Difficult to emigrate and find work?

[Guest timmeh85]

Hi Everybody.

 

So, I'm 25, educated to degree level, have spent the past 2 years working in a management position in Planning. I have worked in many different roles prior to this such as retail and hospitality.

 

I have been inspired by the recent advertising of 'jobs for Brits down under', but was wondering how much truth there is to all of this.

Is it literally a free for all - if you want a job, you can pretty much get one? Or is it advisable to have a desirable skill, such as a trade (plumber, electrician, builder etc.)?

 

I am also currently enrolled on a Masters course in Real Estate, which covers all sorts related to the Property industry, and I would hopefully like to get employment in this field.

 

Any help, advice, or suggestions would be most gratefully appreciated.

 

Thanks,

[Moosh]

No there aren't jobs a plenty here. You have to work hard to find the right job and not be too fussy or greedy. Once you have proved yourself and have Aussie references you will find it easier to move on.

[Guest kangomik]

Don't forget the possibility of a pay cut

[Guest Matey2]

I would say it depends on which sector you work in, whether there are jobs available or not. I come from a Local Authority background and there are plenty of jobs in that area for experienced people. You didn't say if your Planning experience was for a LA or not.

 

I would say you need to research who is responsible for town planning and where and give them a call to see if there is a high turnover of staff. LA type work here is paid even worse than the UK so there are always vacancies.

 

I have to say that applied for one job and one job only and got it.

[Guest timmeh85]

Thanks for the tips guy.

I've been working in a Private Waste Management Company, so my skills would be considered specialised somewhat.

@Kangomik - it would be interesting to see what a pay cut would look like from already being underpaid! At least the weather would be better!

 

I think some further research is in order!

 

What's the cost of living like in Oz? Is it similar to the UK?

[Guest kangomik]

Thanks for the tips guy.

I've been working in a Private Waste Management Company, so my skills would be considered specialised somewhat.

@Kangomik - it would be interesting to see what a pay cut would look like from already being underpaid! At least the weather would be better!

 

I think some further research is in order!

 

What's the cost of living like in Oz? Is it similar to the UK?

 

Research research and research my man, look at house prices, renting at 300 dollars a week low average, price to live.

It is not cheap here mate, not by a long chalk. Yes the weather is good, but if i told you the last three months rarely if at all hit 20 degrees in the day and hovered between near freezing and 8 degrees at night you may view things differently.

 

Don't expect to land and Adelaide open its arms with loads of work and free stuff, its a hard slog mate, a bloody hard slog. Start at the bottom, work your way up, if your good and your lucky.

 

Saying all that, if you can make it work then it's great, a different pace of life, more relaxing things to do, a safer place to live with friendlier people.

 

If you work for the likes of Veolia or Cleanway in the UK they have branch's here, so may be worth finding contacts if you can.

 

Life's better here mate, but it's not easy. Just a heads up with out the rose tinted's on.

 

By the way i am in the love it brigade, so god help you when the doom and glooms reply:biglaugh:

[ratters2005]

Don't believe all you see on the TV

[Guest downunder123]

Once you manage to get a job interview you should find you get the job as most ozzies are pretty thick especially in Adelaide. The hardest bit is actually getting a job interview. Dont think by going on job sites such as seek.com that there appears to be loads of available jobs- half of them are just made up ones by recruitment agencies, a ploy used to just so that they can get you on their books.

 

 

Also, dont just work out what you need to earn over here by doing a staright pound to dollar exchange rate. Everything is double the price over here.

[Guest kangomik]

Once you manage to get a job interview you should find you get the job as most ozzies are pretty thick especially in Adelaide. The hardest bit is actually getting a job interview. Dont think by going on job sites such as seek.com that there appears to be loads of available jobs- half of them are just made up ones by recruitment agencies, a ploy used to just so that they can get you on their books.

 

 

Also, dont just work out what you need to earn over here by doing a staright pound to dollar exchange rate. Everything is double the price over here.

 

And you said Aussie's are thick:sad:

[Guest mandy.s]

i have been reading the posts about finances, in peoples opinons what would you say you would need the earn per week to live a comfy life style, we have 4 children to provide for

any advice would be great

[Guest Welshy]

depends what your mortgage will be. Most people seem to think earning around $60k is fairly good, however if you arent from the rich south of England and coming with enough money to have a tiny mortgage it helps if you have 2 earners in the family!!

[Guest nicandchris]

mmmm it sounds pretty depressing doesnt it. Is finding work that hard? Im hoping to earn 'a fairly good salary' over in Adelaide but we are wanting a life easier than the UK i.e. more value for money, not having to slog your guts out to have some money left over in your pocket once the bills have gone out - but not to really have to slog our guts out once we get to Adelaide for this! Are we being naive about this? Yes in the summer the weather seems nice and as expected in Winter cold but hoping for the OH to find a job to help pay the bills without bending over backward for it (might as well be in the UK).

[Guest PeteB]

There's no easy, single answer I fear. How easy or hard you find it to get a job will depend on what field you're in, how experienced you are in that field, and how flexible your expectations are, both in terms of what work and what salary you expect. It is possible though. A couple of folk have pointed out that Ozzies (or Adelaide, specifically) is a pretty tight community wrt finding work, and I would have to agree. A lot of networking can be required, but with persistence and hard work, you can do it. Be prepared for it to take a while (potentially 2-3 months) though. DON'T come over near to Christmas and start looking for work. The whole of SA seems to shut down for 6-8 weeks, December to January.

 

Salaries are lower here in the UK in real terms. You can't look at your pay in the UK, multiply it by the exchange rate, and expect to earn that amount, You can (in my limited experience) expect a bit, but not much, more than a straight Pounds to Dollars pay.

 

On the other hand - you take home a lot more of the pay you earn here than in the UK, and if you have kids in childcare, it is a whole lot cheaper (than in London at least!), and can be well subsidised by the government.

 

Good luck!

[Guest guest3462]

Be aware though that childcare subsidies are only available to those with permenent residency. Temporary visa holders are entitled to no state benefits at all and in many cases it isn't worth the cost for the second adult to go out to work. Child care costs around the same as it did in UK the average being around the $60 a day mark.

I guess, you have to try to calculate how you live to your means too, in that if you enjoy going interstate on mini breaks and enjoy a varied and extensive wardrobe and eating out every week then you are not going to survive on a lesser wage, but if you are happy and willing to slog it out for a few years (we have been here 2 years and are still not quite on our feet finacially, we said 5 years and its looking like it will be!) you can live comfortably, eating good fresh food and drinking plenty of fantastic local wine (beer is extortionately priced!!) and of course enjoy a healthy outdoors lifestyle. We have been on countless camping outings and free days out to beautiful parks and wildlife centres that certainly help to manage the bank balance a little better. It is a little trickier in winter as obviously the bills are a lot higher for some and there is less to do outdoors wise unless you really dont mind the cold and wet weather. We found we were taking the kids more to the cinema and swimming which can be costly. But we have still managed to get on the beach a few times when the skies have been blue and enjoyed long walks into the scrubland looking for kangaroos!!

Housing is becoming more costly especially in suburbs close to the CBD, but again we live out in the sticks and though we have a big mortgage as far as aussie standards go it is still much cheaper than the one we had in the UK per month. Renting starts at around $300 up to as much as you want to pay really depending on location. Our weekly grocery bill for 4 of us and includes nappies comes in at around $250 - $400, but this depends on me and my generosity on the toy aisle with the girls in tow! (much cheaper if I go alone lol)

We have found most household goods and white goods, especially beds and bedding to be much more expensive here and would highly recommend getting and filling a container with everything you own. You can buy new stuff here in time, but to come here with nothing like we did costs a small fortune! Had we our time again, I would have brought everything including the kitchen sink in that container rather than a few boxes of dvds and kids toys that we did bring.

Life is not easier here in Adelaide, but if you work hard, then it certainly does allow you to play harder.

[Guest PeteB]

Be aware though that childcare subsidies are only available to those with permenent residency.

 

Thanks for pointing that out Julia - I didn't realise!

 

Your post gave me a couple more thoughts too - on the subject of mortgages, I was surprised at how hight the interest rates are here, and also, second-hand cars cost a bloody fortune!

[Jessica Berry]

I have lived in Adelaide 3.5 years now and I also previously worked in Melbourne back in 1996/97 and I think in Australia you are not necessarily expected to 'work harder' but you are expected to 'work'. The Aussies can be quite ruthless compared to the UK attitude and if you don't come up to standard you can expect a DCM - Don't Come Monday!! I have seen a few people 'let go' because their performance was not up to standard, and they get rid of people in the probation period or even after being at an organisation for several years.

 

I think your attitude and approach to work and starting a new life has a big part of play in your success. You have to be prepared to start over and potentially start your career again and work your way up.

[Guest nicandchris]

Is it all really worth it - truthfully...............................again maybe this is for another thread.....

[Jessica Berry]

We think so. When we emigrated in 2007 we sold our house, all our furniture, our car - everything. We never had any doubt we were doing the right thing. I had come over in 1996/97 on a working holiday visa and loved Australia, my partner had never been to Australia until we emigrated. We arrived 3.5 years ago knowing no one, nowhere to live, no jobs and arrived with 3 suitcases and 2 holdalls with basically our clothes and a few personal items but with the attitude and determination to start a new successful life in Adelaide and we would say we have achieved that and have totally embraced life in Australia.

 

It has not been all plain sailing and as someone mentioned earlier don't believe everything you see on TV, you have to work hard to start a new life from scratch.

[Guest guest3462]

Nic and Chris, Everyone has their horror stories and their stories of love for the place, including us! My goodness the amount of times Rich and I have called it quits, had a nervous breakdown and looked at flights back to the UK is unending, but we have realised that for us the decision to stay is by far worth all the hassle and heartache we have endured. It does not work for everyone and I would be a fool to think it did, but we feel that for us and our kids the standard of living we have here (when you take away our current visa headaches!!!) is by far and away better than we ever had in England. We have less money for now as i'm no longer working, and rich is having to work in a job that is less than ideal until he fulfills the skills requirements, but then again he works a lot less unsociable hours and sees the girls more than he ever did in the UK.

Every families story is different and very personal to them, you need to take away from each story peoples' experiences to build your own opinion on the biggest move you could ever make. I have said it before: utopia it is not and it is a very different life to the one we had in Wakefield, but for the long term we are settled here in Adelaide.

[Guest Deb17]

I would say, be prepared for a lot of misery and heartache, and pray your family/relationships are as strong as you think they are. We are only just finding our feet after four years here, and have had to lower our sights an awful lot, settle for a more 'day to day' existence and accept that we had to both change careers in order to find work - and starting on a temporary visa was hell, because you can't claim anything from Centrelink and your savings will not last long if you have to buy everything from scratch. I would not encourage anyone to come to Addy unless you have a guaranteed job to come to. Tradies and nurses/medical professionals have the easiest options by far.

[Guest guest3462]

I would say, be prepared for a lot of misery and heartache, and pray your family/relationships are as strong as you think they are. We are only just finding our feet after four years here, and have had to lower our sights an awful lot, settle for a more 'day to day' existence and accept that we had to both change careers in order to find work - and starting on a temporary visa was hell, because you can't claim anything from Centrelink and your savings will not last long if you have to buy everything from scratch. I would not encourage anyone to come to Addy unless you have a guaranteed job to come to. Tradies and nurses/medical professionals have the easiest options by far.

 

I have to completely disagree with you when you say the medical profession has it the easiest. If you knew the hell we have been through to get to the stage we are at now- which isn't much further forward from the day we arrived 2 years ago you would retract that statement!!! Being a uk dr in Australia is almost like having to complete medical school all over again!!! They bleed you dry financially wanting thousands of dollars to even begin the assessment stage then it goes on and on and you have to resit your frca exams and complete years of supervised practice beofrd you are deemed suitable!!! Ok rant over sorry!!!

[HEAPS GOOD !!!]

We have found that you have to cut your cloth accordingly.....as we have done and i think that after 2 1/2 years of being here we have finally stopped from hitting the ground running and slowed to a jog.....

 

Its hard....very bloody hard at times......but you have to concentrate on the big picture...and the reason why you did it all in the first place...build a network of friends as fast as you can.....these guys become the people you shre the good and the bad times with.....there is always this place where you can always come for chats and advice, sometimes you may not get what you want but hey thats a public forum for you.....

 

Do your research......

 

Good luck with it all.

 

 

HG

[Guest nicandchris]

good god it certainly doesnt sound as easy as i thought, i wont even read the lst few threads to chris he'd never head over. uummm i didnt really think about having a couple of years of heatache before life picks up potentially, having been to oz on a working visa i thought i had a good idea about it, but it doesnt seem like it. have to have a think now-feel like crying x

[Guest guest569]

Research research and research my man, look at house prices, renting at 300 dollars a week low average, price to live.

It is not cheap here mate, not by a long chalk. Yes the weather is good, but if i told you the last three months rarely if at all hit 20 degrees in the day and hovered between near freezing and 8 degrees at night you may view things differently.

 

Don't expect to land and Adelaide open its arms with loads of work and free stuff, its a hard slog mate, a bloody hard slog. Start at the bottom, work your way up, if your good and your lucky.

 

Saying all that, if you can make it work then it's great, a different pace of life, more relaxing things to do, a safer place to live with friendlier people.

 

If you work for the likes of Veolia or Cleanway in the UK they have branch's here, so may be worth finding contacts if you can.

 

Life's better here mate, but it's not easy. Just a heads up with out the rose tinted's on.

 

By the way i am in the love it brigade, so god help you when the doom and glooms reply:biglaugh:

This is a very open and true statement of things to come in my opinion,It is worth it ( very much so) , its just not as easy as people originaly think. Including me !! Before i left the UK i thought i'd work 3 days a week, the wife wouldn't have to work at all.I'd have a 3 bed house with a small if any mortgage and would spend most of the time at the beach with the kids. We left all sorts of things with the inlaws to throw or give to charity like winter clothing , coats , suits, books and videos !! Looking back now i realise i had done no research at all, because i was moving to " Australia " i thought life would be so different !!Now i see i was just moving countries NOT worlds !!!

Adelaide has a very much "who"'you know attitude to get your foot in the door. Then you can prove " what " you know !! This site can be very usefull to someone new or thinking of moving over !!

 

Welshey , How far down the UK is south where you become a cashed up pom with no or very little mortgage ??? I know i for one have a bigger mortgage here than i had in the UK but i have a bigger house !! Both me and my wife work to pay for it and so we should , as we both would have done in the UK !! Like Heaps good says " Cut your cloth accordingly !!" If you go and buy a big 4 bed house in Glenelg then expect a massive mortgage or deposit.To reduce this you either down size your house and stay living in an expensive are or you keep the 4 bed and move slightly away from the golden suburbs !! Its not rocket science !!!

Good luck with all your decisions!!

[Guest Welshy]

Is it all really worth it - truthfully...............................again maybe this is for another thread.....

 

For us personally it absolutely is worth it. We have had a very hard time financially for the first 2 to 3 years of being here. But now we both have good jobs, the kids have so many opportunities over here for sporting clubs and activities that they never had in the UK. LOVE it and would definately not change our decision to come out.