WARNING: This may be my dullest post yet…because it’s not a very funny topic, but it’s perhaps a very timely topic for those in similar situation to me.

When my contract ended last October to go traveling and take a break over Christmas, I thought I would be back in a new job in the new year.  Given past experience, I figured the job market would be slow until late January/early February when people start to return to work from their summer breaks.  So I took it easy.  I talked to a couple of old contacts and told them I would be looking for work soon but didn’t give it too much thought.

I had updated my resumé and I was ready.  I started my online search.  I applied for jobs.  I talked to old colleagues.  I had interviews.  But then nothing happened.  Projects got canned; people got re-deployed (if they were lucky) or retrenched (if they were not); or there were simply more “suitable” candidates (or more desperate).

Whatever the case may be, it’s been a long, tough twelve months without income.

Australia has been pretty lucky that we have managed to avoid the worst of the global financial crisis for the last few years while the US and European countries have been hit hardest, primarily because our economy and financial sector are very highly regulated.  Unfortunately, the downturn has really started to affect us.

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