So today I start the new job hunt. The story goes like this:

Tuesday all of us at work were dragged into the boardroom and told bluntly: As of Thursday the company is undergoing a restructure, and your positions are being made redundant.
All of the development staff (which included me) are no longer required as they're ceasing development, and basically the situation the company is in they may not be able to pay me (and all the others) their owed holidays, redundancy, notice and superannuation. For me that totals to about 20 weeks pay (argh).

So after 3 1/2 years at the company I'm now looking for a new job, preferably in Melbourne. From my experience interviewing candidates for roles over the last 12 months, there's a massive skills shortage and a surplus of jobs, so I don't think it'll be hard to line up a job in the next week or two, but I'd rather work somewhere I'm going to be happy - I don't want to end up at somewhere like Sensis, EDS, CSC etc.

I'll certainly be doing my own job hunting, but I though I'd throw a shout out there see if anyone knows of any really cool companies to work for down this way who are in need of a Senior(ish) Java, C# or similar software developer. Though I've got tons of PHP experience, I'm really not looking to return to that area.

But if anyone has any leads they'd like to put me onto, that'll certainly be a helpful start :)

and basically the situation the company is in they may not be able to pay me (and all the others) their owed holidays, redundancy, notice and superannuation

that sounds gay, is that even legal? are they going bankrupt or something?

Isn't there some sort of protection from the government or something that will make sure you get an owed money from a bankrupt or closing company?

I'm not stating there is, I'm asking

and basically the situation the company is in they may not be able to pay me (and all the others) their owed holidays, redundancy, notice and superannuation

That ain't right. Owed is owed. I'd be fighting tooth and nail to ensure what i was entitled to, i'd tear em a new one. f*** em. What c***s.

You can go to the work place ombudsman. Staff expenses have to be paid before anything else by a company else the directors can be treated negligent.

If you let them give you nothing, then take them to court. Don't be afraid. Get them to pay everything you're owed, which is holiday and superannuation only as well as pay for your legal fees.

Good luck with the new job hunt, im sure you could get them to pay for the time off to find a new job too? (this is probably what you meant by redundancy payout)

Wow what a s*** situation. If I worked for that company and got to keep my job I would quit quick smart so the bulls*** didn't happen to me.

Besides, i thought superannuation was payed as part of PAYG, therefore you should already have that locked away in their superannuation company somewhere under your name.

Basically, super needs to be paid by the end of each tax year otherwise the employer loses their right to a tax deduction for the contribution.

Basically, super needs to be paid by the end of each tax year otherwise the employer loses their right to a tax deduction for the contribution.

Yeah, super is *supposed* to have been paid... but it was last paid on October 1st 2007. Thannnks guys.
Edit: I actually got caught with this because part of my super was income protection insurance. When I found out in February that it hadn't been paid was the first I found that as a result my insurance had lapsed, because of them not having paid it. I wasn't impressed.

As far as chasing it up, you can only collect on what funds/assets they have. If they don't have the assets or funds to pay creditors, no amount of chasing it is going to change that. I kinda feel for them as one of the directors has put a lot (read: everything) into the company, and now looks to be having to sell his farm to be able to pay debts. At the same time, I do have to look out for myself.

Good luck with the new job hunt, im sure you could get them to pay for the time off to find a new job too? (this is probably what you meant by redundancy payout)

Going on what we've had it explained to us, and as part of a mix of our contracts/the law, I'm owed 46 days holiday, four weeks termination, and seven weeks redundancy. I'm personally not convinced I'm owed both the termination and redundancy, but that's what others and even the company are telling me. And then there's Super.

While I believe they're obliged to pay holiday, superannuation and termination/notice, I think there's a clause in the law that gets them out of paying redundancy under bankruptcy scenarios.

I'm a bit annoyed because I was going to leave at the end of February, and had they said anything about this then I'd have done so.

last edited by Raven at 13:19:53 19/May/08

So which f***** company is this anyways?

>All of the development staff (which included me) are no longer required as they're ceasing development, and basically the situation the company is in they may not be able to pay me (and all the others) their owed holidays, redundancy, notice and superannuation. For me that totals to about 20 weeks pay (argh).

Getting this back will be a huge rock to push uphill. If a company starts to have trouble paying the wages / entitlementsits a good time to start taking leave and looking for options, otherwise you can get caught.

Have you considered contracting / starting your own company Raven?

I've given it some thought, but it's not something I really want to do in the long term - I'd rather have a really hard problem that's going to take anyone a long time to figure out and solve... and then do it better than they could. It's the kind of thing you either contract a specialist for if you want the problem solved, or you hire someone into the role for that specific task, I guess.
I think maybe in the short term if I don't find anything straight away that jumps off the page in terms of jobs I'm interested in I might just see if I can find some lucrative short term (3 month) contract doing maybe some PHP work or something that there's a lot of around, and then go from there.

By the way, if anyone wants to critique a resume for me (which I'm having to update, as it's four years old of date), let me know. I've had to read through dozens from applications in the past few years, but you can't really critique your own in the same way ;)

Get Tracey Grimshaw onto 'em.

I'm interested in hearing about any uber software dev companies since I really need a new job (mine sucks and is boring and .. sucks).

Raven - if you were to move to London I could help you find a job in any of those fields. The consultancy I work for places IT pro's into Investment Banking & Finance markets. Lots of jobs, good moolah, etc. Particularly in Java, C#, C++, etc.

Aren't an assload of IT people in the Investment, Banking & Finance markets getting the can in the UK at the moment?

Hey Zak I've PM'd you let me know what you think

If anyone's interested or feels like providing some feedback, I've uploaded a current resume to http://zero.racetime.com.au/files/resume/resume.pdf

I want to trim it down and make it more readable - particularly the 'Skills and Experience' bit on the first page. Actually, everything on the first page I don't like (Objective, Personal Info...)
But yeah. Suggestions appreciated ;)

I won't be sending it out anywhere until I'm happy with it.

as an employer, all i really ever look at on resumes is past experience. all the rest is just filler.

set yourself the challenge of limiting your skills list to say 5 main bullet points, then cover the rest in your employment history.

hobbies: don't care

volunteer: this isn't the red cross.

last edited by infi at 17:30:48 19/May/08

also in the last line, perhaps preferred should be re-spelt with a double r and one f.

rewrite your first objective sentence!@#!@# STAT!

I haven't read the rest yet but will have a glance later. Also anyone that sends a PDF resume to us is immediately blacklisted.

you can drive trucks for me for $20.65 p/hr!! woo hoo.....
and you should engage legal aid or something to recover all you're owed.

set yourself the challenge of limiting your skills list to say 5 main bullet points, then cover the rest in your employment history.

Fair point, I'll (try to) do that.

rewrite your first objective sentence!@#!@# STAT!

haha, yeah. I wrote it and thought "gah, can't get hte meaning I want. I'll come back to this."

Don't worry, it won't go out in (only) PDF format. Some people prefer doc, some PDF, others, well, something else. It's not like it's hard to reformat.

also in the last line, perhaps preferred should be re-spelt with a double r and one f.

I don't know what's worse.
a) That I didn't pick that up.
b) That OpenOffice didn't pick that up.
That's terrible!

Don't worry, there's other mistakes I've just picked up - like listing Joax's email as Danny :P

I've just updated it, and just for you trog, it's also available in Latex format.

To work on and be involved in solving problems so difficult that only a very small portion of the industry are cable of assisting with

overlooking the spelling error, that sentance makes you sound like a d*******. (honest feedback not trying to be a c***)

To help make a difference to the quality of products being released to the market.

while that may or may not be truly one of your professional goals, it sounds like standard resume bulls*** that noone would believe. i think you should be more honest in your professional aspirations, say what goals or positions you want to achieve over the next 5 years.

ps. infi is right about hobbies/volunteer. no employers give a s*** about that.

PDF resume is the norm these days.

I think people beat up resume writing too much these days. Just keep the what you've done and where you want to be stuff up the top. And don't put your maccas job on it.

ps. infi is right about hobbies/volunteer. no employers give a s*** about that.

false, I do. If it came down to two ideal candidates and one of them liked drinking and playing footy and the other liked trying to convert people to Scientology I know which one I'd pick, because they'd make a better fit

well if that's important to you as an employer then you'd ask them in the interview process. it's really unimportant on a resume.

The Scientologist?

Putting aside the fact that I agree with you entirely (that it's poorly worded, overstated, and cliche) on everything under 'Objectives' taggs, let's leave that section for now until I've had a chance to look at it a bit better :)
As far as the objectives bit goes, I'm really trying to say "I don't want to do s***-kicker work, because I'm likely capable of working on the most f***off complicated s*** you can throw at me - and that's what I want to be doing" :)
I'm not sure that would go down too well written like that though.

well if that's important to you as an employer then you'd ask them in the interview process. it's really unimportant on a resume.

And then get sued for religious discrimination? :/

yeah, i figured that's what you meant i was just saying from the point of view of someone who'd just picked up the resume =)

edit:

And then get sued for religious discrimination? :/

i meant in general the whole hobbies/volunteer section, not his specific example about scientology.

last edited by taggs at 18:00:14 19/May/08

i'd probably find space on your resume to mention that in a minor life crisis situation you consult qgl for assistance.

i think thats the sort of person that employers are looking for. that and retards who can't admit they are wrong.

i meant in general the whole hobbies/volunteer section, not his specific example about scientology.

Ah. Volunteer Exp/Hobbies is really just there as a filler for the Referee contact info. Realistically there's nothing "important" on the third page.

I'm playing around with the suggestion of limiting experience stuff to 5 points, makes it hard putting things into the job details though with trying to fit education and work exp onto the same page.

Isn't there some sort of protection from the government or something that will make sure you get an owed money from a bankrupt or closing company?

Yes it's called GEERS.

I worked for Omega Technology as my first IT job and they got liquidated a week before Christmas and we missed out on 2 weeks pay. Didn't really bother me cause I was living with the parents so rent wasn't a problem.

Some of those poor old c***s were there for 10 years and had only basic IT skills and no decent references and probably couldn't afford presents for their kids...

Took about 2.5 months but I eventually saw the money, so in the short term the answer = no, you get f***ed.

PDF is an awesome format: (so small, so nice looking, so awesome off the printer)

also

hobbies is most important:

if i have to work with someone, i need to make sure that
a) they arent wow players
b) they are awesome and will be fun for me to work with


so definately do leave hobbies in:

well if that's important to you as an employer then you'd ask them in the interview process.

Funny story about this. My boss boss was interviewing someone for a high position role, and he is an absolute type A personality. When he goes to ask the person what sport/hobbies they like the HR girl who was sitting in on the interview tells him he's not allow to ask such a question because its not relevant to hiring someone for a position.

Apparently he went off at her (which would not be a pretty thing), f***ing HR!

Um, in this situation, can't the government hand control of the company over to liquidators?

Oh well, if you guys are happy to take this one for the team, more power to you.

Funny story about this. My boss boss was interviewing someone for a high position role, and he is an absolute type A personality. When he goes to ask the person what sport/hobbies they like the HR girl who was sitting in on the interview tells him he's not allow to ask such a question because its not relevant to hiring someone for a position.

Apparently he went off at her (which would not be a pretty thing), f***ing HR!

ive been in interviews where that s*** has happened.
ive told hr off myself during interviews
the employee has always seemed to appreciate it.

This is IMHO, everyone has an opinion on this stuff.

- Consider using a skills matrix in place of the bullet points for your skills list. You can expand on how you pwned stuff in the work section.
- Work Experience sounds like something you do in year 10 to me. You're a swish white-collar dude - consider Professional History instead.
- "References available on request" is becoming more and more common for good reason. Confirmation of referees should be one of the last things done in a selection process as its inconvenient and a pain in the arse for the referee.
- You're a five-year+ grad, your activities at Uni are becoming much less relevant. They just want to tick a box to note you have the requisite piece of paper. Focus on your most recent work.

Try to avoid telling a story or using qualitative expressions, and try not to list hobbies. Personal information you want to release in a face-to-face where you can guage what the interviewer / employer might be looking for.

As this thread shows, people have lots of bias on personal matters.

As this thread shows, people have lots of bias on personal matters.

DO NOT INCLUDE HOBBIES. It implies you have a life, and that is contrary to the computer industry.

false, I do. If it came down to two ideal candidates and one of them liked drinking and playing footy and the other liked trying to convert people to Scientology I know which one I'd pick, because they'd make a better fit

From an employee's point of view, thats a good reason not to include that sort of information on your resume, because you could potentially cheat yourself out of a job :P

like the other guy said, GEERS should be able to payout your holidays, early termination and redundency.

http://www.workplace.gov.au/workplace/Programmes/EmployeeEntitlements/GEERSV2/

I got it payed once before, got holiday pay I was owed as well as 4 weeks early termination.

I got screwed the same way as you have been with the company not paying my super for at least 9 months, not sure if there is a government scheme that covers that.

last edited by `ViPER` at 19:13:00 19/May/08

If you had posted this before you got canned I would have suggest looting. But it seems like the government has you covered so there is no need for it.

Well, we half have the option, if the company does completely sink, to take some of the equipment in lieu of partial payment. There's some cool Cisco 2811s decked out with neat NMs and HWICs which I'd be very tempted to take dibbs on.

Edit: Herman Miller Aeron chairs all round too.

atleast u dont completly miss out if it goes under.

There are some developer positions available at my current company for C# developers and we dabble in a heap of different technologies and you'll be bound to pick up a lot.

We do a lot with web services, windows services, WPF, winforms, distributed applications and device development. Has kept me busy for the last while and I've had the opportunity to work on some amazing stuff.

Feel free to PM me if you are interested.

Raven,

Please check your PM, mate. :)