Career Opportunites in Adelaide

[mac]

Hi all, Just a piece of advice really. In the UK my husband is a forklift truck driver/warehouse operative and I am an AAT qualified finance officer who has previous experience in government finance. Are these types of jobs easy to come by in the Adelaide area? Is it easy to find jobs in Adelaide? Do most people look for work before they travel to Australia or is it easier just to wait until you get there? Many thanks in anticipation for any advice. Mark & Natalie xx

[Blossom]

There are a fair few forklift driving jobs.

Most jobs want you here already before they will take you on. He'll have to take his forklift licence again once he gets here.

[Guest GilliJ]

Hi all, Just a piece of advice really. In the UK my husband is a forklift truck driver/warehouse operative and I am an AAT qualified finance officer who has previous experience in government finance. Are these types of jobs easy to come by in the Adelaide area? Is it easy to find jobs in Adelaide? Do most people look for work before they travel to Australia or is it easier just to wait until you get there? Many thanks in anticipation for any advice. Mark & Natalie xx

 

Hi - I am an AAT qualified finance office who worked in UK government for 10 years prior to moving here. The AAT qualification is not recognised here although I had been told before we moved that it was, I have found it impossible to obtain employment in the finance/accounting sector and have taken a job in a call centre for an insurance company, a job that I did in the UK over 16 years ago. My qualifications are wasted here. Sorry to be the bearer of not so positive news but the reality of employment here is pretty grim at the moment. Both myself and my husband are earning at least $60k less per annum than we were originally advised we would easliy earn when we did our reccie trip 2 years ago. My husband was an IT manager in the UK with over 20 years experience, it took him 6 and a half months to get a job and is working on a 6 month government contract on the lowest level IT helpdesk. The government here do not offer permanent employment atall.

[sduffy]

I have to concur the employment situation does seem pretty grim in a number of areas.My husband has been looking for months for a job in the motortrade Think his age is a factor as well ..Even though he has never been unemployed here in the last 9yrs.My daughter is only getting four hrs a week on her part time retail contract.She has applied for hundreds of jobs and has still not had any success,very difficult for lots of her friends,making paying her way through uni very difficult.

 

Think carefully before you take the plunge,my hubby has found lots of ghost jobs and fishing exercises in his quest for work.Employers not really got vacancies but just testing the market,very frustrating and fruitless for the job seeker and very misleading for those coming from UK thinking there are lots of vacancies in a given area when there are not.

 

Sue

[Jessica Berry]

We are currently over in the UK on holiday. My parents recorded the recent Wanted Down Unders for Adelaide which we have watched while we have been here as I was interested to see the information they are giving out to potential migrants. We have watched 5 episodes and have spent most of the time yelling at the tv! In one episode, one of the participants stated they would not consider taking a job in Adelaide for anything less than $130K. In my opinion you could have stopped filming and ended the program there! If they had been asking my advice in the profession they were in (and on the information shown) I would have said it would be highly unlikely that they would get a job on that salary in that profession (in the current job climate) as a new arrival migrant. To be fair to Wanted Down Under, the episodes we saw where the migrant spoke to an actual employer within their industry, in my opinion they did give them an accurate picture of the current job climate and told them it wouldn't be easy to gain work in their professions.

 

If people have been looking at this forum for a while, it should not come as a shock to them that they may struggle to find work when they first arrive, it may take them 3-6 months to secure work, it may be temporary/casual, they may need to take a job at a lower level or on a lower salary to get a foot in the door, they may end up doing a completely different job to what they have done in the UK - the information is on this forum. People that have lived here a while (I have been here 7 years) in my opinion are not trying to put people off coming, we are trying to give a realistic view of the job market and the changes we have seen over the past 2 years and help people prepare for this. There will always be new arrivals that get work quickly, their skills are genuinely in demand and they have no trouble finding a well paid job (my OH is one of them) but it wont be the case for everyone, people need to come with realistic expectations and consider whether they are up for the challenge - if they need to be.

Edited April 9, 2014 by Jessica Berry

[kellyconnor]

My OH is an Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Technician - any ideas on the job prospects for this trade? I know my job will not be easy to find as it is not on the skills list but it is the same in the UK - Marketing Manager seems to be over subscribed anywhere you go!

[Rabeah]

I work as a support worker and wanted to attend an information session next week. So I rang the advertising company this morning and

*sarcasm on 'surprise' sarcasm off*

they were fully booked and don't have any more spaces in that particular info session. The job is about cleaning homes and client's transport. People are so desperately looking for jobs here, it's unbelievable in the 'old world' Europe/UK.

 

I know a young woman who studied in Adelaide successfully at university and has a degree and overseas job experience. After returning to Adelaide a couple of years later she now earns her living in a SA call centre!

 

Adelaide the city of churches and...degression.

[guspjmh]

Everyone has different experiences. I managed to find work immediately, but I think that was partly down to the groundwork I'd put in from the UK and also because I was willing to take a far junior position that the one I had been doing in the UK.

 

I think there is work out there, but new migrants need to realise that they may need to lower expectations rather than expecting a like for like transfer from what they were doing in the UK.

[kellyconnor]

http://www.skills.sa.gov.au/workforce-information/workforce-wizard

 

Check out the link above it gives you the opportunity to pull off workforce reports tailored to your job type for SA. At least you can see if the opportunities are shrinking in your chosen employment based on the figures which helps draw some conclusion.

[sduffy]

The applying for a lower position is a step on the ladder for some, but for many remains where they stay sadly,even when very highly qualified.The number of people i have spoken to who are degree educated and only able to secure part time retail work is quite the norm.An aussie guy in our local woolworths,has a triple degree and that is the only position he has been able to secure.What hope has a new unqualified migrant got when up against such calibre.

 

It alarms me how often i read on here and other forums " i will do anything to earn some money"whilst that is commendable the chances that you will get that opportunity can often be sadly unattainable.I have lost count of how many professionals i know havent been able to secure work in a fast food establishment here .That level of rejection can be soul destroying.

 

Dont lambast negavity,it is too often the reality of many.

 

Sue

[coastie]

http://www.skills.sa.gov.au/workforce-information/workforce-wizard

 

Check out the link above it gives you the opportunity to pull off workforce reports tailored to your job type for SA. At least you can see if the opportunities are shrinking in your chosen employment based on the figures which helps draw some conclusion.

 

I find it funny that the Skills SA outlook on the job market differs from SA Immigration. Both organisations work in the same building!!! They obviously don't talk to each other.

[Rabeah]

Like said before a forklift licence has to be redone once arrived here. Australia has it's own OHS legislation 'high risk work' which are not transferable from the UK/Europe. Forklift and high risk work licence are combined here and cost about 360 bucks. You'll get a separate 'driving' licence for that with photo and validation dates, because the forklift licence has to be refreshed every 5 years.