Optus has been a basket case for many years, and was only made worse by appointing a number of ex banking executives whom don't understand the role Optus' products play in their customers lives.
To be clear, in Australia, this would not be trading whilst insolvent. If the director was not negligent, and they had a legitimate reason to believe they would be able to pay their debt when it fell due, whether via new revenue, new debt or restructure of existing debt, then it wasn't trading whilst insolvent.
The directors had reduced expenses, had been seeking further investment, to increase revenue, and finally to sell the assets of the business, before voluntarily ceasing to trade. They executed their power and duties in good faith, with the care and diligence a reasonable person in their situation would have. It's not a crime to have a business fail.
Difficult communicating orally isn't going to hurt you that bad if you are legitimately looking for junior/entry level positions. Do you have a portfolio of sample projects you've worked on to share with potential employers?
Contributions to open source projects and building concept apps can be a great way to develop your resume and portfolio before you successfully break in.
Just remember that hope isn't lost and everyone moves at their own pace. I was a labourer until my mid-20s and dropped out of school in year 9, struggling with autism, adhd, anxiety and a speech impediment. I tanked every interview regardless of the industry or position. Once I'd built a stronger portfolio, I found that calling out my poor communication skills at the start of an interview bought me a lot of leeway.
Which is an excellent additional point. Start trying to help open source projects. There’s a huge ecosystem of projects needing all kinds of help at every level of technical and programming experience from just above none to mythical 10x gurus.
By pitching in with an existing project you can legitimately help them and simultaneously be much more employable since it shows you can work in a team and work on that kind of software, the extra bonus is that by helping a larger project prospective employers are more likely to have heard of the project your contributing to.
Edit: This is more of a general advice to novices take. Since you’re clearly already doing this sort of reputation building work.
That is impressive. You probably have the coding skills you need, its just a matter of breaking through somewhere. Keep trying to find remote coding jobs. Knock out a ton of leetcode puzzles -- those are common gatekeeping process.
I can only speak for how it appears in my country (Australia), but it seems like university academic staffing models in general are broken. I have 15+ years experience in service providers in Cybersecurity and SE roles. I have 2 Masters degrees with GPA7/HD averages, and love to teach. There is nothing I'd love more than to teach university level topics with a primary teaching focus, and research as a secondary. It's not about the money - they can pay me less than the Australian average wage and I'll be happy.
Over the last 2 years I've interviewed at multiple universities for Level A (Associate Lecturer) and they all had similar requirements that I've summarized below:
> you must have completed a PHD.
> You must propose and perform original research, assist in upper level academics research, and publish X times per year.
> you must participate in fundraising, complete your own grant applications and assist upper level academics in their fundraising & applications.
> you must supervise and advise X number of postgraduate students thesis/dissertations.
> you must teach both undergraduate and graduate level classes across 3 trimesters.
> the position is fixed term for 12 months, rather than ongoing/permanent, with no job security and you are required to reapply each year.
Most current academics I know from Level A to Level E, say they don't particularly want to teach, and just wish they could focus on their research and fundraising to support their research. I met other applicants at networking and alumni events like myself who would like a teaching focus, rather than a research focus. There's a supply of "specialists", but an insistence on "generalists". As the fixed term aspect tends to apply to research fellows as well, the risk from the lack of security combined with the extremely low pay makes it very difficult to enter, and remain, in academia. I can afford to live on $65k a year, but the possibility that every year I may be faced with periods of unemployment and the requirement to relocate thousands of km away makes it a challenging prospect.
It comes down to teaching not bringing in money—enrolments (either domestic via the government, or paying international students) and grants bring in money (those requirements are basically "can bring in grants/other funding"). Even with ongoing positions, things like COVID (or even a change of focus) can cause the positions to end (and the ability to bring in grants would play a key roll in who stays and who goes). Any substantial change in the model is a matter for government, not the unis.
Because in many locations around the world, it's not as simple as a criminal offence, it's a civil dispute, as once you have commenced "squatting", you are now an occupant, rather than a clear trespasser. Many squatters find squatting manuals online detailing the local laws and how best to approach it to maximum time available in the property.
Optus has been a basket case for many years, and was only made worse by appointing a number of ex banking executives whom don't understand the role Optus' products play in their customers lives.