Swings + Roundabouts Summer 2020

By now, you may have seen the meme which says, “2020. Written by Stephen King. Directed by Quentin Tarantino“. It is apt and pithy, and probably a true reflection of what many people have experienced in the last twelve months. In terms of just the COVID-19 crisis alone, we have seen death, drama, heartache, mental anxiety, economic strain, financial stress, and rising unemployment, all wrapped up in a gritty, emotionally-charged, rollercoaster- of-a-ride, not too far removed from a Hollywood blockbuster disaster movie! Fortunately, for New Zealand, the picture isn’t all ‘doom and gloom’. We might no longer have international tourists injecting overseas dollars into the New Zealand economy, but we are still exporting goods, and New Zealanders who would otherwise be holidaying overseas are spending their cash locally. Car sales have surged this year, and a number of sectors which were expecting a downturn are now booming. As I write this article, at Labour Weekend, I can’t even get a builder to quote on work, until 2021. However, with Treasury predicting a peak unemployment rate of 7.8 per cent in the March 2022 quarter, it may be time to think seriously about what rising unemployment might mean for employees in general, and for early childhood education workers, in particular. Job-seeking is a topic which I have been thinking about for some time now, partly because I have seen a lot of my tertiary students searching for jobs, and partly because I think that most people are woefully ill-prepared for the job hunt. Having been on both sides of the interviewing table, I am sure that there are far better ways for us to conduct applicant appraisals. However, for now, I will just share some brief thoughts on different ways in which we could better prepare ourselves, when hunting down that ‘perfect’ job. The first idea which I want to explore, is our self-preparation. No, I don’t mean updating our CVs, re-writing cover letters, or even just reading the job advertisement more closely. This is about looking inside ourselves and discovering a bit more about our own JOB-HUNTING 101: PERSONALITY, CULTURE, AND PAIN POINTS BY PHIL SALES December 2020 { 22 }