Wading through shallow waters

Here is the second part of my interview with Jack. Here he talks about his experiences working in Melbourne and coming to terms with the difficulties of supporting yourself for the first time.

I never had a decent part time job in China. When I had time I mostly squandered it having fun. To be honest I haven't been that considerate of my parents. However, However since arriving in Australia, I have begun to appreciate the hardships associated with earning money.

Whilst I was completing my English course, I worked as a removalist. I got this job through my roommate. We got six hours to unload containers in a ware house and the pay was really good, $15 an hour plus one meal supplied. Because there were four of us working together the workload wasn’t that heavy and we usually had it all finished within 5 hours. At the end of the day each person would walk away with $90. It was definitely worth it but I have a feeling I am not going to be able to find another part time job that paid as well as that.

Recently I have been looking for work in Chinese convenience stores but the pay is pretty low, usually around $7 an hour. Apart from the difficulty of finding a well paying job, I haven’t really been entangled in any negative workplace situations like having a bad boss. But maybe that is just because I haven’t been around long enough!

In terms of jobs that I would really like to have whilst in Melbourne, I kind of envy those students who have jobs where they come into contact with local people quite frequently or they work in a place where the boss is an Australian. This is because improving my English is something I feel is really important.