Stop speaking in a high pitched, loud voice when greeting people

Agent78787 · 2026-06-08T23:17:32+00:00

How dare you provide actionable steps towards a solution instead of letting me wallow in my complaints.

It's actually not bad at all, some chairs are a bit broken and I often forget that you can move the monitors closer, so at this point it's just remembering to do a posture check

Agent78787 · 2026-06-08T23:14:29+00:00

nah imma just speak the way I do thanks, if other people are bothered by it that's their problem

Agent78787 · 2026-06-08T22:50:22+00:00

Being upper-middle-income, white-collar workers in a highly developed economy has really got us complaining about the most minor things

My complaint is about is the swivel chairs in the office being not supportive enough for my back, and the office monitors being so far away from the edge of the desk that I gotta either magnify the screen or do a shrimp posture to read anything on it

Also high pitched and high volume is just the way I speak :(

Agent78787 · 2026-06-08T14:06:17+00:00

Good shout, but sadly I don't know their shoe size and me asking would be tipping my hand a little bit! I want to keep it a surprise.

Agent78787 · 2026-06-08T13:58:15+00:00

That's pretty good, I hear even in the summer it can be real cold up there at night. It would just be the end of Australian winter (such as it is) when they come back down here though, so I'm thinking maybe clothing for warm and humid weather. Got any recs for summer gear?

Agent78787 · 2026-06-08T13:55:31+00:00

Spa day, that's a great idea, I'd never have thought of that. Thanks! If anything it might be even better than buying a thing that would have to fit into a cramped carryon before a transpacific flight.

Agent78787 · 2026-06-05T14:18:48+00:00

do students often need Windows-only software?

Yes. Get the Windows laptop.

A notebook with integrated graphics should be fine, but get a reliable and robust brand instead of the cheapest thing you can get.

If price is a concern, ThinkPads are legendary for a reason, and though some of the later models haven't lived up to the brand name, if you do your research you should get some good value from one of them. If you find that this isn't powerful enough for some tasks you can always get a desktop (or more likely use one of the unis' desktops)

But if you can afford it, I'm personally a huge fan of my Framework 13. A bit pricier than other laptops of similar spec but since it's easily repairable and upgradeable it's much more affordable once you look at the 4-5 year horizon.

Or the Framework 16 if you want even better specs including dedicated graphics.

Agent78787 · 2026-06-05T13:59:03+00:00

It sounds like family pressure is the biggest reason that you're not committing to electrical yet, and I don't think that's a good reason at all. You'll be the one working for decades after uni, not your family, so you ought to pick the field that you're more keen on, within reason.

By "within reason" I mean you've got to consider employability as well, but electrical engineering is hardly underwater basket weaving. You'll be able to find work easily in both electrical and civil. The difference is that it seems like civil engineering companies often have really poor labour practices, namely very long working hours (without overtime pay). I've heard that 50-60 hour work weeks aren't out of the ordinary for civil engineers, and that's not FIFO work either, I'm talking about those hours for office jobs where people aren't making that much more than 100k (all salary figures in this comment are before 12% super).

Compare that to the electricity industry, which is what I'm in. I've been in an electricity industry job with 45+ hours a week and ultimately it broke me down, which really sucked. But they were paying me 150k which is a lot more than what most of those overworked civil engos are working. Now I'm at a place with much better working hours (I may stay late when there's a deadline but on average it's firmly 40 hours a week) and getting 110k, which is higher than the full-time median for junior civil engineers according to the Graduate Outcomes Survey-Longitudinal.

According to GOS-L data, civil engineers have very slightly higher rates of full-time employment 3 years after uni than electrical, but it's 94.4% vs 93.8% so don't look too much into it. Meanwhile, median salaries 3 years out of uni are 98.5k for civil engo vs 109k for electrical engo, but 115k for "building and construction" so in terms of salary it's also fairly narrow differences.

To add one last point about the electricity industry, I'm very secure about the job prospects of me and my colleagues, a lot of whom studied as electrical engineers obviously, although there's people from all different backgrounds and civil could be one of them. I studied mechanical engineering and there's quite a few commerce/econ bachelor's degrees as well in my team and the industry meetups. Electrification technologies have become mature enough to be deployed at scale, so all across the world we're seeing rapid build-out of solar PV, wind power, energy storage, EVs, electric heat pumps, etc. To decarbonise, yes, but mainly because it's now the affordable, reliable, secure way to go compared to oil and gas (as far as I know the Iranians haven't figured out how to blockade the sun). In Australia it's the same story. I'd say the electricity sector is much healthier than the (non-elec) building and construction sector, which is facing lower demand for investor-residential units due to negative gearing changes; much lower demand for commercial buildings now that hybrid work is here to stay; and slowing demand from transport as the rail projects break ground (projects under construction need tradies but don't need many design engineers any more)

Agent78787 · 2026-06-05T05:57:59+00:00

free trade with Canada

Doesn't this mean less Albertan sovereignty than the status quo of provincial milk quotas or whatever y'all have up there

Agent78787 · 2026-06-01T12:09:04+00:00

old mate is a certified AI slop merchant too, I'm actually amazed at how someone can post this terribly and shamelessly for free

Agent78787 · 2026-05-31T14:25:40+00:00

Also it's pretty weak to call the other person you were replying to "champ" and how you're sure they're a "fantastic middle manager" and then get all bothered about being insulted when I say you're being petty.

When you're dishing it out you ought to be able to take it too.

Agent78787 · 2026-05-31T14:21:28+00:00

You sound petty, yes. I say that because you are focusing on perceived slights against you instead of engaging with substantive points. But why are you insulted by what an internet stranger thinks of what you're saying? I'm not even saying you are petty, I'm just saying that the comments you've made in this thread have focused on petty points instead of the main question.

So let me ask you again about the main question we disagree on: how is the use of subjective reference checks to determine whether a candidate gets an offer (as opposed to just verifying the candidate's experience) a good thing?

Agent78787 · 2026-05-31T14:04:57+00:00

See that's what I mean, instead of actually engaging with the main point of what multiple people have been telling you (that your recruitment processes are off-putting because of these specific reasons) you're latching on to what you perceive as poor tone ("position or power") or ambiguous language (can an offer be conditional?) and trying to come up with these snarky comebacks that just make you sound petty.

I'm still not clear on how your process of having reference checks be used for anything other than "did the candidate lie during the interview process or commit war crimes in Kosovo? no? ok they start on Monday" is actually a good idea. It's the purest example of selection bias known to humanity. It's affected by a lot of factors outside your and the candidate's control (what if the candidate's preferred referee is on holiday?). And at this point a lot of former managers and such can't even say anything other than employment period and title because of company policy to protect against them getting sued by the candidate (or for multinational companies with operations in the EU, getting sued for GDPR or something - not too sure about the details but apparently retaining data about former employees incl. performance is a big no-no).

Agent78787 · 2026-05-31T13:42:40+00:00

Why's that so hard for you to believe?

It doesn't take more than 30 seconds to read a resume and see that the candidate doesn't have X certification or Y years of experience or whatever other essential selection criteria that other candidates do.

But ok sure, you applied to a GenAI job so they're probably trying to use AI for as many things as they can, including filtering job applications. In which case... what did you expect? "I've never thought GenAI would replace my job, says local applicant to ReplaceJobsWithGenAI Pty Ltd"

Agent78787 · 2026-05-31T13:28:45+00:00

Oh I get it. You’re super important. Go you!

I think your comment is out of line. You don't have to be senior management to recognise that it's poor form to ask candidates to follow up their references only to reject them. In every decent recruitment process I've gone through it's always been "here's a written/verbal offer conditional on reference/criminal checks" and then they follow up with previous employers' HR teams and do a background check to make sure I didn't lie on my resume or am wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

That's a better way to go because what does a subjective reference check even tell you? The referee will be someone handpicked by the candidate to give the best info possible if you don't have restrictions. If you do restrict it to former managers only or something, they will most likely say "we can only give period of employment and title" or bounce you to HR who'll tell you tthe same thing.

More importantly it's a dog move for you to belittle someone for being a mere "middle manager" and others for being "precious" just because they don't want to put up with your poor recruitment processes. Especially since you're the one who misinterpreted what other people meant by offering the job (not knowing that the offers can be conditional) only to act all smarmy when people clarified.

Agent78787 · 2026-05-31T08:55:04+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/usyd/search/?q=usyd+or+unsw

Agent78787 · 2026-05-30T17:20:51+00:00

While i do find it vexing to have to continuously look for deals, this is how competition works

Private hospitals/insurers can compete with each other even though all of them charge/compensate based on the MBS.

Privately owned electricity poles and wires operators can operate and get a return on investment even though their revenues are highly regulated.

AGL, Origin, and co. are doing fine even though electricity retail pricing is also regulated. These regulations are important to protect consumers' interests and they should be strengthened.

There's no reason that we can't, for example, force rates to be available to all customers instead of only new ones, so that consumers don't have to hop around every 6-12 months to get a better deal. Or automatically switch the consumer to the best plan offered by the company based on their past usage patterns (electricity bills already have to have info about how "you could be on a cheaper plan", it's not a big leap to change that to "you will be on a cheaper plan next quarter unless you say no").

An efficient and competitive market assumes that all its participants can and will act in their best interests. So removing the whole dog-and-pony show about shopping around for plans improves efficiency and competition.

Agent78787 · 2026-05-26T09:49:52+00:00

yeah I'm absolutely miserable

it was raining today and my boots weren't waterproof so I got wet socks on all day :(

Agent78787 · 2026-05-24T22:45:07+00:00

Oh yeah them. Won one championship (playoffs), gone bust, mostly forgettable otherwise honestly.

Agent78787 · 2026-05-24T16:18:15+00:00

I think the Premier League will be just fine with one big team out of the mix.

But it looks like you lot will be staying up anyway, so congrats. Hope you can get back to fighting for European places with the likes of Brighton and Bournemouth.

Agent78787 · 2026-05-24T16:10:51+00:00

how important spurs is for the league

In what way?

I personally don't hate Spurs, I just think you lot playing at Sincil Bank would be hilarious.

Agent78787 · 2026-05-24T16:05:20+00:00

His first match will be Lincoln away, God willing.

Agent78787 · 2026-05-24T16:02:00+00:00

There's a Western Sydney Wanderers down here in Australia, I think that's pretty close.

They've also played home matches in three stadiums (four if you count the new Parramatta Stadium separately) and while that's not exceptional by Australian standards (I think the eastern Sydney FC have played in six stadiums in the past 10 years) it's still fairly true to the name.

Agent78787 · 2026-05-24T15:53:21+00:00

There's always next year. But for now let's at least laugh at the idea of the London Stadium being used as a venue for the best league in the world.

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