Some advice for a school leaver looking for work

There is also the military and police force.
I know people who have used both as career springboards.

The Y-man

 

Police, soldiers, paramedics, counsellors, nurses, case workers - all tough front line jobs - but if someone wants to do it and chooses that path with eyes wide open, I don't think we should discourage it.

The Y-man

 

Still difficult. Unless you're in the administrative office, the stations can be very isolated small islands, very different from a corporate office - so ingrained small team work cultures can be difficult to overcome, as well as potentially making it very obvious when someone blows the whistle. Having said that, I am sure some of the workplace culture developed as a result of past practices and reaction to the front line pressure and situations which were not adequately dealt with in the past (and still struggling in places to deal with now).

One of the ways (hopefully) we change this is in fact to encourage a wide range of diverse recruits into the system and eventually "flush out" the old "unchangeable" characters, or at least make them a minority.

Vic police have tried to encourage members of communities from various cultural backgrounds, but this has been difficult, as 1. fewer parent want their kids to be a cop (as per your concerns earlier) or 2. the police (usually connected to the military) in the countries they or their parents came from were associated with corruption, or worse extrajudicial torture and killing.

I know one guy that was a PC that became a IT help desk operator team leader ~~ I think he felt much more under fire dealing with irate users than on the force He must have had quiet postings where he said his main difficulties were keeping weight off as they ended up eating maccas and kfc all the time (yes there are some "benefits" to working late at the cop shop - you'll see the car that's rostered to pick up the meals for the team at the local fast food) .... Just like another guy I met who was posted to Brighton Vic - where the biggest "emergencies" were "my cat is stuck up a tree" or "my car won't start"....

The Y-man

 

I am assuming he/she sought active service.

One of my staff was really ticked off he never made it to active front (Timor at the time - and *much* safer than Afghanistan) as he claims it would have basically set him up financially for the rest of his life (not sure about this, but I will leave that to be confirmed by others who have been on tours of duty). He badly broke his leg in training, and was consigned to desk jobs thereafter. After being denied a promotion, he quit and ended up on my team ~~ dealing with irate IT users ~~

The Y-man