Your concerns are valid. I don’t think it’s a wild position to expect action from The Voice as a measure of success, and not virtue signalling. Race politics in this country is ugly. If the Yes camp wins, they will celebrate in a way that the No camp will label virtue signalling. And if the No camp wins, they will decry victory over political correctness. Respectful debate is unlikely irrespective of the outcome.

All that said — The Voice will be independent of the Government of the day. If the Government fails to act, The Voice will speak directly to the Government, the media and the community, announcing failure. I believe this will create a powerful political incentive to listen and act on the recommendations of The Voice in a unique way that our system currently does not have.

All political parties have issues with racism to various degrees — Liberals, Greens, Labor, all of 'em. The Voice will hold them accountable for their respective failures. Given that politicians loath transparency, it’s a fundamentally good idea to have an indigenous body to hold politicians to direct account.

A recent example of how this may play out is in Queensland, where Labor is potentially liable for tens of millions of dollars, for inhumane child detention in so-called ‘watch’ houses. The Guardian has an excellent article on this issue. If Australia had an advisory body like The Voice, the sheer amount of attention that would be given on this issue would unquestionably force Labor to prioritise rectifying this issue. Currently, this issue is being played out in the courts, which is an important component of justice, but I’d argue that an expedited solution would occur if The Voice existed.

Pardon the long post. If you want any recommendations for balanced and fair podcasts, articles or resources, please let me know. Happy to help. And all the best otherwise x

hot baths & saunas are a staple! and that’s a good reminder, i do need to lose a few pounds.

thanks for sharing x

I have intermittent sciatica & back pain — may I ask what other strategies or medications helped you relieve your symptoms? I exercise and take NSAIDs infrequently. Also tried medical marijuana, which was admittedly fun and def eased anxiety around pain flare-ups but didn’t reduce the physical pain noticeably. And yeh trying to avoid opiates for obvious reasons.

the most annoying is long applications odd when there’s pre-screenings and multiple rounds of interviews, like goddamn spare us all the pain of writing and reading this b/s and ask these things face to face

and that’s dope! getting out of retail, that is, must be an exciting step forward.

are you having much luck finding these types of office customer service roles? asking bc my sector is cooked rn, not enough jobs and too many applicants

honestly that’s so awesome of her, i always wanted to know what it was like on the inside and its so great that you can get that perspective bc workplaces get real funny when it comes to this kinda thing

in a job awhile back there were multiple claims against one staff member and the gov paid several people out due their behaviour. yet hr had the audacity to emphasise on numerous occasions that nobody was guilty, the workplace environment was safe, yadda yadda

but anyway stoked you got some perspective on your situation and again i hope it mellows out for ya

fair deal friend, and its real good to hear you’ve got some clarity, shout out to ya mate in HR hey what a legend

Isn’t it cooked? My lord. Especially writing responses to selection criteria. I’m looking at entry level academic/research, learning design & peripherally related jobs — so yeah lol each application has ~10 criteria to respond to. Brutal.

How about yourself, what kinda of work are you looking for?

probably an obvious comment to make but if you are feeling it, take some notes on the situation at hand, being as factual as you can given the circumstances. contemporaenous notes are powerful documents to possess during conflicts and when things go to shit.

I am right there with you. I’ve been looking for about 6 weeks now — landed a few good interviews, but there were better candidates each time. The worst part? The interviews have all been for incredible positions that I landed with rough as guts application written by chatGPT — yet the handwritten, bespoke, thoughtful (and by all other metrics) clearly superior applications have all been flat out rejected.

no idea what to make of this but uhh yeah i hate moment of this cooked as process

A mate studying their 2nd PhD applied for a job last year, had specific first-author publications for each of the selection criteria — didn’t even get shortlisted. After this mind-blowing anecdote and hearing reiterations of this story ad nauseum, I decided against pursuing further study. Always baffled me the whole overqualification trope — as if the extensive planning, managing, budgeting and executing a PhD project isn’t exactly the type of skills needed for the workplace.

Appreciate the insight again friend, all the best to ya and good luck with the remainder of your doctorate.

gonna cosign on your comment bc I’m having the exact same issue right now. thought it was something breaking on my end.

Pardon this belated reply — I really appreciate your answer, it’s given me good dose of clarity as I was thinking about signing up for a masters at UniMelb. I’ll start applying for more technical roles hey.

And I’m after junior research assistant related roles at uni, research institute or hospital. Like, someone gives me a topic and I write them a lit review, provide summaries or annotated bibs etc. Academic writing is my strength. I know some opportunities exist. I recently fumbled an interview because I didn’t provide nuance with respect to the specific statistical tests I’d applied on datasets in my grad projects. They were kind enough to provide this feedback to me, it was valuable.

May I ask, if you’re in this line of work, did you break into the field? Did you start off in a technical role?

Oh yeah, it’s a tiny sector with practically no connections to global markets. And yeh, I have considered overseas employment. Probably not realistic rn as I don’t yet have a Masters/PhD, and also companies rarely employ internationals out of state. So you gotta move to a new country first and then apply.

I appreciate the lateral thinking, thanks for the suggestion.

Nah, creative writing is here to stay. In the age of AI saturating journalism and the arts etc. I suspect your services would be well sought after.

And funny you say that re: Ritalin. Prior to getting on meds, I’d lost count how many times I’d dropped out of uni – probably 6 or 7 times. And I transferred across 5 unis lol. I started when I was 18 and didn’t graduate until I was 30. I battled through my remaining undergrad subjects over the pandemic, graduated last year and continued on w/ postgrad. My strength is academia but I never actually believed I’d complete a degree nor study postgrad, not in a million years.

The most surprising thing was that my final undergrad year was so much more difficult than doing postgrad. All the teachers and their assignments in postgrad were super flexible, as was my weekly schedule. I could do whatever I want at my own pace. It was a goddamn revelation not having to constantly chase deadlines and having the freedom to push things back as required.

I’d encourage you to consider giving it a go! Could always sign up and see how the first month is? And if you need to, drop out / defer before census.

Been furiously applying for jobs over the past 2 months. Early on, I landed two interviews that were unsuccesful. Since then, I’ve been getting nothing whatsoever. Starting to spiritually resonate with the cliché the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again but expecting different results by lowkey loosing it. Hence, I’m asking strangers for help, perspective, and anecdotes.

I’m after research work (and related) in the biomed/health sector. Been diverseying the search, scouring company websites directly, using LinkedIn, the Victorian Gov careers site etc. Rn I’ve got decent career momentum and need to stay within this field bc once your out its unlikely to get back in without pursuing further study. Look I’m not the most qualified but certainly not the least. Hell, even got some peer-reviewed publications out last year.

If you’ve been stuck in the perpetual job hunt chasing a specific line of work, how did you get yourself unstuck? And, is it worth calling hiring managers directly to make yourself more known? And do you have any tips for presenting / preparing applications?

Note: job agencies don’t offer much assistance in this sector.

Cheers everyone!

That sounds like a real decent opportunity! It’s so great to hear about unis allowing alternative entry pathways and changing up how things are done. Cheeky tangent, I love how Swinburne offers incremental qualifications to their students e.g. if you drop out after one or two years, you’re rewarded with a Cert III or Diploma in whatever it is you were studying, with the option to return for the final Bachelor year at a later point. Other unis are moving towards this model. I digress.

Over the past year I have been studying full-time postgrad and working 3-4 days each week (25-30 hours). The degree is centered around a biomedical research project and requires a lot of in-person, tedious, isolated lab work. (Oh it’s worth noting that I am aiming for high marks, trying for med school). Not gonna water it down, it has been really fkn hectic doing it this way. Studying full-time and working 3 days a week was bearable…but when I picked up another shift, I didn’t have a day off for nearly 2 months…would not recommend 0/10 i’m an idiot

It would’ve been much easier studying a postgrad degree ‘by coursework’ and not ‘by research.’ I could def see myself working 25ish hours weekly and studying coursework full-time, no doubt. Guess it depends on the subject/material, too. Biomed…is involved. And if you’re not chasing HDs then yes yes, for sure its doable. I reckon the sweet spot would be part-time study whilst working 30-35 hours each week.

What’s the field of study for this postgrad you’re looking to get into, if you don’t mind me asking?