BigOl64 wrote on Jun 9
th, 2018 at 3:54pm:
Valkie wrote on Jun 9
th, 2018 at 3:26pm:
It has to last just a couple more years.
Then I retire and I couldn't give a rats posterior.
Yeah Im coming off LNG and heading back to mining very soon. 10 more years and Im done too.
I do sympathise that you rely on an industry of the past that the developed world is slowly moving away from, slowly.
IT, while not being moved away from is a sector that is facing offshoring all the time. We've been through a great culling and with automation increasing, it's getting harder and harder to make a dollar even if local businesses want to deal with locals rather than Indian or Philippino call centres.
It has to be hard if all you've ever done is enjoy great pay while working in the mining industry and never branched out into another trade when the writing was on the wall.
But things change.
Upon reading that back it comes off very crass. I've had a 6 month stint of IT work for some mines in Queensland, so I don't want to make it sound like it's easy work for those out there, for easy and large pay.
That said, I hated my work there. My role was to handle the infrastructure to support the drone and driverless truck pilot. I'm glad the tech in the pilot failed. Our infrastructure was great, but I had become friends with a lot of the guys whose jobs would have been lost to automation if the pilot was more successful.
I've never been happier to be a part of something that failed.
For now the world still needs coal. Will that change in the 10 years you have left? Unlikely, but the world will rely less and less on it, especially as alternative energy sources become cheaper and energy transmission and storage more efficient.
You can't deny that the future is not coal.
I feel the most for the young fellas who've fought their way into the industry given the current decline and the competition for those who are attracted to the pay and don't have the family burdens that make FIFO so hard.
If they're not diversifying now they're going to in a world of pain in the not too distant future.
Rather than filling the airwaves with false hope, you should be advocating for of course a continuation of your own needs, but help others understand that it won't be long before it's an industry of the past and by no means a sure thing. They shouldn't put their eggs in that basket.
And with an industry like coal, there are global implications and pressures to consider too, not that I expect you to care or even acknowledge climate change.