I found it quite embarrasing to be associated with Gen Y sometimes,
. It's not that friggin' hard sunshine. I found it quite easy to live a decent life on the $30,000 I got paid in my first job. Even as a casual, because you often had weeks where you earnt more than the full timers. You just had to save some of that for the weeks where you didn't earn more than them.
and plenty of operators dont even pay the award.
There's not many who don't anymore.
i really dont understand how it got to the point of having to actually head there to ask for a job
It's been like that for about the last 30 years. It's where the majority of GA work is, so why not go north? It's also the kind of profession where you don't know what you're getting employee wise, until they front up. Why risk that, when there's people there who you see face to face before you employ them?
It's not that hard of a road if you don't make it one. I loved my early GA days and don't regret one bit of them.
morno