My Career

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday July 26, 2006

Louise Rolland

hot salaries

Customer service

Australians who work in customer service earn an average of $44,000 a year, according to the MyCareer.com.au Salary Centre.

Last year's Australian Jobs Report by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations says the sector is dominated by part-time and casual positions and that this trend will intensify.

Customer service roles will continue to grow in retail, hospitality, telemarketing

and telesales.

Managers, in particular, will be in high demand; these roles are predicted to account for 16 per cent of new part-time jobs.

Here's what you can expect to earn if you work in customer service. Contact centre, $39,000; customer service, $37,500; help desk, $35,600; operations and management, $63,000; team leader, $51,600; telemarketing and telesales, $42,600.

See www.mycareer.com.au/salary for more information. Data as at May 2006.

my view

Mature-age workers

Older people are at risk of withdrawing from the jobs market if they continually experience rejection. As a society, we have the attitude that younger people are more deserving when it comes to job opportunities.

I set up Business, Work and Ageing at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. It's a not-for-profit organisation that supports businesses and governments to develop strategic policies to respond to the ageing population.

IT has been an interesting industry to look at. For most people, working in IT can be unsustainable because of the hours and the constant need for reskilling. As a result, it is difficult to retain people and by the time most people reach 40 they have moved into management, if they have not already left.

Many people seem to pursue their careers in their 30s and reach a plateau in their 40s. By the time they reach their 50s they view themselves, and often their employers agree, as being in the last stages of their working life.

However, keeping people working into later life will be increasingly critical to the labour supply in Australia. All this means we need to change the way businesses act so they retain staff and prevent age discrimination.

Louise Rolland

event

Careers advice

APM Training Institute, a college specialising in marketing, public relations and event management, is providing free careers advice at The Sydney Morning Herald Careers and Employment Expo, which begins Friday at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Alan Kuczynski, the institute's managing director, urges students and job seekers to speak with professionals about their career choices. "Employers in marketing and public relations are looking for people who can hit the ground running," he says. "A person who displays a positive attitude and can demonstrate commitment, motivation and drive is more likely to obtain employment in competitive industries."

The institute runs specialist courses for school leavers who are keen to enter the workforce as soon as possible rather than do a three-year university degree. It also has an internship program that places students in a company for two days a week.

See www.eocexpo.com.au for information.

survey

Restless employees

Sales and marketing professionals are passive job seekers quietly looking for better jobs, according to a survey by Three Points Search Solutions. The survey of 1500 employees at Australian and global fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, found 92 per cent would meet a potential employer even though they are settled in a job.

Eighty-three per cent of respondents said they would never apply for a job when they're not seriously looking, 31 per cent said they read job ads in the paper weekly and 38 per cent check online ads monthly.

The survey found that employees stay in a job for about two years before they move on.

"Career progression is more important than loyalty to an employer," says Maureen Li, of Three Points. "Employers generally believe that an attractive package is what fundamentally makes candidates cross the line, but the survey found FMCG workers want career progression and an attractive remuneration package."

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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