Ali B

Sorry PomQueen, they don't! My understanding is by law rooms with computer equipment must have air con. Lucky machines! Elsewhere it comes down to $$$. My husb works in a government school thats had money thrown at it for building and refurbishment and even they don't have air con in all portables. My school has fans that circulate hot air in summer. Its the luck of the draw. Theres no hard and fast rule. Nikey - where are you from in Brighton? We come from there and I taught at Varndean for years till we left in 99! Small world!

Besty, I'm really pleased you are going to give it a go. Rupert sounds like every critical person in my family when my husb and I said we were coming here. negative - gloom n doom. We got sick of hearing it. Every step and move in life has risk, there are no guarantees. I'm sure Besty you are old and intelligent enough to know and deal with risks in your life. And yes theres a chance it wont work but theres a chance it will. So yes, glass half full, eh, give it your best shot. I didnt find your reply immature by the way. I found it filled with the same hope we had in 1999 and we've had 13 yrs of career blossoming and developing in ways our careers would never have done in UK One thing i was going to add to my info above on KSCs, when you address them, read every verb in the KSC and address it preferably with an example. Eg "KSC 1:- Has monitored the development of ..." So in YOUR response, you write: My experience in the field of xyz has enabled me to monitor ... by doing xyz." Give one (or at most two) very good examples of HOW you did/are doing that and then dotpoint any other examples. Leave a reasonable margin on your A4, keep font to 12, in Times New Roman, 1.5 spacing is good and not too long paragraphing.Some people make the mistake of reducing the font, narrowing the margins and using Arial Narrow to pack info in!!! Panelists find it very hard to read, believe me. On interview panels and pre-selection we literally 'mark' an application, so ticks in margins every time the KSCs are addressed. Give enough info to whet the appetite but leave enough out so you can talk about it at interview. good luck!

Do your HW on the company and get a rock solid offer. Our job offer in Adelaide turned out to be a non-job albeit a different field. Hated Adelaide. Much happier in Melbourne. Where do you live in UK? You need to look at the kind of place you want to live in as well as the job. Adelaide (to us) made Bognor Regis look exciting...

Tricky situation. Keep this government website tucked away: http://www.fairwork.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2011/03/pages/20110311-coles-eu.aspx You might need the ombudsman (scroll down a bit for the tel no) if the senior colleagues are as misogynistic as you saw with other colleagues. This is simply unacceptable. Do you HW and be sure of your rights. Do whatever you need to do to protect your baby and you, sad to say but it probably means keeping stumm until Oct. Wear baggy tops!

CVs are pretty much the same here and UK. I'm wondering if the differences you are hearing about are Key Selection Criteria or KSCs? These are in some job applications especially for government jobs (eg teaching, police, administration) and I think also in some businesses. You'll be expected to submit a covering letter plus a CV plus KSCs I'm a teacher and learnt about KSCs the hard way and submitted a couple of dreadful applications and wondered why i wasnt called for interview until a couple of good friends sat down with me and re-worked my info. They are very very different to UK job applications and do take some getting used to. KSCs are attached on 4+ sheets of A4 (depending on the job and application requirements). In education it's quite acceptable to ring and ask the boss's secretary how long the KSCs should ideally be and they'll tell you. This website is really useful: http://www.careercentre.dtwd.wa.gov.au/toolsandresources/Documents/2011-Job-Search-Guide-S11Key%20Selection%20Criteria.pdf Good Luck!!