Thanks for the replies and the websites I hadn't heard of them - I had had a look at Government ones last time and was ruled out of many by not a citizen but forgot I am shortly to become a citizen anyway. Seems like ACT is the place to be in my area - but there are a few in Mel too - and registers you can go on for temporary opportunities which I wouldn't rule out as could be a way in.

Understand is not a great time - one of the reasons I figure give myself till end of Feb - but speaking to old colleagues the market hasn't been great for a while.

I think I find it more frustrating because often it isn't the employers who rule out part-time is the recruitment agents. I know from when I have recruited my replacement a couple of times, you have to give them a job description (and more often than not that has to be in specific format according to HR rules) but everything on there is an ideal - but the recruitment consultant don't really have the skills or knowledge of the sector to do anything more than look for matching phrases on the CV and job description - whereas in reality you as the employer can tell far more about a person and would be willing to be flexible if you saw their skills - but CV's don't get presented to you like that. Some of the questions you get asked on the phone by recruiters are just ridiculous, how can you sell yourself to someone who doesn't really understand the position. Many times the candidate we have selected is the one who is actually the one regarded as weakest by the agency - but we have seen something else in them making them a good fit for the organisation. (Maybe the SAP world is different but an example is they rule you out because you have experience in say SAP 4.6 and client is looking for SAP ECC 5 but that is like ruling someone out because they know Word 97 not Word 98 - if you are a Word expert you can cope with a few slight differences - is the capacity to learn and the overal grasp of the software that is required, not being able to recall from memory which toolbar the Bold key is located on)

It is a reoccurring theme in my life that I am not very good at "playing the game" when I think the "game" is stupid - I need to get past that, I also need to learn to be more flexible with the truth - I can sell myself or an idea when it is something I whole heartedly believe in - but I am no good at being flexible with the truth at all (I used to get pulled of pre-sales work for being too honest). Have never not been offered a job have interviewed for - so I just need to learn how to "play the game" to get the interview I suppose - instead of getting angry about how the stupid game works :-)

Sometimes I think what is needed is a Current Affair or Today Tonight expose on it - you know dramatic music - sterotypical pictures of people with degrees doing stereotypically low paid jobs with $ dollar signs flashing - that funny serious voice they use "Millions wasted because people not given a fair go" - "Someone should do something" etc etc. :-).

As a slight aside - I read the other day about someone in the UK who is trying to advertise nature to kids in the way consumer items are - after noticing the affect advertising has - maybe part-time workers need their own marketing/ad campaign - maybe I will suggest it to Gruen Planet as a topic for one of their create an advert competitions.

Thanks for listening :-)