 1 year visa means people don’t really want to give me a “real” job – even though I can get a 2 year visa for jobs in IT, if I get a job in the first place. The worst fact is only have $NZ when everything is in euros and so twice as much, so I’m leaking money as fast as a seive leaks water. This jobless money burning job seeking state is spirit zapping. The only open door so far is the dreaded call centre and disturbing people who would much rather watch TV during their leisure hours than answer another market research study. It’s a one way transaction, the market research company gets information and the respondent loses quality time. It’s lower than a parking attendent – and not as fun since you get to clamp car wheels here. Pizza hut, McDonalds, a convience store, and a shoe shop all have my CV, but who wants someone with a degree anyway? Cos we’re only gonna pay you 6.33euro/hour (the minimum wage).

The recruitment agencies seem dodegy, had one tell me the other day he wasn’t interested because employers only want locals, even though I have a visa. Approaching employeers directly seems to be a better way. Came across this website when I met the owner in Italy http://www.opencareers.com

But I’m not the only one. There are others out there, combing the streets with a wad of CVs in hand. I’m not the only immigrant, my jobless brothers include Europeans, Africans, Asians, as well as fellow Antipodeans. I have found myself hanging out in an area where there are a lot of other immigrants, and shops run by them. Probably because it’s the cheapest place in town. It’s also a place where you see the odd horse and cart rumble by in the morning with goods for the market. Mind you, the produce does seem a little cheap, what does the market know that I don’t? It didn’t take long to find out, my fruit bag of apples only lastest a day before rotting.

Wait for my next entry titled “I have no job, I’m going home”