January 07 Newsletter

News

We have recently recruited a new Consultant to our Banking and Financial Services team. Tamla Anderson has almost ten years recruitment experience from Sydney and London. With a strong background in Accountancy recruitment, Tamla will be focussing on this area within our banking, insurance and wealth management clients.

Tamla would be delighted to hear from you if you’re looking to progress in your career as an Accountant, or if you have any friends to refer to her. Don’t forget our ‘refer a friend scheme’ where successful placements result in $$$$ for you!!

Over 45s considered "too old": ABS

Age discrimination against unemployed people appears to be decreasing, but almost three in ten aged 45 years and over report being considered "too old" by employers in the past year, according to ABS statistics.

The Bureau's Job Search Experience data reports on the experience of unemployed people in seeking work and the difficulties they've encountered.

Being considered either too young or too old for a job was the main difficulty faced by unemployed people (11% overall), followed by "insufficient work experience" (10%).

The percentage of older (45+) unemployed people who said that being considered too old was their main obstacle to finding work dropped to 29 per cent (or 32,400) from 34 per cent last year.

For younger unemployed people, a lack of experience was perceived as the main hurdle to finding a job, reported by 21 per cent of jobseekers aged 20-24 years.

Of the unemployed people who found a job in the 12 months to July 2006, more than half (53%) said they wrote, phone or applied in person to an employer for work. Some 29 per cent had answered a newspaper job ad, 26 per cent had responded to a job ad on the internet and 12 per cent had registered with Centrelink as a jobseeker.

Overall, unemployed people who sought a job during the year were more likely to look at job advertisements in newspapers (85%) than on the internet (63%), but the number of unemployed people looking online has doubled since July 2003.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

Entertainment

Each month we are going to be bringing you lots of lovely travel and restaurant reviews from our consultants, as well as a trivia section devoted to completely useless information. This month Michelle Maye, Food Critic extraordinaire, will be sharing her views on some fine and no-so-fine dining experiences around the town; next month, Travel Guru Justine Dorrell will be putting together some great ideas for fabulous getaways. And our fabulous Trvia Buff Katherine Young will provide us every month will all the information we never realised we needed to know!

Restaurant Review Restaurant Review Restaurant Review

Summit Restaurant

I've lived in Sydney for seven years now and am very embarrassed to say that my inability to stomach gazing at the city from a height has led me to avoid climbing the harbour bridge, balk at sky touring in the Sydney Tower and even snub cocktailing in the Shangri-la. I decided that it was high time to address this Sydney altitude avoidance issue by tackling it head on in one of the highest restaurants in town!

The occasion was my partner Matt's birthday. I did a random flick through my Entertainment Book's fine dining section (yes, I love a bargain!) and landed on the Summit Restaurant in Australia Square. My initial reaction was to keep flicking until my eye was caught by the martini steamed blue swimmer crab and the twice cooked pork belly. I bit the bullet, booked us in and spent a frantic night praying for low wind count and preferably heavy fog to block out the reality of the 47 floors.

What ensued was the most wonderful evening. We started the night in the very retro Orb bar with a couple of potent cocktails - and as the fresh strawberry daiquiri seeped into my system, we managed to move our chairs from the lift right the way over to the window. Did I mention that this place revolves? Don't leave your handbag on the window ledge!

We moved from the bar to the restaurant and after choosing our dishes, I settled into coming to grips with what I saw. I'm not sure if I'll ever not feel like a tourist in this town. I sat transfixed as the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Kings Cross, the Sydney Tower, Darling harbour and Lunar Park floated gently past our window like a picture show. The only thing that dragged me away was the enticing smell of my wok fried blue swimmer crab with red chilli salt, coriander, sweet mint and roasted peppercorns. This was absolutely delicious and quite light - I was starving so there was a danger I could have written myself off with the starter if the portion had been any bigger! Matt had the organic Quail which was crispy and nicely complemented by the citrus mayonnaise and a soft herb ravigote. I had the roast snapper for my main which would have been perfect other than the fact I was having a severe case of menu envy. Matt had the Pork Belly and what I can say - it's absolutely sublime. Yes, it will probably stay with you forever but each artery blocking morsel is just divine. We finished off by sharing a tantalising triple chocolate creation by the infamous Sydney pâtissier Mark Stone.

So, by the end of the night the heady mixture of Pinot Noir (Coldstream Hills, Yarra Valley), exquisite food and Sydney viewed from its best possible vantage left me intoxicated and truly ready to tackle more height defying adventures. The only problem at the end of the night was that I couldn't find the lift ....

Summit Restaurant and the Orb bar are situated on the 47th floor of the Australia Square building. The dinner menu is $68 for two courses with additional courses at $17. If you're looking for the experience but not the meal, The Orb bar has happy hour cocktails every week night from 5pm - 9pm. More information can be seen on their website www.summitrestaurant.com.au.

Trivia trivia trivia trivia trivia trivia trivia trivia trivia trivia trivia trivia trivia

DID YOU KNOW:

An office desk has 400 times more bacteria than a toilet.
Barbie's boyfriend Ken was not sold in India until recently because it clashed with the traditional arranged marriage.
In 2001, the five most valuable brand names in order were Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, GE, and Nokia.
Every second there are 418 Kit Kat fingers eaten in the world.
Cleopatra married two of her brothers.
No piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times
No-one can lick their elbow
Apples are more effective than caffeine for waking you up in the morning
Approximately 1 billion stamps are produced in Australia annually.
The average four year-old child asks over four hundred questions a day.
The longest engagement lasted 67 years, and the couple ended up marrying when they were 82 years old.
On average, 42,000 balls are used and 650 matches are played at the annual Wimbledon tennis tournament

So now you know!