Rejection

I was going to write that I was onto Job Rejection 2. And babble away about getting quite irate with my current company’s HR lady yesterday who said we need to stop hiring foreigners for awhile & concentrate on South Africans. Cause I can hear them saying the same thing over the Indian Ocean there in Melbourne about me.

Only to open up my yahoo this morning. And receive my 3rd job rejection.

Fuck. This sucks something.

And this last one was a job I was actually keenest for. To work with Aboriginal groups in Oz. Of which, granted, I know bugger all. But I am KEEN and FAST LEARNING! And I work well in a team and a hard worker and... and... and... And the admin lady who mailed me was very sweet to tell me that my application had been of a very high standard.

But that does not a salary create. And this current salary stops in 9 work days.

But, as I seem to mantra to The Guy, Only stress when it is time to stress.

And as my dad seems to be mantra’ing to me right now, a South African still in South Africa is not the most “hire’able” candidate to Australians.

Other folk have mentioned that post-Melbourne fires, and what with the retrenchment trend, many people are getting involved in Aid Work in Oz. Bastards.

On this note, I often get asked by people, how the bluddy hell does one even pin prick your industry, let alone worm into it? We’re a bitch of a closed-off industry, it seems.

I quietly reckon it is because us Aid Workers know that if everyone was an aid worker, the “high” of helping people wouldn’t be as sweet. We get like drug addicts of that feeling of “saving & helping”. And this makes us selfish and hoarders. We are constantly out to prove that we’ve seen more shite, worked in tougher conditions, pulled through worse stories, and maybe helped a handful more people.

But, in the spirit of sharing, if you are looking to get into the industry, these are some of your best sites:

- Relief Web Vacancies – this site offers the greatest amount of aid jobs around the world. So if you have thought of working in Afghanistan and/or Darfur....
- Google: Red Cross Regional Office (Jo’burg)
- Google: Oxfam – there are a thousand offices all around the world – Oxfam UK, Oxfam Oz, Oxfam Canada etc. And each of them has their own programmes in their own selected countries. Sometimes these overlap.
- SA Aid Jobs @ Sangonet/ NGOPulse
- Australian Aid Jobs
- The UN used to be a tricky one, and I haven’t checked the various sites out in years, but there is this web address

I also get amusing comments about my salary. Lay folk seem to be under the very very wrong impression that we all get paid with bags of WFP peanuts. Nope. We get paid WELL. Sweet as anything. Well, granted, this depends on the organisation, the location & danger pay, and the job.

Jo’burg for a UN worker is scarily dangerous, and the cost of braving it out here goes up a silly amount. Jo’burg for a Jo’burg worker is a normal job with normal pay. Hardly peanuts.

Right now. My consolation. No salary means no food means no eating means I’ll at least look dead-hot at any job interviews I do land in the next few months.

P.S. Any Melbournians who head up aid agencies and reading this... please hire me! Please! I look good behind a desk and I can work an Excel spreadsheet faster than a Thai Lady Boy can work that $5 out of you.