Lifestyle change

[Josh_Emerton]

No, I snowskiied in NZ and Southern Aus. I'm a pretty good skiier, intermediate lvl.

I hardly consider being young in my favour; for most full time jobs I just dont command the respect that the same guy who might perform worse, but has 5 years experience under his belt, does.

[Superintendent Chalmers]

Depends on the job. I think in the technology industry, people who are under 21 are regarded as the "up to date generation" while someone who is say, over 30 would be deemed a dinosaur to the I.T industry. Meanwhile some other jobs would definitely pay to be experienced.

Have you done any skiing down south at Mt Bulla in Victoria, or Perisher blue??

[Josh_Emerton]

Perisher Blue, Aus. Mt Hutt, NZ. And two of the ones around Queenstown NZ, I cant remember the fields names. The Remarkables was one, I think. and one beginning with P?

Granted with the IT point. I havent read a job that hasnt said 'you will have at least 3 year experience in a similar role' or something like that yet. And I have only the 3 years experience in Coles.

[Superintendent Chalmers]

I have been with coles for 2 and a half years and moved up to a Store Support Manager after (2 years) mainly due to the fact I had 4 years as a manager at SUBWAY. (also worked my ass off for 12 hour days and lots of butt kissing to the bosses from here and head office) For lots of industries, its not what you know, its who you know!

[Josh_Emerton]

hahaha I basically never had more than 4hr shift at Coles. The management hierarchy were total dickheads, interested in nothing more than cost efficiency. they used to place nothing but 14yo on all day on public holidays just coz it cost less, and then bitch about it when the kids couldnt handle the huge queues. I was glad to be rid of it. But in saying that, I really would kill for a job again.

I did brief stints at IGA, Dominos and EB Games. IGA was good, I loved it, but the manager sold the business 5 weeks after I joined it, and the new management didnt want me. Again, cost issues apparently. Dominos was shit - high pressure, the only good part about it was I could drive MY car. Then I had the prang when some douche was driving a black car with no lights at near midnight... and i pulled out in front coz i plain couldnt see him. didnt have a chance. and then when i pulled over around the corner and came back round to have a go at him, his f@@@ing lights were on!! EB Games was a new store in a new shopping centre. Run by an up-himself 23 yo manager, who I actually liked. But I made a massive screwup and mixed up my roster (like, swapped a RWO for a busy week in my books) and he never called to ask why i wasnt there, and when i turned up the next week (which was actually my RWO) he was like dude, I'm suspending you for 3 weeks, and after that he was basically looking for an excuse to fire me. He found it when I was late two shifts in a row 2 months later. Rush hour one day (my fault, i shoulda known it would be busy at 8am), and an accident the next. I phoned ahead both times >.<

[Superintendent Chalmers]

Since Wesfarmers took over Coles, they are all about cost cutting. On top of major cuts in 2009, we had to slash $6500 in our store budget last week. (400hours) Had to get 23 people to take a few days off and get holiday pay to do it as the HP doesn't count towards our weekly budget. I was one who didn't get that, and instead on salary, had to be there 12 hours a day. More cuts are coming and up to 12 people are ready to walk out and not return. All stores are under scrutiny, so to save you some time - don't try Coles. See Woolies instead! Better managed, better techniques and an allround better company! Coles will always be No 2 with the current head office strategies in place. (Oh, our boss is a 50kg German blonde with a thick accent) Cue the Nazi jokes...

[scraverX]

... I work at Coles ...

[The X]

Do what you want, it's your life. Not other peoples/parents/friends expectiations. I graduated from high school in 1993. The logical/expected/done thing was to "go to uni". Seriously. As a socierty I dont understand how a children in such a regimented environment of 12 years of schooling are expected to know what to do next.
As one of my high school teachers told us, school is just a con, it's just a form of baby sitting so your parents can go to work. LOLz
I enrolled for electrical engineering (God know why!?), I enjoyed the first semester of it. Second semester was okay, failed a couple of subjects. 3rd semester had me re-sit the failed one and so my usual 3rd semester subjects, and at which some point, lost interest and was hanging around the uni bar and parties than lectures. didn't do 4th semester. Quit uni, pissed the parents off. Did my thing. Worked some menial jobs.
Left home in 97. Still works some crap jobs. moved up the chain. Luck, opportunity, whatever.
Now. I'm just a lazy prick. working in IT. Earning $120k package. No formal qualifications. I know my crap. I could sit my industry certifications, but refuse to, as work wont pay for them. The day I pay for them and sit them is when I have decied to fly the coup. I'm just a grumpy bitter old (34 yo) man.

So the moral. Do whatever you want, you're earning potential is only affected by your mindset.