Trip out to a mining town?

Well, not had much luck yet.

Looks like the best way to get a job out on a mine is to know someone who is working out on a mine.

Which I don't. :(

Since sending out a mess of applications hasn't been working out so well, I might need to drive out to a mining town and ask in person. The only down side would be that any job I'd get out there is likely to be a job in and around the town which would mean living out there. Which could be a bit of a pain as rents are quite high out there.

It's the usual - lots of jobs being advertised but everyone wants people with experience. Where do they expect people to get experience I wonder?

Even the supposed "entry level" openings are looking for people with experience, which does not really make them entry level. The only ways that are "easy" that I have seen are exploratory drilling assistants. Not too sure how I feel about roughing it out in the middle of nowhere.

Well, keep hitting that brick wall until it breaks...

Or I do.

Need a good ass-kicking!

Have really got to get into gear.

In the last 22 days haven't sent out anywhere near enough applications to get a hit. If you want a job in the mines you either need to know someone in the business (I don't), send out thousands of applications or get very lucky.

I ain't that lucky.

So got to get down and get those applications sent out. They've gotta hire someone and they aren't going to hire me if they don't know about me!

Now for the hard part

Well, I have pretty much all my tickets in hand, I have my resume re-written and ready to send out and as far as I can tell, I've ticked all the right boxes.

Now comes the difficult part of actually getting a job.

This is going to involve lots of perseverance and spamming all the mining companies with applications each week until someone notices me. This is not going to be easy as there are hundreds of other people applying for the same job and each week that passes, another ten people finish the same course that I just did.

It's going to be a little demoralising, but I've got to keep bashing my head against this wall and eventually it'll fall.

Or my head will cave in, either way...

First week of "unemployment"

So should I be scared, excited or relieved?

Where I am right now: Three weeks ago I quit my old job. Technically, I quit five weeks ago when I formally handed in my written resignation, but my last shift as a full time employee of the company was three weeks ago.

Why did I quit? I could give lots of answers, but the core is that I want more money.

I was working retail and I've now got gold fever - I want to go work in the mines. The problem is that this is a rather vague sort of goal! Everyone says that they want to go "work in the mines" but there are so many different jobs one could be doing! I picked the most obvious - driving haul trucks.

Of course, there are hundreds of people applying for these jobs so I decided to make sure I was properly trained and went and signed up for the RMS course. I had to really take a leap on that one because it costs $3,000. Handing over that kind of money makes you want to be really sure of what you are doing.

I did the main course two weeks ago. That was both scary and a lot of fun. I got to drive these big 100-ton trucks around the course they have (which is really tight) and spent time on their simulator (which is really cool) where they kept throwing emergency situations at us to see how we'd react.

Two weeks ago I did the follow up training and got my Senior First Aid and General Safety Induction to work on mine sites. I also applied for my National Police Clearance certificate which I received. That means I've ticked all the boxes and I'm now ready for the hard part - applying!

This week is my first week of true unemployment. I was still listed at my old job as a casual and did some work on the Saturdays during training but I have no shifts scheduled. Fortunately I have a very thrifty lifestyle so having no income for a few weeks ought not be a huge handicap - though I don't want to let it go too long!

I spent today getting my CV up to date, which I've nearly finished and I'll be set to start sending off applications tomorrow.

Total spent thus far: $3,500 - and climbing...