Site / Project Manager Construction Work

[Joe Greer]

Hi All,
My Name is Joe and im a Scot living in Brisbane at the moment, we have been here for 2 years come May, ive really struggled to find work up here, ive found that as soon as they hear my accent when i call for a Job they say its already gone. The first few months i thought right i need to be quicker but after a while you start to realise that they are just looking after their own first. I guess work is that tight just now.
Is Adelaide any better ? I dont want to up root my family to try if its just as bad.

Any feedback would be appreciated
Cheers Joe

[Mr & Mrs Taz]

Hi Joe

I am a fellow Scot, I was very fortunate when I first arrived in Adelaide and got offered 2 jobs after 1 interview with each company and decided to join a family business which turns over $130m a year, have been with them for 3 1/2 years now.From my perspective I have never had a problem with my accent and the company I work for have English,Indians,South Africans & Chinese working for them so i don't believe you should be worried about that and I also deal with a lot of contractors on site and I have came across a lot of Project/Site Managers who are from the U.K.

With regards to work we were quiet before Xmas and had to lay off a few people but things have really picked up for us since the turn of the year and we have started employing some new estimators (actually sponsored a girl from London) and Site Managers but i know some companies are still struggling a bit.

What kind of work do you have experience in as it is always better if you can do fit out & construction work and you will get paid more if you have experience in both.

Cheers

[lynsteve]

if its quiet in brissy then it'll be worse down here, infact there was a thread the other day about brickies on the way to brissy and perth looking for work.

stevo

[Joe Greer]

Hi Taz,

I am a Carpenter by trade and worked my way up to Foreman, Site Manager and Project Manager. I ran my own construction company in Scotland and loads of experience in fit out and retail construction. I have worked as a Project Manager in Brisbane on some large fit out projects but since last September work has became tighter. So we are considering relocation to Adelaide. If you have any contacts that you may feel would be a help I would greatly appreciate it.

Cheers Joe

[tinkertailerdog]

Joe, i'm a consultant engineer and things are relatively quiet here but not as bad as some say. There are a lot of large contracts starting (or having started already insome cases) here at the start of 2012 - Royal Adelaide Hospital (though only ground works at moment - main contractor is JV with Hansen Yuncken and Leightons), the new SA Medical Research Institute, Adelaide Oval Redevelopment, a couple of school projects, north and south express way upgrades, etc etc. There is competition but i guess it comes down to you, your experience and what you offer to a company that others don't bla bla bla.

[Jessica Berry]

Hi Joe

I am a fellow Scot, I was very fortunate when I first arrived in Adelaide and got offered 2 jobs after 1 interview with each company and decided to join a family business which turns over $130m a year, have been with them for 3 1/2 years now.From my perspective I have never had a problem with my accent and the company I work for have English,Indians,South Africans & Chinese working for them so i don't believe you should be worried about that and I also deal with a lot of contractors on site and I have came across a lot of Project/Site Managers who are from the U.K.

In 2010 I worked in the engineering/construction industry on the largest infrastructure project in SA (at the time) and there were people of all nationalities working on the project, people from England, Wales, India, Africa, Spain, Greece, Columbia, The Philipines, Mexico to name a few - we probably all outnumbered the Aussies!! Where you came from was not an issue.

They were even FIFO (fly in fly out) poms from the UK temporarily out here for 3 months, then they went back to the UK for 2 weeks, then they flew out again for another 3 months, then went back home for 2 weeks and this went on and on, as the skill set they had they struggled to find in SA/Australia. Also on the project, a lot of people were being transferred from Queensland offices to work on the SA project as there was no work in Queensland for them at the time and it was a case of coming to SA to work or being made redundant