Things I have learned from changing into an office...

[fireheart]

One thing I did learn today...that sterilisation class is apparently available as a traineeship.
(Traineeship: on the job experience combined with a certificate in whatever you're doing so in this instance, someone would be working in a hospital while completing their certificate)

I also learned that I may qualify to actually do a traineeship. While the pay rate sucks compared to what I could be earning, its a little bit more than what I was getting in my childcare job per fortnight (net income) plus I do get time to study, so I'm basically getting paid to study the course I'm thinking of runs for either 6 or 12 months and I can choose to either study a straight up admin course or specialise in legal or education admin. I plan on specialising in legal admin if I can, since an education traineeship is a little hard to come by and legal also gives me a broader job field.

[Air_Stewardess]

Ah, office work....any jobs going?

[Tama]

Legal work would have you in quieter scenarios good for your anxiety too.

[Blue Ginger]

Fireheart, go for the traineeship. Yeah, the pay isn't the best, but it does get better when you have finished.

I did one with my first ever job and it was a great way to understand how everything works. I was fresh out of high school with no clue what I was doing. (I'm now 30 and still have no idea, but that's a different story )

If you are going to do the legal admin course, you might be better off staying away from criminal law. I lasted 6 weeks at a criminal law firm before I had to leave because of the clients.

[fireheart]

Legal work would have you in quieter scenarios good for your anxiety too.

This is the idea that I'm looking at and as it turns out, there's a few recruitment agencies who specialise in legal secretary work. The one I'm with at the moment does have a field for legal work, but it's not the area that they've put me in (they've put me in government work, which at least gives me SOME security). I was also upfront with them about my anxiety and unlike most people, who either sidestep the issue or treat me differently, these guys didn't mince words and the lady I spoke to was able to at least determine my triggers from my rambling (the main trigger seems to be a very "reactive" environment, so criminal law is out)

Fireheart, go for the traineeship. Yeah, the pay isn't the best, but it does get better when you have finished.

I did one with my first ever job and it was a great way to understand how everything works. I was fresh out of high school with no clue what I was doing. (I'm now 30 and still have no idea, but that's a different story )

If you are going to do the legal admin course, you might be better off staying away from criminal law. I lasted 6 weeks at a criminal law firm before I had to leave because of the clients.

I think my plan is to avoid criminal and family law as much as I can, although personally I could deal with family law to some extent.

One of the jobs I applied for today DOES look at some legal work, but it's more a "research" thing-so for instance I'd be investigating who's making malicious posts against someone on Facebook or looking at things like fraud. (that's an example). They don't require any experience and in fact said that any experience would likely be disregarded because the role requires extensive training and they want someone who's OK with starting from the ground up.
What made me giggle was that the application said "If you apply from SEEK (job-search website) we will not look at your application." The job app was on SEEK.

I think I did 3 email ads (2 for trainee/junior receptionists and one for this role) today and a few others. Upside of my job is that because we start at 8:30 and our boss doesn't come in until 9, I get about 30 minutes to job-hunt

[Javarod]

What made me giggle was that the application said "If you apply from SEEK (job-search website) we will not look at your application." The job app was on SEEK.

Hmmmm, that might be bad for you, though it doesn't sound that way. They might be bent out of shape if SEEK is scraping their listings, and might be burying them in unqualified applicants.

[AccountingDrone]

Fireheart, go for the traineeship. Yeah, the pay isn't the best, but it does get better when you have finished.

I did one with my first ever job and it was a great way to understand how everything works. I was fresh out of high school with no clue what I was doing. (I'm now 30 and still have no idea, but that's a different story )

If you are going to do the legal admin course, you might be better off staying away from criminal law. I lasted 6 weeks at a criminal law firm before I had to leave because of the clients.

I volunteered at a women's shelter doing paperwork for the ladies [paralegal certified] but I had to quit because it was giving me flashbacks to my abusive relationship. I think I would rather have been handling criminals ...

[fireheart]

Hmmmm, that might be bad for you, though it doesn't sound that way. They might be bent out of shape if SEEK is scraping their listings, and might be burying them in unqualified applicants.

Seek I've found to be much more reliable with job ads than some other websites. In this case, they had an email address that you had to send your cover letter and resume to.

[Gizmo]

Seek I've found to be much more reliable with job ads than some other websites. In this case, they had an email address that you had to send your cover letter and resume to.

If Seek has a apply now button then it might be that. A lot of systems in the UK have this and then ask you to attach a word CV and cover letter and sometimes sends it as a block to the employer. Sometimes it will only use text and removes all formatting etc.

Many ways that the websites system could muck things up so it comes across to me as a warning: If you didn't read the post and do your application through email then a) its more annoying for them to assess you and b) you didn't read the instructions...

[fireheart]

If Seek has a apply now button then it might be that. A lot of systems in the UK have this and then ask you to attach a word CV and cover letter and sometimes sends it as a block to the employer. Sometimes it will only use text and removes all formatting etc.

Many ways that the websites system could muck things up so it comes across to me as a warning: If you didn't read the post and do your application through email then a) its more annoying for them to assess you and b) you didn't read the instructions...

I believe that b) is the common reason and also to prevent spammers. (ie people whose skills definitely do NOT match up for the role and are just sending out 20-odd resumes to satisfy unemployment benefit requirements*)

SEEK does have an "Apply Now" button where you just simply put your name down, contact details, most recent position, attach your cover letter and resume and send it off. Some cases will redirect you to another website, or very rarely, to the email address directly.

*-because the requirement is "Any" job, some people will just send out resumes anywhere and everywhere in order to say they're actively looking for work.

[fireheart]

So one of my colleagues wasn't in yesteday. I go in, do some minor tasks and then my boss calls me over.

Short version: I got reassigned to another department for a few days. Why? One massive ass project so that my fellow temps actually have work to do! although my boss told the manager of the other department "Fireheart is very thorough and quick." So I guess that's a good thing? (Using an excel spreadsheet, depending on the task, I can process anywhere from 100-120 lines per hour)

[fireheart]

And I have no clue what the hell I was thinking.

I applied for a job as a secretary with a legal firm, one that is currently doing some work for the government. The ad specified that you had to have an understanding of the issues that certain people face (I do funnily enough from studying teaching and childcare), so I applied.

The "government" work? Legal stuff for the royal commission into child abuse that's currently running. What the fuck was I thinking?!

ETA: I wound up checking the website again. Turns out that while the above is their main focus, they also handle a bunch of minor things-stuff that a solicitor would be expected to do.

[fireheart]

So it's been just over a week since my last post and here's the verdict:

-Way too many applications to count I've had rejections on. They were at least polite about it and I'm glad that they actually responded. (including the child abuse one I mentioned in my last post)
-The ones that I had some alternate reponse on had the following responses:

"You have passed our initial screening process and your application will be forwarded on to our hiring manager for further review." (Yay?)
"You'd be great otherwise, but you're not suitable for this position simply because of your lack of experience. But give us a call when you start your Cert III in Business Admin*"
-The third one was the interview I queried about in the advice thread.

*-This is the course I'm planning on doing. It's basically a 6-month "practical" course which has classroom work that gets into the nitty-gritty of things. So I would actually be learning how to transcribe dictations and such. There are four strands of the course I can do: Generic, Education, Legal and Medical. Medical I struck right out for semi-obvious reasons, Education kinda limits me as there aren't a huge number of jobs going out there (most of the ladies in those jobs tend to stay on until they retire, move house to the point where they can't get to the school or get fired/quit-it's also not the most relaxing job either) so it was between Legal and Generic. I'm opting for Legal as it opens up a few more opportunities and if I play my cards right, I could work in a quiet firm.

Cert III is the "entry-level" course. Cert IV builds on that and it goes up to Diploma. My understanding is that Cert III is 6 months, Cert IV is either 6 or 12 months, while Diploma is 18 months and Advanced Diploma is 18-24.

[fireheart]

So I must be doing something right. Why?

I scored 2 interviews-one for this Friday (which i'm going to try and reschedule) and one for Monday (which wound up being rescheduled for me. I offered a Friday morning slot so I wasn't pushing it too far with my temp supervisor, they said they'd get back and changed it to Monday next week instead.)

The Friday one is for a legal firm (receptionist/typist) and the one on Monday is for a very small performing arts high school in the CBD (Receptionist/Office Admin). The latter one I have a higher chance at for the following reasons:

-I already have my working with children check (there's a number that I provide to them, they go online and use it to check my status, as opposed to most other states where you are given a piece of paper that is useless the moment its printed)
-I have my child protection certificate (used to be called "Mandatory Notification" aka if you spot abuse, you are required to report it-over here it's a unit that counts towards a Cert III/IV in Childcare, in most other states it does not)
-I am fully first-aid trained (First Aid, CPR, Asthma Management, Anaphylaxis Management)
-My uni degrees reflect a working with children focus (although most of my units are primary focused, not secondary)
-I've had face-to-face experience in working with children across the board.

So fingers crossed

[RootedPhoenix]

*crosses everything* I hope you find awesome people to work for and an awesome job.