grodscorp@grods.comTechnology renders Gread redundant
 | Posted by Bridgit Gread on Thursday 30 October 2008, 9:48 pm Categories: Media, Technology, The Internet Tags: jobhunting, nerds |
So there I am, frantically searching the Interpipes for a job because this one is starting to shit me no end lately, what with all the extra crap dumped on my desk because someone pisses off without giving due notice. And I’m doubly pissed off because finding a job now is bloody hard since Teh Age sacked most of its hacks and replaced them with redundant ballboys from the Australian Open, so now the job market for journos is flooded with jobseekers who have been Fair-fucked. Anyway I find a vacancy for something called an ‘Online Journalist’, which reads OK and pays slightly more than a week’s shift work at McDonald’s (always a bonus in the lucrative field of journalism). And then I see this line:
- Familiarity with C#, Linux, Apache, Perl and Python
And I’m thinking “…unless this is a gig reporting on music performance, Snoopy characters, native Americans and the herpetology scene, I may be under-qualified”. Apparently to be an ‘online journalist’ these days you’ve got to be able to hack into the NASA mainframe and re-task the Hubble telescope to read over Bolta’s shoulder through the window of his suite at Docklands. Being able to research, interview, write, spell, proof, edit and format are optional skillz.
I must be a Luddite.
Friday 31 October 2008, 12:29 am #Wah
Bridgit, apparently the word “online” in Online Journalist, means “jack of all trades willing to have their piss taken”.
I can’t believe the shit they are paying for someone who has to be a writter/sub-editor/web designer - usually well under $50k.
I know what you mean with the market flooded by Fair-fucked hacks. I suffered from that when I returned to Australia 10 years ago about the same time Pacific Publishing moved New Idea and TV Week from West Melbourne to Sydney.
I ended up working as an online editor where “I had the piss duly taken out of me” with bullshit promises of share options.
Good luck in finding a decent job.
Friday 31 October 2008, 7:56 am #Mikey
Come to the public service dude. Sure, you have to deal with arseholes - but that’s the same anywhere. But A) you get to help people at the end of the day, even if it’s tangential, and B) great conditions of service!
Plus Canberra rawks if you want a Canberra job. Yeah, people slag it off. But it’s got some nice cafes, good libraries (the best Jerry!), reasonable shopping districts, and great community esprit de corps.
Plenty of jobs for ex journos. Check out the public service gazette.
Friday 31 October 2008, 11:39 am #Idlaviv
In your CV, put down your Mission Statement as:
‘To go postal’…
Friday 31 October 2008, 11:40 am #David Irving (no relation)
Avoid Canberra. Six months there is what persuaded me to leave the Army (it was the only way to get out of the place … )
Also, applying for public service jobs is soul-destroying. You have to write pages and pages of crap “addressing the criteria”.
Friday 31 October 2008, 11:00 pm #Semaphore
You’re a journalist?
Could have fooled me.
Friday 31 October 2008, 11:27 pm #Bridgit Gread
That wouldn’t be too difficult.
Saturday 1 November 2008, 5:43 am #JM
“C#, Linux, Apache, Perl and Python”
One of these things is not the same.
Whoever posted this request doesn’t know what they’re doing. C# is Microsoft, the others are open source / un*x. Two completely different cultures that don’t mix - let alone that C# doesn’t run on Linux and most Apache/Perl/Python installations aren’t running on Windows.
There are probably people that have all these skills but if you do the ol’ Venn diagram thing you’ll find the intersection is pretty small and that’s before you stick in the third circle “journalist” which will reduce it to one weirdo in the world.
ie. the guy who quit working for these dropkicks last week.
Sunday 2 November 2008, 10:56 am #Bridgit Gread
Yes, it’s a bit like advertising for an accountant with a law degree and experience in psychological profiling. Then saying “We’re offering $48k but we’re happy to recognise your unique combination of skills and bump it up to $50k…”
Monday 3 November 2008, 12:16 pm #David Irving (no relation)
JM, you’re absolutely correct, but that kind of disconnection from reality is so common in job ads for the IT industry that I’ve stopped noticing it.
Tuesday 4 November 2008, 7:10 pm #Adam
Dugg for “interpipes”