The 3 Steps for Success

By Anonymous

I get everything I want.

I understand how that might sound, but it’s true. If I want that scholarship, I’ll get it. If I want that internship, I’ll get it. I’m not a straight HD student, or a straight Distinction student for that matter — I simply write well. I can talk my way through any selection criteria, any interview panel, any phone call. This seems great, and I bet you want to know my secret, but if I’m being honest, there isn’t one. Though I have gathered a few tips and tricks along the way which I would like to share with you.

1.

Find a new best friend.

Who should this best friend be you may ask? ANU CareerHub, obviously. I check this godsend of a website every week, without fail. Next, research the employment avenues your academic college offers. For example, the CBE Global Talent Portal and the COL Legal Vitae are incredible avenues to explore current job opportunities. Create a LinkedIn profile, trawl through Seek and Indeed — do it all. You’ll be surprised what you can find when you’re actually looking.

2.

Document your life story and lock it away for safekeeping.

Jot down every opportunity, experience, or job— however minuscule— that you’ve ever had and attach them to the classic selection criteria. The compulsory ‘youth leadership’ program you attended in Year 10? That was extremely challenging and required a high-level of independence and maturity. The 10-day school trip you took to New Caledonia for French class? That explored your comfort zone and taught you how to adapt to new and unfamiliar environments. Your life experiences don’t need to be special, they just need to sound special.

3.

Think outside the box.

As soon as I was accepted into the ANU in 2019 I began job hunting. I knew Kambri was about to open and I was determined to work somewhere in this ‘bold new campus experience’. I found one relatively ambiguous and uninformed news article highlighting the first few vendors to open up in Kambri and within days I had found a Kambri vendor’s Facebook page, set up an interview and soon after the job was mine. This all happened in January of 2019, so it’s a little too late for you now. That’s okay, think further outside the box. Handing in your resume to the cafes on Lonsdale Street isn’t going to get you to where you want to be. Before you say it, no, Kambri was not my forever-plan, but I was able to draw upon my ‘unique understanding of the ANU student experience’ to receive another job offer for a marketing role on campus, which was exactly what I wanted.

4.

Forget everything I just said.

All of the above is genuinely helpful and it has made all the difference in my career, but it hasn’t actually helped me. After a confusing and wholeheartedly what-the-hell 2020, to put the cherry on top of the cake little old me decided that she had no idea what she wanted to do in life. I was suddenly questioning everything.

Should I quit my internship?

Should I defer uni?

Should I spend all my savings?

I spent my summer days crying down at the Cotter (very coming-of-age film of me) and feverishly writing in my journal, but nothing seemed to help me find an answer. I guess questioning your future is a rite of passage for all 20-somethings, but this was never where I was meant to be. It’s taken me a long time to accept that I need to make a change in my world, but I think I’m at a point now where I’m excited to leave everything behind.

So here are my steps for success. These may not (should almost certainly not) apply to you, but this is what I hope will work for me.

1. Quit all jobs* 2. Defer my university program 3. Travel Australia

I guess the most important take away from this is that you can beef up your CV as much as humanly possible, you can receive every accolade and opportunity under the sun, but you can’t satisfy the suffocated feeling inside you that wants to truly live.

I was the girl who knew exactly where she was going, exactly where she wanted to be. Right now, this girl has no idea about anything, but she’s pretty excited by that.

*A note to any of my current employers: this will be occurring in Semester 2, 2021. I promise to give you ample warning and I hope that I can work with you again in the future.

Post Human: Survival Horror — Album Review

By Sabrina Tse

My ‘rock’ roots were reignited after stumbling across Bring Me the Horizon’s (BMTH) newest album release Post Human: Survival Horror. Written during the isolating months between March and late October, their deathcore aggression and cyberpunk synth beats perfectly radiated pandemic paranoia.

The album kicks off with high energy and fast drums. BMTH’s introductory song, Dear Diary, encapsulates the initial uncertainty and panic of COVID. Effortlessly, Oli Skye documents the worldwide hysteria and incidence of panic-travelling and panic-buying; the speed-metal underscore and aggressive screamo draws on the anger and confusion of moving off campus and working from home without the comfort and proximity of friends.

Whilst the rhythmic drum beats and strong bass riff confers universal angst, they also inflate the dystopian concept of the band’s ‘post human’ series. Distinctively, the speed-metal tones echo a fictional post-apocalyptic fantasy:

(Dear Diary) ‘I keep fading in and out I don’t know where I’ve been I feel so hungry What the hell is happening?

The sky is falling It’s fucking boring I’m going braindead, isolated’

But most importantly, the first introduction track to the album voices not only a sense of teenage boredom, but a sense of discomfort. Specifically, dissatisfaction with authorial leadership. This sentiment is relayed throughout the album’s revived nu-metal style and frequent battlecry-like lyrics.

Another highlight of the album is Parasite Eve which differs from the deathcore style of the introduction song. In fact, the use of a choir vocal sample from the Bulgarian folk song, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, perfectly distils a sense of end-of-theworld imminency.

(Parasite Eve) ‘When we forget the infection Will we remember the lesson? If the suspense doesn’t kill you Something else will’

BMTH is notorious for their reckless and bold approach to their discography. But what elevates their newest album isn’t merely their angsty relatability. In fact, their album has racked in ‘universal acclaim’, scoring an average of 82/100 on Metacritic. BMTH exhibits raw honesty in their lyrics whilst maintaining an integrity to their ‘melodic auteurism’, reminiscent of their iconic 2006 metalcore sound.

Indeed, their ‘high octane ferocity’ was welcomed by an audience who are likewise exasperated by the emotional and political instability of 2020. Skye’s juxtaposition of his forefront screamo, against a backdrop of personal and vulnerable lyrics, reveal the album’s heartto-heart with all survivors of the lockdown and isolation.

(Teardrops) ‘We hurt ourselves for fun Force-feed our fear until our hearts go numb Addicted to a lonely kind of love What I wanna know Is how we got this stressed out, paranoid’

Themes of tech addiction, media anxiety, moral responsibility, political disillusionment and mental health are all addressed by Skye throughout the track. The brilliance of Post Human: Survival Horror is how Skye was able to create a postapocalyptic rock tune that was eerily recognisable given our global experiences of COVID. He avidly criticises the inadequacy of global leadership , expressing his own emotional disconnect and suicidal, violent, tragic state of mind (Teardrops).

Post Human: Survival Horror remains brutal yet undeniably authentic. It relays a storyline of discomfort and unease by documenting an anecdotal truth of personal struggle and resilience.