Having taken 3 months last year to get on top of the fatigue issues, I’m now in a position where I feel physically and mentally able to get back to work. Unfortunately I’m unable to actually get a job; the Wellington IT job market has tanked due to a number of factors :

• The NZ Coalition Government chose to take an axe to the public sector to reduce spending, banning contractor hiring and cutting budgets, with a lot of workers in “job hugging” (holding onto their existing job at all costs, even if they hate it)
• Organizations adopting Agile / DevOps ways of working, which has completely rewritten most IT job titles and responsibilities – “Chapter Lead”, “Product Owner” and “Site Reliability Engineer” are just word salad to me – which means my work experience in Senior Infrastructure Engineer roles don’t map very well to the new roles and leaves me struggling to convince hirers that I have the required skills
• Very cumbersome decision making in New Zealand agencies and businesses, with the recruitment process taking weeks to make progress waiting on one person to come back from leave and approve something.

The worst damage to the recruiting process though has to be the increasing prevalence of AI. It’s causing absolute havoc in the IT industry in general, polluting social media platforms with AI slop, much of it intentionally whipping up enthusiasm for deploying AI or FOMO to scare executives into action. The companies behind AI are losing billions of dollars every month, having rushed to build environmentally-damaging datacenters around the world, so must aggressively recoup that investment. The trouble is it’s mostly hype with little detail into what benefits it can bring. (In fact a report this week on The Reg suggested less than 30% of AI deployments return the expected benefit).

Concerningly there is very little online debate as to the societal harm this revolution and subsequent mass unemployment will cause – the tech bros are in charge, with politicians suspiciously (deliberately?) taking a back seat. This lack of regulation is incredibly dangerous when Anthropic, one of the leading AI companies, announces they have created an AI so dangerous it can’t be released publicly. What The Actual Fuck are we doing here? Has nobody in power ever seen a Sci-Fi film?!

AI is also corrupting the hiring process by encouraging candidates to pay for AI services that spray hundreds of employers with optimized (read: manipulated to the point of lying) CVs and applications for jobs they’re not remotely suited for. This results in a massive influx of applications for every job, forcing employers to deploy ATS services to scan CVs for key words, reducing the human beings trying to find work to a set of bullet points. It’s a catch-22 clusterfuck that can only result in poor decision making.

I tried the (AI?) advice on social media to rewrite my CV to match the job being advertised (some of which don’t even exist, but that’s a separate gripe) but that made little difference. I’d either be ghosted or get an automated “sorry you didn’t make the shortlist” email. Worse, I felt a nagging sense that those tailored CVs weren’t an authentic representation of who I am and what I can offer – it was just meaningless business bullshit and box ticking to get past the automated filtering.

I’ve gone back to “human-made” and rewritten it to focus on recent history and detail of technology and skills used in each role, hopefully a bit sharper and more instructive. We’ll see.

Something I haven’t endured yet is the new phenomenon of the “AI Interview” where you have a video meeting with … nobody. The AI asks you a series of STAR questions (don’t even get me started on that HR bollocks!) and transcribes your results, marking your suitability for being put through to a human being. It’s like the reverse of Blade Runner and I don’t know if I would be able to sit through one of these without my soul leaving my body. Utterly dehumanizing and humiliating, but that’s the whole point, to show you how small and powerless you are in the New World Order.

Another factor working against me is age, as ageism is a massive but unspoken issue in New Zealand employment. I’ve removed my mugshot and date of birth from my CV and limited my work experience to the past 10 years, but suspect most organizations choosing between me and a Gen Z’er will opt for them over me. Not to profile a whole generation but good luck expecting them to stick around and fix an issue after 5pm or stay in employment for more than a couple of years, when they fancy heading to London for an OE.

I’m still checking the job sites hourly and staying in touch with the recruitment consultants that I trust to try and foster some leads, but I’ve given myself a hard deadline of the end of April. If I haven’t found a contract or had a positive interview for a permanent IT role by then I’m going to give up fishing in these waters and try to find something else that will bring in some money.

Brought one of my niece Izzy’s pictures back from the UK and – after a lot of searching around – found a frame to fit it, so that we can hang it by the front door.

This year’s Sounds concert was a more intimate affair, allegedly down to a less attractive lineup resulting in few sales than previous years (apparently being addressed for next year’s event) and was moved under the giant canopy at Brewtown.

Handy that it was as drizzle throughout the day would have been unfortunate for the mostly older (present company included) crowd.

As with previous years it was well organized with plenty of clean toilets, free drinking water, short queues for drinks and a range of catering trucks. The crowd was also on form, well behaved but not afraid to throw some shapes and sing along.

Things didn’t start off too well musically, the first act I turned up to see – British singer-songwriter Lloyd Cole – was suffering from a cold and stifling a cough throughout his quiet solo set, which was partly drowned out by the crowd talking amongst themselves, a common frustration of Kiwi audiences. Ironically Lloyd could have done with causing a commotion so I could hear him better. Still, “Perfect Skin” and “Lost Weekend” are still classics I enjoyed (mostly) hearing live. 7/10.

Thankfully things took a turn for the loud when Kiwi 80’s favourites Mi-Sex took to the stage. I saw them supporting The Stranglers back in 2020 just before lockdown and enjoyed them, so was excited to see them again close up. They didn’t disappoint! Stood so close to the main speakers I had wear earplugs, I still had ringing ears by the end of the set. They’re one of those legacy bands comprising a couple of wrinkled old rockers from the original lineup supplemented by young Millennials replacing the fallen. Luckily they have a good catalog of recognizable songs that they played VERY LOUD, broken up with some fun banter. Just the thing to liven up the crowd for the remaining acts. 9/10

Next up — and surprisingly not second on the bill — were 90’s “fun-rap” band The Fun Lovin’ Criminals. The initial confusion and disappointment that original front man Huey Morgan wasn’t there quickly melted as they blasted through the hits and lived up to the fun-loving name. I had a great view of the very funky drummer and, apart from some microphone faults, sounded great as a band, not easy when playing rap music live. There were a few filler tracks I didn’t recognize but they finished strongly with Scooby Snacks and Super Models. 8/10.

Next up were a Kiwi act I’d never heard of and wasn’t especially bothered about called While The Cat’s Away so was planning to sit at the back and phone surf for an hour, however they were much better than expected. They played a bunch of Kiwi classic pop songs and kept the energy levels up as it got dark. 7/10.

Headliner for the concert, and in the country for a series of solo gigs, was Spandau Ballet’s singer Tony Hadley. He started with the Nina Simone classic “Feelin’ Good” which showcased his still-powerful voice. Along with some good anecdotes and a storming cover of “Somebody to Love” – with a bit of namedropping about duetting with Freddie Mercury – Tony gave us all the Spandau classics, saving “True” and “Gold” for the end. Another 80’s legend ticked off the list. 9/10.

All that and home for 9.30pm!

One last thing, love the no-bullshit tone of Kiwis as shown by this sign at the venue and in the toilets.

Exactly this. Technology in 2026 absolutely makes you want to jump out of a window. And that’s before they start with the intrusive use of AI

Oh boy it really kicked off in the Middle East! I was watching the news during the UK trip hoping they would find a peaceful solution, or at least drag out talks long enough for me to get back to NZ. 

Disconcerting that the Dubai Airport concourse I was wandering around last Thursday morning got hit by a drone attack at the weekend, can feel for all the passengers stranded in hotels in the region. At least for me it was only a 24 hour wait for the next day’s flight – they have to sit it out for potentially days waiting for news, then there’ll be a huge backlog of flights and stock movement to sort out.

Glad to be home safe x

One of the co-creators and writers of Red Dwarf has passed away.

Having rewatched most of the episodes over the last 6 months both for nostalgia and sitcom study reasons it remains one of my favourites.

The journey back from the UK to NZ got a bit longer than planned when the first flight was delayed landing which meant I – along with dozens of others – found ourselves being booked onto the following day’s flight and shuttled off to a local hotel.

While I would very much like to be home it’s not been the worst detour. I got to check out one of the new railway stations they’ve built all around Dubai and managed to get some sleep and a couple of showers so I am setting off on the long 13 hour flight much fresher than this time yesterday.

I could do without the low level cold that’s been threatening to develop through most of the holiday. I have been dealing with a simultaneous runny and blocked nose since setting off, and blown it so much and so vigorously I’ve been having regular profuse nosebleeds.

I was able to get hold of a resale ticket for Kaiser Chiefs while in Hull, with a limited view up in the Gods, but despite the best efforts of Connexins as a venue it was an enjoyable experience.

It feels like five minutes since I stepped off the train in Hull to be now sat waiting for the return trip to begin.

Lovely to spend some time with the family and chill (literally, until the past few days it was bloody freezing!) and I can feel the rucksack is a good 5kg heavier heading home.