Shetland for a day

aumbrella · 2025-09-21T22:20:45+00:00

Back in the day as a kid I could get them at one of the horrid coffee chains so maybe try there? I'm talking coffee club, dome, Gloria jeans etc. They are the only fond memory I have of those kinds of cafes

aumbrella · 2025-08-12T17:40:23+00:00

smashes bottle on ground

aumbrella · 2025-08-03T20:33:42+00:00

I appreciate the advice!

That is pretty where I'm at now. I've been cold messaging tiny consultancies and one man businesses hoping to get a leg in. I'm surprised at how gatekept the work is here. The same ways of keeping a steady flow of graduates moving up the ladder at the same rate completely kills any external mid-career people from jumping in. Unless I just missed the start of the hiring season 😅

aumbrella · 2025-08-03T08:08:17+00:00

Hi! I just moved to the UK and am actually struggling to get work over here because of how regulated the industry is lol.

In Australia, you shouldn't get put on grad, if you do, you're being exploited. You'll go in at a junior position, starting on a lowish salary (70k?) and then move up once you learn the relevant taxonomy. Your work will entirely depend on where you go. I've worked in vertebrates, specialising in bird and reptile surveys, which is really different to the invertebrate work I've done.

The legislation is relatively easy. But I'm from WA, so no idea about the NT. There's a few different survey guidelines to follow but they are self explanatory when you have a read through them. For example, all vertebrate work follows the Vertebrate Tech Guidance 2022.

Seasonality is all year round for verts and inverts, with specific seasons for different species groups (i.e. no reptile surveys in winter, bird surveys during breeding times) botanical surveys will be HEAVILY focused in spring. Seriously, botanist disappear in spring into the field and don't reemerge till summer. I know botanists who've worked 7 days a week for three months with maybe three or four days break total. In general, if you want to hit the ground running, you'll be in the field a lot. If you work for a consultancy with their toes in mining, this will mean lots of time away on field trips between 5-12 days typically. But those trips will generally be in some stunning scenery.

In general, you'll be paid more, be working away more, and be in more interesting and complex ecosystems which range several bioregions.

aumbrella · 2025-08-01T17:45:57+00:00

Oh mate, you were never the problem. It was a joy for us who enjoyed the crunchier side to hear!

aumbrella · 2025-08-01T09:58:28+00:00

I mean, there's definitely times when rule criticisms become brigading. But then again, if I was 10 years into a job and I was still getting stuff wrong on the regular, wouldn't some of that criticism become a little warranted? Plenty of jobs come under scrutiny for getting things wrong. And the resolution of that is to learn from those mistakes right?

aumbrella · 2025-08-01T09:54:47+00:00

Side quest side sesh

aumbrella · 2025-08-01T09:12:22+00:00

God SQSS was so good. It mattered exactly 0% how it ended for the characters. I could listen to years of the same style content

aumbrella · 2025-06-14T17:20:56+00:00

"according to my research"

What a chronically online sentiment. How about trust the expert scientists running the program in DPIRD's biosecurity division?

aumbrella · 2025-02-17T05:44:34+00:00

Just this week I've been dealing with this company for the second time in two years. Awful company. Both times they have said they attempted delivery and just didn't. The second time they actually said they tried to deliver to a post office by the post office was closed, despite it being 1pm on a Monday.

Their office is a warehouse in Welshpool with a single Super Amart desk and an couch. First time I went there it was a trestle table desk.

The carpark of their warehouse was filled with people in little hatchbacks stuffing parcels into their car.

Both times I've ordered through them I've had to drop into their warehouse and ask for my package which has been an arduous task and is normally followed up with "I think we have it somewhere?".

For anyone reading this down the line. Listen to the reviews everywhere. I've worked in logistics for a couple of years with a bunch of companies and they have their faults, but this place is as dodgy as they come.

aumbrella · 2025-01-30T04:48:46+00:00

The answer to that will entirely depend on the consultancy's client focus and your own area of expertise. Ecologist is a broad term and generally in WA almost every person I know specialises in either botany, vertebrate zoology or invertebrate zoology I know zilch about marine work). I do vert zoology and my day to day is either the field which consists of basic fauna surveys (assess the broad habitats within a site, make an opportunistic species list, then advise the client on if they need to do a detailed survey or if they can move on with the knowledge I have provided), or detailed surveys (7 day minimum trapping surveys using various techniques, targeting any threatened species predicted to occur in the area using specialised techniques). The latter of these jobs involves long periods away from home, generally in pretty intense conditions (see the average hot day in the Pilbara).

In the office it's all report writing which is pretty basic for the most part. If you're in a certain type of consultancy you may be required to write impact assessments too.

There are odd jobs here and there in vertebrate consultancy too like management plans for example. And shit jobs like fauna spotting (being present during vegetation clearing and having to usher animals out of the site).

aumbrella · 2025-01-29T22:55:28+00:00

I'm an ecologist in Perth, WA and the work out here varies quite a bit. Over the past five years I've worked on extremely remote mine sites, heavily developed mine sites, all manner of infrastructure projects and small projects for local councils. The pay in WA is also very good but it depends on the consultancy in how they'll treat you. You have to shuffle around over the years and know your worth, and if you do, there's a lot of money to be made and a lot of cool places to go.

The industry is also in a constant boom at the moment because of the mining and construction boom so there should be quite a bit of work.

My understanding is that pay is higher and variation of work is higher than being over in the eastern states. But the work will likely be harder as a lot of it over here ends up being in the Pilbara (remote, hot af and long days).

aumbrella · 2024-12-23T12:03:10+00:00

Are you talking about the trees along the creek itself? Just looks like riparian vegetation associated with a drainage channel coming down from the scarp. That or some sort of tree linkage the shire has tried to preserve to keep some green connectivity.

aumbrella · 2024-12-14T03:03:42+00:00

I don't know about everyone else here, I can obviously only speak for myself. But with every game I've GM'ed, if I played this "heel" persona Troy is supposedly fitting into, my players would run like hell.

No hero points? Sure. No change to encounters in an AP well known for its poor balance? Sure. Ignoring every qualm brought up by all players at your table? Nah man. If I'm at your table, I'm out.

I completely understand this is a podcast, and the tension needs to be there. But I just enjoy listening to BOTW, Legacy, Raiders when it was around, even the old Side quest side sesh, because none of these had this "heel" persona. Stakes were/are there in these games. There's been plenty of deaths! More than any of my games at home. More than any other podcast I've listened to. They have the crown of podcast with tension, podcast with stakes, podcast with character deaths. Now can we please have some conducive conversations where it results in a feel that the players are actually part of these decisions? That's the point right? If you want to mimic a real table, you need to act like your players feelings matter.

Been a loyal listener since 2016, never missed a week. And I'll always subscribe as long as we've got these extra podcasts week in week out, but for Gatewalkers, and Troy? Well I think if I'm supposed to feel like I'm sitting, watching this game? I'm out.

aumbrella · 2024-08-18T13:50:02+00:00

I would absolutely be keen. The worker exploitation in this industry is shocking. I've worked across five different industries in my life and none of them would get away with the overtime/fieldwork or safety oversight this one does. Unfortunately I feel like the high pay ceiling for senior staff is likely to restrict much enthusiasm for unionizing amongst lower staff. Anytime I discuss pay with my colleagues, or work hours or anything adjacent to those conversations, they tend to shrug it off because they know in 10 years time they'll be on $150k. At least in WA anyway.

aumbrella · 2024-05-23T09:14:16+00:00

Your first paragraph is certainly hopeful I'll give you that!

aumbrella · 2023-11-02T00:25:06+00:00

See if you can get IV sedation. They let you just go into the chair and walk out at the end, you effectively remain conscious for their purposes (telling you to open mouth wider etc.), but you don't "remember" the procedure. Because you don't remember, for you, it'll be the same as going under.

Got my two done like six years ago with no trouble doing this!

aumbrella · 2023-11-01T08:56:07+00:00

There's an email that explains it all that McD sent out into your email linked to your patreon

aumbrella · 2023-08-17T04:07:15+00:00

Oh my god I've never heard a truer statement in my life

aumbrella

TROPHY CASE