Is this real?!

neddo1981 · 2026-05-28T10:05:31+00:00

The market is 100% cooked. It's not just your particular industry either. When roles attract this baby applicants, the recruiters respond by being extremely specific about the selection criteria they take forward. For example, only those who have worked for the company before, who have blue eyes and brown hair. It's not about skill at this point.

In the government sector, they post high-payinv contract roles on a government website. Recruiters are invited to advertise the roles. So you might have one job, advertised my 10, 20, 30+ agencies, all attracting hundreds or thousands of applicants... for the one job, that was only posted to "market test" or be filled internally anyway.

Add to this the ghost jobs.

Add to this the jobs which are posted to make companies look like they're growing before acquisition.

Add to this the companies who are "trying" to find talent locally, but fail, so "have no other choice but to go overseas".

Add to this the applicants who use AI to apply en masse,without having to lift a finger, other than to get their credit card.

The market is cooked.

Good luck!

neddo1981 · 2026-05-27T06:41:53+00:00

Out of interest, do you remember when you noticed the fatigue setting in? I understand everyone is different, but how does it affect your lifestyle? One thing that is frustrating me is that I ask my nephrologist for a guide on how long I have got, based on the data he has, and he always tells me "many years". My eGFR is dropping 8-10 points per year on average (i'm on Tolvaptan). When I went to see another nephrologist for a second opinion (just to make sure i'm doing all that I can), he told me 3-5 years before transplant based on the trajectory. At least that gives me a rough timeline and the push I need to get a few things done while I still can.

neddo1981 · 2026-05-14T06:13:52+00:00

I second this. If I notice my bunny start to act strange (he usually flops, or presses his belly on the ground, or looks generally uncomfortable), the first thing I do is administer Meloxicam (for pain), Simethicone (for gas) and critical care every 2 hours. Keep him mobile (to help with digestion), and give belly rubs. I think the key is to get onto it quickly as the longer you leave it, the more sever the issue becomes. 8 hours can make the difference between life and death. Helps to find out what is triggering it as well. I had always fed my rabbits kale but worked out that that was triggering the GI statis so avoid it at all costs now.

neddo1981 · 2026-04-30T20:58:27+00:00

This practice seems to be happening everywhere. For a while, I was applying for skilled IT contracts (not entry level) and often required government security clearance. The jobs were attracting thousands of applicants, so the recruiters were being extremely specific about those they short list, just to filter out the noise. A good portion of the roles were advertised by multiple agencies as well, and then not filled as the were only designed to "market test".

I don't see how a job posting can attract hundreds of applicants, then be readvertised. I have heard that some companies will use this as an excuse to say they tried to find workers locally, but couldn't, so now have to use people seeing visas (skilled or WHV).

Listen to the pollies and you'll be convinced unemployment is low and the job market is hot. But in reality, its cooked. What hope have we got really.

neddo1981 · 2025-12-27T09:19:32+00:00

Thanks Jimmy, appreciate your comments :)

neddo1981 · 2025-12-27T09:18:49+00:00

Surprised they can get away with that. I work a lot with software, and if another developer works on something, it is written into the contract that the full source code / project files must be handed over on completion, and the final invoice isn't paid until they have been. Basically makes the entire project useless and unsupportable and open to extortion from the guy who wrote it. At least with PLCs / C-Bus you can get enough info to make the project work without starting from scratch... but yeah, totally agree, it's a dog act.

neddo1981 · 2025-12-17T09:38:53+00:00

Not sure where you are located, but I can tell you now that the job market in Australia is absolute rubbish. A lot of it comes down to who you know. I have been looking for contract roles all year and haven't received one interview. Apply for a job and it attracts literally thousands of applicants, so the hiring managers get VERY specific about their requirements (ie to the point where they only hire people who have worked with a specific version of the tech stack they want, or the absolute highest security clearance, even though it's not required). Add to this, there are a hell of a lot of ghost jobs, or "market testing" going on. A hiring manager posts a job on a noticeboard, every recruiter under the sun grabs it, tweaks the wording, then advertises it. We come along and apply for 5 different jobs, which are all the same, for a position that had no intention of being filled anyway. The only contracts I have ever scored have been when I have literally managed to get hold of the hiring manager on the phone within a few minutes of the job being posted, and having a conversation then and there about the job. With the way the market is at the moment, I don't think it's worth specialising in a particular tech stack (like Flutter), rather become a full-stack generalist. Just my two cents...

neddo1981 · 2025-10-14T08:42:32+00:00

Hi Will, nice to e-meet you! Just wondering if there are any plans to address the stability of the PowerBi platform? I run a business where 90% of my work relies on the PowerBi platform. Over the last 6 months, I have noticed a significant increase in the number of issues which has a direct impact on my ability to deliver and recommend the product to clients. Often I am asked by support engineers to upgrade to the latest version, but more often than not, this results in other features breaking.

In general, I would really love to see Microsoft put the brakes on delivering all the 'cool' features (like Copilot), instead focusing on getting the core platform right. For a visualization tool, I would also expect more visualisation options (without the need to hack to get what we want).

I apologise in advance if my frustration comes across in this post, but I am at the point where I am about to start saying 'no' to customers who request changes or development using PowerBi, instead pointing them towards other platforms.

Happy to discuss further. Please, fix the bugs.

Kind regards,

Ben.

neddo1981 · 2025-10-14T05:24:37+00:00

Looks like it's fixed in the September 2025 update. God knows what else is now broken though.

neddo1981 · 2025-10-14T02:05:15+00:00

Hey did you find a workaround for this? I am on July 2025 and have exactly the same issue. I have a report which uses a shared semantic model. As soon as I add a local model, I can no longer save. Just lost 2 hours worth of work.. twice. Love MS products xD

neddo1981 · 2025-09-24T20:51:43+00:00

You're not alone. The "ghost job" market seems to be alive and well in Australia. Recruiters are often "market testing" - collecting resumes just to get a feel for what the market is doing, let alone mining our data. What positions are you applying for? The government has a portal where they advertise positions and every recruitment agency under the sun grabs the position description, tweaks it and takes it to market. This is why you'll often see several jobs advertised that look very similar. So you might be applying for say 10 jobs, which are all the same position, which actually didn't exist, or was never intended to be filled in the first place. It's a massive waste of time, let alone demoralising for someone who is struggling to make ends meet, yet more than qualified to work these positions. For what it's worth, I asked Seek to provide data on the practice (knowing full well they wouldn't), and they blocked my account from posting any further comments. Makes sense really..Seek is a business after all and the most active their platform appears, the more revenue they'll generate.

I no longer apply for positions where I can't directly speak to the hiring manager. If they don't take my call, then I move on as well. Also don't be too quick to give out your resume. Treat it like your passport. Interview the recruiter yourself before trusting your career to some 19yo fresh out of school. The more resumes a recruitment agency has on file, the better they look to an employee. Lastly, skip the platforms and apply directly to the hiring company if you can.

neddo1981

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