They told us we’d never get a job with our stupid video games.
They were wrong. We might just end up building the goddamn National Broadband Network.
Obviously the NBN is behind schedule, overbudget, etc, etc. Obviously it’s been a bit of a problem project. The plan is to connect 11.9 million Australian homes and businesses by 2020 and the government needs 4500 new human beings to complete this task. NBN Co wants 2000 of them to be from Gen Y.
This is the quote. This is the quote that I love the most.
“If you’re good with your hands with PlayStations then you’re the type of people we’re looking for,” said NBN industry management executive general manager Michael Doherty.
So, if you’re good with the PlayStations and have possible experience with the Xboxes, you might be able to help build Australia’s National Broadband Network.
This is great.
In all seriousness though, this seems like an interesting prospect. NBN Co is looking to hire people straight out of high school or college into the telecommunications industry, and while it’s easy to joke about the “PlayStations” thing, this is most likely a good opportunity for the right person.
Go my gaming friends, go to the jobs and build! Build our internets!
Via SMH
Comments
53 responses to “The Government Wants Gamers To Help Build Australia’s NBN”
I’m good with the game & watches and the lynxes. Can I have a job?
I’ll dig the frigging trenches myself if it will get the NBN to my house.
I’d have joined you on the latter bit if it was still the NBN we were sold initially and not the bullshit ‘mixed technology’ network they’re rolling out now.
That’s why I’d be digging the trench all the way to my front door…
I dug my trench, I installed my conduit….and then the government changed 🙁
That conduit will now sadly never be used for its intended purpose.
All because I wanted to make it super easy and fast for them when they came to the house. now look who’s laughing (crying)
What if my premises is the node?
Whoa.
I reckon that’s the only way some of us are going to actually get it! Dig it ourselves. A lot can happen between now and late 2017 (which is when my area is allegedly due to start preparation.)
I’d just settle for ADSL2 at this point. But that doesn’t seem likely either.
I dream of an ADSL2 connection.
let FTTP owners have 1000/400 that their tech is capable of 🙁 (for a reasonable price!)
Oh, and how about a link?
I was thinking the same thing.
I’m just barely gen Y, can I have more money, please?
“The plan is to connect 11.9 Australian homes and businesses by 2020″
It’s even slower than i thought!
That was hilarious.
They also need 4500 people to do it.
At least they’re not too far behind schedule – there’s still time to get it back on track!
Oh christ. Fixed.
You should have left it – pretty sure the original sentence was closer to the truth.
The numbers got a bit blurred as they still used the original coaster the plan was written on the back of afterwards for their self-congratulatory beers as they toasted their genius.
Oh … is that what happened? I thought it got damaged when the coffee table it was sitting on disintegrated after Joe Hockey tried to twerk atop of it the night of the coup …
I think it’s a case of both.
While you’re at it:
Sounds about right.
Will be great to catalogue the stock-images of gamers that will go with each article on the different news feeds.
So intense!
Not entirely convinced this is a sound strategy – sounds more like a marketing ploy to make the NBN more appealing to gamers in general.
As an outside consultant, sure by all means – get the opinions of gamers, but I don’t know what the expected outcome would be other than make it faster?
Consultancy groups would already have data on peak/off peak usage times and other relevant data.
Maybe I’m just being a Negative Nellie…
No you are spot on. Its all crap. They are still just after graduates, diploma holders and people with years of experience. Not one of the job advertisements I read or applied for mentioned anything about ‘gaming’
Maybe I should look at it so literally, but if your campaign is about recruiting gamers, be specific about what you need from them, why and how they can help
I think you and @dansdans might have misunderstood what the ad is for. They’re recruiting tradesmen to help construct the network, not consultants or survey data. You don’t need to be a graduate or anything like that, they would offer apprenticeships through the contractors that are doing the construction and certification via nbnco as well. The news article this one is sourced from is pretty clear on what kind of jobs are being recruited for.
Then the ad is too ambiguous.
That article is from a month ago, when I first saw it (not a few months ago like I incorrectly mentioned below). I went to the jobs page then and I went to it about 30 minutes ago – the types of jobs are still the same
I am a gamer, I like taking things apart and putting them back together – but not in a physical sense – I take apart broken business processes and ideas and fix them by using process design. There is no job for me there (in Melbourne anyway, there is something similar available in Sydney right now) but I know the NBN could use my skills
The jobs on the nbnco website Careers section are jobs at nbnco directly. This program is a recruitment drive to push tradies to the construction contractor companies who need the staff. Two excerpts from the source article that (to me at least) make it clear what it is:
Ok then
1. Where is the link in the article to the recruitment drive for tradies?
2. Where is the link on NBNco for the same recruitment drive?
EDIT:
Is this it?
http://www.nbnco.com.au/corporate-information/careers/building-the-workforce.html
I dont see any mention of games so how would a reasonable person make the link. Also, why couldnt the author of this article add this link to the page?
No idea. The source article on SMH didn’t include a link, just the quotes from nbnco.
Yeah, I think that’s it. It’s specifically looking for people who finish school (presumably High School?) between 2009 to 2018.
It’s hiring people with a vested interest and low salary requirements to cut cost. Happy, productive workers at a bargain price.
Wii U players need not apply. ^_-
Slightly more serious note (but the tongue in cheek stuff is gold), this is a pretty great opportunity for someone to start in the infrastructure/telecommunications industry if they don’t know where to start out. My old man did an apprenticeship with Telecom Australia in the 70s before he joined the army and he still uses that knowledge on a daily basis both in and out of work.
I say good luck to anyone joining the project 😀
Is the header image some sort of photoshop combination of bajo and hex?
I’m sorry to say I’m a little concerned with this strategy. I’m happy this is happening, but they’d have to spend a lot of time and energy clamping down on potential conflicts of interest since gamers want NBN (Probably the most alongside large interstate businesses), but instead of doing the work they’ve been assigned they try their hardest to work on getting NBN where they live ASAP. Here’s to hoping I’m wrong 🙂
Edit: Turns out I was wrong about the actual jobs on offer, my bad
I think the jobs on offer are for the people physically cabling it up, I don’t think they will have any input into anything.
I’m reading it less they want gamers opinions and design ideas and more they want extra hands to dig trenches and run cabling.
Yeah after reading up on the linked article, got mixed up earlier, sorry!
Stock gaming images are LOL… So intense!!!
Anyway all the new apartments are all hooked up…. I’m across the a small river I’ll probably see it in 2250.
When this campaign first launched a few months ago, I went to the recruitment section of the site. This is all a load of crap – they arent after ‘gamers’ – they want people with uni degrees and multiple years of experience. That gamer line is classic bait and switch advertising. Their needs havent changed from the type of people they were looking for a year ago, they are just using a more sexier advertising method.
Yeah this is what I feared @dansdans.
The NBN is way behind schedule, way over budget and needs some marketing strategy to get them some good grace with the public.
Then again, it IS Government driven so I shouldn’t have expected anything less.
That’s right only YOU have the finger dexterity to fiddle around poking fiber into SC connectors for 8 hours a day!
so this is the governments new work for the dole scheme?
If they did a 180 and went back to Labor’s NBN rather than the Turnbull Network then I would be interested. As it is, I wouldn’t want anything to do with this crapfest that was just a rushed policy on the back of ‘Labor has a NBN, we need something quick’ and lo and behold, it turned out more expensive, slower and generally shitter than the future proof first choice.
Political bullshitting of having to argue against every policy the other party proposes is dragging this country through the mud, and not just when it comes to internet infrastructure.
So much this! Australian society in general has become detached from politics and democracy.
= Bad future. Insert frowny face please Siri.
I’m guessing this is a result of so many contractors knocking back NBN work? At least, that’s what I’ve read on WP and Reddit; there seems to be more than a few tradies who don’t like how the government want to pay for NBN work and have said “yeah no thanks”…
It’s a dead-end career path.
I was previously a network designer with an established network design-construct company.
In 2007 when the NBN was announced, myself and the experienced workforce I was part of all thought it was brilliant and in 10 years we could potentially take the experience of building the NBN with us into overseas jobs once the build was done. We had more than enough experienced designers and field-staff.
Then the rumours of a change of government dried up the work.
Then the government changed and the first thing that happened was a forced retrenchment of all the long-term designers and fieldy’s. 1000’s of man-years of experience went out the door.
Then came the influx of 457 visa holders.
Followed by demands to alter our contracts to open hours and other reductions in pay and conditions which were compared to the 457 visa holders shitty contracts and argued as ‘excessive’ in comparison.
Now the industry is seeking to hire both design and field staff as sub-contractors with long probation periods and unacceptably low wages/conditions.
Eventually, as the MTM project tapers off and is ‘completed’ (whenever that is), you will end up with 4000 out of 4500 people with no genuinely useful qualifications all seeking to acquire maintenance roles as the industry will naturally contract leaving the vast majority of designers and field-staff with no useful work skills for any other growth sector.
My advice – become a builder/carpenter, run your own business and start making ‘bespoke’ high-end products to supplement your income (gravy).
Or an electrical engineer/tradey focusing on renewables, off-grid and storage and be damned good at it.
Jobs for life.
No more jobs for life – The Government is making it too easy for companies to bring in cheaper workers while their are people in the community that can fill them. It happened at the World Cup cricket, where Indian & South African crews were brought in at a cheaper rate despite the fact local crews have done it for years.
There was a noticeable drop in quality and workers with criminal records were allowed in.
The Government has NO interest in the support for the average Australian workers, but rather contracts for their corporate mates. I see this as a blatant PR exercise, with no substance whatsoever – Until we demand that the economic measures support the average worker as well as the businesses that employ them, we will go the way of America where growth only helps the 1%
Id be prepared to take the job, there is no NBN in the Carindale area in Brisbane. They even got NBN in bumb fuck Chinchilla. CHINCHILLA!!!!
A bit insulting to target a generation who will be paying the massive bill for the complete stuff up they have made, to come help them implement something that’s going to cost the taxpayer billions each year just to maintain.
If a laser pointer can bring down a plane, surely they can invent a giant laser to hit my router in the back of the head
They’re finding it hard to get enough workers because the pay is terrible, the work is worse and the conditions are as bad as they get.
Working for a sub-sub-sub-sub-contractor leaves somewhere between zero and bugger all money for the workers.
The whole damn project is toxic. Not to mention the hundreds of trainees they sacked just before the last election….