Gavilon18

Hi all,

So right at the beginning of the journey and adventure, timescales for emigrating are mid 2016 – on the face of it loads of time . Possible destinations are Perth (due to knowing a few people in the area) or Brisbane-ish, dunno why but a gut feeling tells me that in the next couple of years Queensland will be a better bet for employment. I completely get that the market is tough out there, but I’ve navigated a dead South Wales market successfully and up for the challenge – plus things can change around in 18 months.

Kinda just wanted to say hi really, will be a fairly passive member for a while but I’m sure that once the process begins in earnest you’ll see more of me. I do however have a few questions that hopefully people can chime in with their opinions.

Should start by saying I’m an accountant, ACA qualified in 2006 with a full employment history since then – 1 year post qualification with PwC (auditor), 2 years with a local manufacturing firm in South Wales, 4 years with GE and now at Barclays (1 year and counting) (all as a financial controller). I would be looking at a 189 or 190 visa.

Sooo, skills assessment looks fairly straightforward and I can get to 8 years post qualification experience as of the end of September this year but question 1 – would auditing be a closely related experience for a general accountant? Question 2 also on employment history, I have listed my employers deliberately – a potential issue could be in getting the confirmation of employment from PwC, GE and Barclays. Their policy on references is that they will confirm dates and job title, but very little else – I’m sure others have worked for companies with similar policies so interested in how they found HR when requesting these - would a job description suffice?

Question 3: Due to the skills assessment I need to sit IELETs, do these have an expiry date like the medicals and PCC or could I sit these now? I guess the same question applies to the skills assessment (I'd be going via ICAA/ICAAN)?

Finally for now…. Looking at the points on offer I can get between 60 and 80 (depending on whether I include my current and PwC employment and IELETS score) and as of now I can see Accountancy on the skills list for Queensland. If I was to go for a sponsored visa in QLD do the points matter or is it a case of anyone meeting the minimum requirements are considered equally? In an ideal world I wouldn’t be asking for a reference from my current employers for the visas I would rather they didn’t know that I may be leaving (on a base level bonuses will be funding the move and first few months post landing so need to maintain an illusion of staying).

Actually I lied – one more! I have seen adverts for ‘Down Under Live’ in Birmingham in October, did anyone go to these events during their journey and are they worthwhile visiting?

Off to enjoy a cold Fosters now and fire up the BBQ, getting into the spirit early

Thanks for reading, look forward to pestering you all more down the line

Gav

Bermudashorts

Welcome to BE.

To the visa questions first. I would be tempted to start your visa application now as you never know when occupations will come off the list, it can and does happen and has been threatened for accountants for years now. One day it might just happen. So that solves your IELTS expiry issue.

For employer references, get what you can and then support with statutory declarations regarding your detailed duties. The job title and company should give a good clue though. It is perfectly normal for accountants to do audit so I doubt that is an issue, still don't look to maximise points, you don't need 80, go lower and then there is less for immigration to pore over.

Sponsorship is just another step in the process, unless you need it for points, I would not bother.

Just a comment on job opportunities, note that Sydney and Melbourne are the hubs for financial services. Perth is in a down turn and the job market very challenging everywhere at moment for accountants, hopefully that will pick up before 2016 though.

spouse of scouse

You're a lucky chap - you've received the best advice from BE Oz forum's guru in all things accounting. Don't forget to say thanks, you'll need her again! Good luck with it all (and for God's sake don't drink the Foster's here, it's full strength and it tastes like cat wee)

Gavilon18

Thanks Bermudashorts - the employer references sounds sensible and if there is no real benefit to having 80 points then I can get away with not going back to PwC or using my current employer at this stage which is a big win. Also noted on the sponsorship, if its just another admin layer I'll leave off that path unless things go wrong elsewhere.

In terms of timing I'm pretty stuck at the moment for not applying - Me and the better half are going through IVF currently and if that doesn;t work will be looking at adoption before making the move. So whilst I'm happy to spend a few hundred quid on IELETS and skills assessment, a few grand on the full VISA application is not on the agenda until next year, not to mention the conflict between the adoption process and VISA application. I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed that we get one more year on the SOL!

We did look at Melbourne and Sydney but have decided that if we're making the move its Queensland or Perth, I'd actually rather get back into manufacturing or have a shot in the mining industry so a lack of financial services isn't too much of an issue. It may come to sticking with FS though, so thanks for the pointer on the key hubs (I had it as only being Sydney in my head so nice to have a second option here). Going to keep a keen eye on the business news in Australia over the next few months, hopefully it will pick up for everyones sake.
I've sent my CV over to a couple of recruiters already to see if they can give me an idea on how my CV stacks up for jobs currently on Seek - hopefully get some pointers back and the feedback is that my CV looks as strong in Australia as it seems to be here.

Anyway, thanks again for aking the time to read and reply - everything taken on board. No doubt I will be looking for more pointers over the next few months once my Googling runs out of answers.

Cat wee is an improvement on the rat wee that UK Fosters tastes like

I suppose I'll just have to get back to my detailed research via Home and Away and Neighbours for pointers on what to expect

spouse of scouse

You wouldn't catch me drinking Fosters here (in Australia), but I have been known to put away 12 pints of the stuff in a Liverpool Sunday session. Most impressed, the Scousers were

Hahahaa re Home and Away and Neighbours, they depict Oz as accurately as Corrie does the UK

Alan Collett

Hi Gav.

In case you didn't know already, you'll need the Academic version of the IELTS for the skills assessment with the ICAA (our preference for UK qualified CA clients) or CPA Australia; you can do the General IELTS subsequently if you haven't secured the necessary band scores in the Academic for visa points test purposes.

Best regards.

Gavilon18

Thanks Alan, I had presumed this to be the case but hadn't had it confirmed so one less question to ask! I'll be going ICAA, seems sensible as I'm ICAEW qualified.

Bermudashorts

Good luck with the plans. There has been talk of accountants coming off the lists for years and it has survived thus far so fingers crossed.

alexleeson

Accountant are doing it really tough here in Australia at the moment - there are sometimes over a hundred applicants for each job. Salaries have been pushed down - they have not changed in 8 years (though living costs have). Anything manager level is REALLY hard to get. There are simply too many accountants chasing too few jobs.

At Senior Accountant level there are some opportunities. If you don't have mining/resource experience, it will be tough to land the job in that sector. You might have better luck going into a big 4 or mid-tier, but there have been redundancies in recent times. But be prepared that if you make it here.. there may not necessarily be a job - employers do prefer local experience especially for financial controller as there is familiarity with australian standards and reporting.

I am moving back to the UK as that is where the opportunities are at the moment - after 13 months without a job.

I hope that the market picks up by the time you are coming out.