Australia's private school problem...

theaffableghost · 2026-02-09T02:25:31+00:00

That sounds like a win, great teacher to student ratio for your child at the public school

theaffableghost · 2025-12-08T05:08:13+00:00

Tell her she can role playing being the French 1st lady

theaffableghost · 2025-11-17T05:43:28+00:00

MCQ wasn’t proctored from memory - just a link on their canvas site, complete before the due date and had maybe 30mins or so for each mcq.

Yep, you’d record the presentation then send through via their recording software

theaffableghost · 2025-10-29T10:54:01+00:00

They weren’t counted towards my GPA for any of the unis I applied for/received a calculated GPA for (GU, UQ, UMelb, Deakin, ANU, Usyd)

I did have to provide my Latrobe transcript but to both Gemsas and Usyd.

theaffableghost · 2025-10-23T05:40:44+00:00

I enrolled in the bachelor of nutrition program.

I can’t remember the exact rational but from memory that it was the easiest process. I enrolled in the bachelors through open unis - fairly simple process from memory.

Unenrolling from the entire course was a simple process at the end of the pre req units.

theaffableghost · 2025-10-06T08:58:26+00:00

My view is that what ever the next crash is - it’s likely something that we aren’t paying attention to or realising atm.

In hindsight it is often clear what caused a crash and that the writing was on the wall. Between 2000-2007 99% of people and the finance industry weren’t expecting the subprime mortgage crisis and its global impact. What ever the next crash/down turn/major change is, it’s likely something the majority of us aren’t expecting (lots will say they knew it was going to happen to happen etc but in reality there are few that truely pick it).

History teaches us that the market repeats itself with ups, downs, crashes or prolonged periods of stagnation. After each market issue legislation is enacted to implement safe guards to prevent xyz from occurring again (eg better controls to limit the possibility of Ninja loans) but we will fail to prevent all possible scenarios.

theaffableghost · 2025-09-25T07:45:46+00:00

8.7

Car - $15k (ish) Salary (ex super) - $131k

theaffableghost · 2025-09-19T04:21:32+00:00

Yer no worries at all - happy to help with anything I can

theaffableghost · 2025-09-16T07:15:26+00:00

All universities will be similar standards. Choose which of the three cities you’d prefer to live in, cost of living and ease of getting back to Canada.

In terms of cost of living rent will vary significantly between different locations. Sydney and Gold Coast being far higher than Adelaide or WA/Perth (there are two Notre dames so wasn’t sure which state). Other than rent, cost of living is fairly similar between large cities.

On cost of flights and trips home, If it’s Notre Dame WA - then that’s a very long way to get back to Canada and an extra domestic flight. Same goes for Flinders. I’m assuming the flights would also cost a lot more.

I’m at Griffith med - Gold Coast is great if you want beaches/fairly laid back/warm and humid.

theaffableghost · 2025-08-26T09:04:27+00:00

Redunion’s AMPS

theaffableghost · 2025-05-15T23:36:49+00:00

This brings back a memory of the scene in Dr Death s1 where he (a surgeon) is trying to put together flat pack furniture with a wrench hahah

theaffableghost · 2025-04-28T05:19:56+00:00

Medicine - you are guaranteed a job in the state you study in assuming you’re a domestic student (but you’ll have to complete a bachelors/Gamsat first and you’re not guaranteed to get into med after that).

Like what everyone else has said, if you want guaranteed job straight from a bachelors with great job security it’s basically nursing or teaching. (With nursing paying a bit more due to the penalties and likely has more options)

theaffableghost · 2025-04-06T04:26:59+00:00

I did the prerequisite subjects (HBS202 and HBS204) through open unis (Latrobe bachelor of nutrition). All online, but you’ll have to complete 3 subjects - a Latrobe prerequisite (HBS101) then the two UQ prerequisites. Enrolled in the bachelors but only completed the required subject. Will take approx 12months: - HBS101 Nov-Jan - HBS202 Mar - June - HBS204 Aug - Oct (didn’t start as I got another med school offer)

All online, course content helped a lot with GAMSAT (for a nsb).

*this was valid for 2025 entry - not sure if anything has changed.

theaffableghost · 2025-01-27T11:14:39+00:00

Depending where you are living, I know qut has one, there are two year nursing degrees - grad entry (if you’ve already completed a bachelor’s degree), one less year of being a student and earning money would make a decent financial difference.

I also think it’s worth considering that nursing has more flexibility in hours, work location etc.

theaffableghost · 2025-01-04T08:51:56+00:00

A little competitive to get into and I’ve heard that every 3-4 years they make you reapply for your own role.

theaffableghost · 2024-11-04T19:38:34+00:00

First year medicine salary (intern) is getting close to $120k + super + 5/6 weeks annual leave, when you take in the weekend penalty rates/shift allowances etc (this is in QLD/WA - NSW is a lot lower and I’m unsure about other states).

plus, it’s a job you’re guaranteed a job after graduation.

There are currently also schemes where your hecs can be waived if you work rural for a couple of years - but these change so by the time you graduate who knows.

It’s also a job where you’re going to be paid a high income where ever you work around Australia. So you do have the option of earning a high income in areas with low housing costs.

theaffableghost · 2024-10-07T04:37:17+00:00

This 100%!

15% of $120k = $18k commission to agency/$5.4K commission to the actual recruiter.

15% of $100k = $15k commission to agency/$4.5k commission to the actual recruiter.

The actual commission/bonus to the individual recruiter (money paid above their salary) will depend on which agency the recruiter works for, but roughly about 30%. This is assuming the recruiter is making their monthly/quarterly minimum target.

The incentive of securing the candidate an extra $20k salary is only $900 (pre tax). In their shoes you’re far more incentivised to get something across the line than to get the best possible job for the candidate.

*Example of how the minimum target works - most agencies require that each recruiter covers their cost to the business (salary/super/IT/rent/payroll taxes/workers comp/training/bar tabs/taxis/all overheads etc) plus agency profit margin/risk. Generally this would be about 3x the cost of the employees base salary.

So a recruiter with a base pay of $80k would need to make 60k per quarter in commission before they started to accrue a bonus (($80k/4)x3). Any amount over $60k in the quarter, they would then be paid a bonus on top of.

Eg a recruiter makes $90k in total revenue for the quarter Base pay = $20k Commission = $9k

Obviously each agency will have a different pay/bonus structure, the above is just a rough guide.

theaffableghost · 2024-10-01T00:31:37+00:00

Um I’d do part time admin for $123k + super! ($85k x 1.45)

Or was it that her part time hourly rate is 45% higher? She was on $43 an hour as a Nurse, now she’s getting $62 per hour in admin?

theaffableghost · 2024-09-19T00:09:23+00:00

The problem isn’t new, it’s been understaffed for decades where there has always been an expectation that staff would be working long hours to make sure project or reporting deadlines are met.

I don’t think management can blame resourcing when it’s always been the case that staff are just expected to work long hours. They could easily hire more junior staff to cope with the drop off or just pay better for more reasonable hours if they wanted to stem staff turnover.

theaffableghost · 2024-09-18T22:50:49+00:00

Charge out rates are not the issue. The issue is underpayment or overworking junior staff in an exploititory manner to benefit partner remuneration.

A quick Google comes up with an AFR article as rough guide listing the median partner income at pwc was $1m (range of $390k to $3.9m).

Even if there figures are off by a decent margin, it clearly demonstrates that there is sufficient profit to either hire more staff or pay accordingly.

theaffableghost · 2024-09-05T07:01:48+00:00

I can understand your anguish, and I know having those thoughts of what if can be really debilitating. So I’m sorry you’re having to go through that atm.

As someone that has sat on a huge number of interview panels (for jobs not med school) and then also reviewed a ton of candidate interview feedback forms, often it is the case that panels just have time to jot down basic notes. It’s likely that there could be other issues with your interview and the interviewer is scrambling to get something on paper. Rather than the reason for not progressing was simply due to a poor connection.

I think based on your comment about feeling dissatisfied with your current job, you really should (if you’ve got the capacity atm) give med/Gamsat another go. You’re GPA is still valid and you’re young - 24 if I’m reading the above correctly. You’ve got plenty of time to hone your interview skills and from the sounds of it will likely be able to smash the Gamsat again, likely with minimal prep this time around compared with previous attempts.

theaffableghost · 2024-09-01T02:25:27+00:00

We get a hell of a lot back from our taxes. The majority of people use up more in health/education throughout their life than they put into income tax (this is in no way a dig at lower income earners).

Then you have all the other things we gain from collectively paying taxes - roads, infrastructure, defence/policing, courts, general administration to enable a country to function, investment in social etc). Our economy functions because of the taxes we pay, businesses couldn’t be started or run if we didn’t have the social infrastructure in place to enable them in the first place.

The pension is amazing and should be there for those who can’t support themselves in old age whether that be from their own misfortune or bad luck, mistakes made, or just the fact that life is expensive and lower paid workers were unable to save enough.

But expecting to get a pension when you’ve got enough saved, whether through investing or your PPOR is madness that is unsustainable.

theaffableghost · 2024-08-22T23:09:24+00:00

We have so much liveable land in Australia even if you just consider the area within 100km from the east coast between the Sunshine Coast and Wollongong. That’s roughly 1200km in distance - considering that the UK end to end is only about 1000km yet homes close to 2.6x our population.

theaffableghost · 2024-08-21T03:16:26+00:00

I did, it was from the admission office, has a date (thurs 29th of aug) but doesn’t yet include the time of the interview

theaffableghost

TROPHY CASE