As some of you know, I work for a well-known supermarket franchise being a long life night filler, or in other words, a shelf packer. This job has helped me in many ways throughout my undergraduate years in terms of keeping me alive and paying for my rather extensive hobby. I’ve been through thick and thin, shedding much sweat and blood, but now I have entered the most darkest era of my time.
Before Christmas, the store had plans to cut back on the amount of hours on all the staff. Well I didn’t take much upon this as I was working 3 to 4 shifts a week which was fine by me (I used to do 6 day weeks) and it was enough to get by. But alas a new shopping centre opened up not too far from where I work, with a rival supermarket chain moving in, a lot of customers went there. So thus even less work was becoming available and I was reduced to about 2 to 3 shifts at most.
Over the period of a month it got worse and now I have a new store manager and a new department manager. Now you know that whenever a new manager arrives, they want to enforce their own policies and these two are no exception, but the store manager is taking the cake. The store manager wishes to get rid of the casual staff throughout the whole store and so far has already gotten rid of a few. In short, I’m a casual and I now get one shift a week if I’m lucky, but now I’m also in danger of getting the sack. Although I have graduated I am looking for full time work. But the competition in the I.T industry is pretty fierce and I’m not having much luck in terms of finding a developer job.
So yes, my financial stability has entered Condition Red. The worst part is that I have many things that still need to be done and with a low source of income, it’s becoming quite difficult. Such things as servicing my car, installing the car alarm I bought over 4 months ago, paying off my bills, and paying for upcoming pre-orders. However I have made some decisions on how to cope with this until I get myself full time work.
- Obviously the first one is to completely reduce my spending on figures and anime merchandise. Luckily for me right now that my HLJ pre-order list is less than 10 items but I may have to cancel some figures. But at the very most I will still continue to pre-order merchandise, but only if I know I really want it, e.g ARIA figures and the Kanon 2006 DVDs.
- Less trips into the city. Now I live 1 hour out west of Sydney and I usually drive as taking the train is out of the question (Sydney train system is just crap). So now I will be doing less driving to the city as I don’t want to rack up the kilometres any more or use up the petrol in my car.
- Eat less?? I’m not too sure about doing this. During the time of saving for my trip to Japan, I ate very little and ended up losing nearly 5 kilograms (and I’m a very small person). An unhealthy approach to just save money but so far I’m lasting with the minimum that I need. But also I’m thankful for my brother and sister who cook me dinner.
So how does this relate to Moe Moe Rabu?? Well I’m not too sure on this. Possibly less outdoor photography of figures, or ones situated in the city, but also probably less anime merchandise for you to see, especially ARIA items. I know that there are a number of ARIA items coming out soon but I have not pre-ordered them due to this reason. But for figures, I still have my local area and I may turn to indoor photography.
At this point I may revert to finding a web development job as doing web development is easier than application programming. Thus I’m in the process of learning PHP and ASP but revisiting some sections of HTML and CSS as it has been a while since I last did anything major. So I hope I can find a job soon as this whole financial situation is killing me. orz
good luck. i went through a similar period after college. I spent 3 years working for a bank until i settle into the insurance industry. For food trying eatin g just raman. I use to buy them 0.10 a pack form the dollar stores. Now i buy the upgrade stuff at 0.25 a pack.
My sympathies are with you.
Personally, I have survived around 3 management changes — everyone tries to cut my shifts, but I usually claw back within a few weeks (because those who get the shifts can’t do them). Then again, I have a pretty stable place in the staff, being one of the longer-serving members and a customer service supervisor.
In fact, right now, another bigwig is trying to impose their regime on us and squeezing down on my regular shifts. So here I am planning my come-back. But as always, I am prepared to change jobs if need be.
My financial situation is currently orange. I realised that I have overspent and now have a saving goal to go to Japan at the end of the year. Currently mopping up those pesky preorders from last year, but pretty much most of the merchandise wave will be subsiding in the next few months. Of course, such things do affect anime blogs like those we have, so we will have to find ways to diversify.
Sorry to hear about all this! I can relate completely though. I’m currently in a job lull, working a temp job that is in the off season now. I am currently finishing up my Master, but moved back home to save money. Unfortunately, for what I want to do (psychological research), there just aren’t too many jobs where I am living now, so funding things is painful. Still looking for a new job. It’s tough, but that’s just how it goes upon stepping out of education. I personally think struggling immediately out of schooling is much more common than people make it out to be. At least here in the US, most people think that once you get your degree, jobs will be there. Especially in my case with a Masters, people _expect_ work to fall in my lap, but that’s just not the case.
In terms of eating less, you don’t necessarily have to eat less, just don’t go out to eat. Spend the money on buying canned and packaged goods and other stuff that will last some time. Back when I was a full-time grad student, I spent the bulk of my money on food… sandwiches here, coffee there, take-out at night, booze on the weekend. It adds up. When I limited that, I had a lot more cash. In terms of hobby spending, I make sure it’s something that I absolutely must own. I don’t know how many times I’ve picked up a videogame on a whim and then a week later some manga gets released or I need some DVD-RWs and I can’t buy them (while the game is just sitting around). I now only buy things I “must have” or deals that are just too fabulous to pass up. Lastly, planning ahead helps a lot. The hard part is making sure not to stray for the plan. I’m saving up for a PSP and a Wii currently, but I also have 5 or 6 pre-orders on HLJ and a few videogame pre-orders. Because I have all those pre-orders I have to make sure not to compulsively buy stuff. To do that, I try not to look through online stores that often or other sites that will make me want to buy something.
Good luck! Ups and downs happen, but in the end things hopefully will work out!
Have you tried looking for jobs outside of Australia? Though it might be hard since you would have to move, but it’s certainly an option. I know the IT sector in my city are certainly trying to hire graduates and can never find enough omputer science/system/electrical engineers for coop placements =P.
Xellos: I’ve done that in my early years of uni and I don’t really want to do that again.
icie: This would also be my 4th management change and I have survived the previous three. The previous ones all gave up after 2 and half weeks in convincing me to change. However this new one is different as he already took action on other staff within his first week.
In terms of figure photography, I still have all the ones I bought over the years so I may start doing more figure gallery photos than reviews.
deftoned: I see that having a Masters would be more difficult in a sense. The fact that you have a higher level of credentials, not many would want to hire you as they will have to pay more. Well this is what I got told by a friend of mine who is doing Masters in Engineering.
Well I have spent less on eating out significantly. For me at the moment I only buy food to last me during the day whilst my brother and sister cook dinner.
Hijiko: No I haven’t but looking for work outside Australia is currently out of the question. Yes the moving out of the country is a difficult choice, but it’s an expensive choice as well given my current financial situation. I considered the same thing when I was thinking of moving to another state, but again, it’s the whole cost of moving.
Sorry to hear that…once you get that first post-college job though, you have “experience” and finding the next job gets a lot easier (not that that’s much comfort now). Personally, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after graduated, so I fell into a job working for a Big 5 Consulting firm–that meant a lot of travel and some long hours, but I was single at the time and it worked out well for me (I met my wife there, and it led to a better job with another company which I’ve been at for 7 years now, which in today’s economy is an eternity). Ganbatte!
I see, that’s a shame. Though there are companies that would be willing to help pay for the relocation fees, but that’s rare. Also you can live with the basic necessities for a few weeks before having some of the other stuff shipped over. Again, finding a company willing to do that is rather rare, that’s what I’m hoping my experiences in coop will help in the future. Even if I have to move out of town for 4 months for the damn placement (I might just end up spending what I make, but it’s the networking that counts… mostly… I hope >__
Hope you will find a job soon!!
Are there more shops in that area where you work?
You can always contact them and ask them if there is a vacant
job.
Best wishes from Robert/Sweden
Ugh, I remember you talking about this before but I had no idea just how bad it was. My wonderfully helpful list of suggestions thus far involves going over to the rival supermarket and trying for a job there if Woolworths kick you out on your arse. That way, not only will you have a job again, but it’s a good way of giving Woolworths the middle finger for firing you in the first place.
suguru: The first step is always the hardest and once I break into the industry, it should get slightly easier. But like you I’m kind of at a decision of whether going for web dev or programming. But I see web dev being the easier option, though it wasn’t what I learnt in uni.
Hijiko: That is another factor, finding a company willing to do that. The hard part is to prove to them that I am worth hiring. A major risk factor in this is an interview with the company may require a trip overseas. And if I don’t get the job, well its generally a waste of time and money.
Robert: There are some local shops in my area, but I rather move away from working at small places or in retail as I done that quite a lot in my high school days.
khardic paladin: You’re not the only one who has suggested that. Either way, I’ll be giving them the middle finger once I leave the job, lol.
Australia is getting more and more crowded, not that easy anymore to get a job @_@ I was lucky to get a full time job in IT, but it wasn’t easy, took me more than one year. I worked several months as freelance PHP web developer tho.
My advice is don’t give up! getting a job is not just based on skill and education, but also luck and being the right place at the right time
People always say that Sydney has more job opportunities compared to Melbourne, so you’ll find one soon ^^
Good luck
Ya… life sucks doesn’t it? Anyways, good luck in your search. Finding the first (professional?) job can be quite difficult without the proper network and connections. Good Luck =).
http://www.jobserve.com.au/W3E8093D3BBFCB367.job
This position is based in North Sydney. You may not have enough experience to get to interview, but it cannot hurt.