Recruitment Advertising

I've not had my mind on the job re: blogging lately. Or to be more precise I've had my mind on it but I've just not been able to squeeze it into my days/weeks.

Big Jay is officially a house husband at the moment due to his redundancy and I have been spending a great deal of time searching job websites. It's a whole new world of bullshit out there. I haven't had to look for a job for over 19 years so it's an eye opener.

The reason I am doing the bulk of the search work is that you could say I'm more open minded when reading the job ads. Big Jay seems to think that his dream job will have a bold heading "Big Jay's Dream Job" (sort of like he thinks that the mayonnaise will be front and centre in the fridge when he wants it and not hiding behind the grapes on the bottom shelf).

The other reason is that Big Jay doesn't really have a "dream job". He started life as a carpenter/builder, moved onto installation of security doors and 10 years ago fell into telecommunications/IT support. He enjoyed his last job and was very good at it but he is not an IT head. He's not one of these people that the employment ads require ... "passionate about IT". Big Jay likes getting the job done and he likes getting on with people and he likes leaving people happy about the job he has done. But the actual IT part, he could take it or leave it.

So at the age of 40 he finds himself good at a number of things but not particularly expert or passionate about any of them. So we've sent off applications to a fairly wide variety of positions. He's had a couple of interviews. He's squeezed in two short courses. Today and tomorrow he's helping a friend with a small building project. You could say he's keeping busy.

What I've really learnt from this past week and a half of having Big Jay around a bit more is that I really like it. I would love to have a house husband. It's not so much the extra help with the housework that I'm appreciating. It's the extra help with the kids. For a start I've been able to get to the gym three times since last week. I've missed going to the gym and I'm loving having the opportunity to get back there.

Anyway, I started with an idea to write about the weird and ridiculous world of recruitment advertising but I've ended up blathering on about nothing. Suffice to say job ads are a weird and wonderful breed. They range from two lines which tell you almost nothing about the position to point lists requiring twenty different competencies, a degree and the desire to take on a position for $40,000 per annum.

Personally I would love it if we could find a way of living on less (ha! after what I spent on an Alannah Hill dress to wear to a wedding on the weekend we need to start cooking up some meth in the garage for some extra cash) so that Big Jay could work part time and we could have a calmer lifestyle. I just know, short of winning lotto, this can't happen in any practical way.

Now, back to Seek.com.au ...