IvanM

You will do alright in Sydney. The company I worked for struggled to find a decent CAD person. The senior draughtsperson told me that the first one could not draw parallel lines.

The government also has a large infrastructure fund.

Amazulu

There are also some big rail projects underway and planned. I know some engineering guys who have moved from the UK to Sydney to work on rail.

AndyP10

Cheers Amazulu. I'll have a check later and find some contact details for GHD. Me and my missus have thought that if the Cairns thing doesn't work, then we'll look at somewhere else - Brisbane/Gold Coast/Perth, wherever. As much as I loved being in Cairns for a couple of months, I do realise it's not so well represented in the construction scheme of things, esp when I specialise in glazed facades and cladding. But I'm sure a CAD Monkey can swing sideways if need be though.

AndyP10

Hey Jimbo,
I kind of suspected that was the case, to be honest. I put an ad in the Cairn's Post, and got a reply from a company dealing in hydraulics. Sent my CV over, and they came back saying "very impressed... done well for yourself... don't think we would keep you stretched enough though... will keep an eye out for you locally but having discussed your experience in-house don't think your specialised industries have much going on up here... etc, etc", so it bears out what you say. Maybe I'll have to look at somewhere else first and then shift up there in two or three years once all the politics and paperwork is out of the way. Cheers.

xzibit

Never heard of F8 then?

IvanM

If the NSW government can ever decide to build them there are a few projects. The problem is the housing market has stagnated which has caused stamp duty revenue to drop causing a billion dollar budget blow out. It was only revealed when Iemma and Costa were forced out a month back. The other issue investors have with NSW is that totally misleading traffic figures get given. One toll road has gone bust and the other is on shaky ground.

KRudd may bring forward some of the infrastructure spending.

Bix

Try sending a PM or better still an email through this site to Cadman.
He was working for GHD but doesn't come on BE much nowadays.

Here's the GHD site and jobs available list.

http://www.ghd.com.au/aptrixpublishi...t/AusVacancies

ubdai

I'm a CAD monkey. Now is this money good or bad? If its good then I'll try, if not then I won't.

The only problem is i'm in the UK. Willing to relocate though. Anyone know if this job offer can be used as a stage to immigration to Oz.

ubdai

jimbo_d

Yes it is, the best rates i've seen in the UK are £50 an hour in London on high end oil and gas projects, and there's not many of them. Bear in mind those getting $130 an hour will probably have 15+ years exp. and be the top of the game using highly specialised software, not just Autocad. CAD as a profession can be used to emigrate provided you are experienced.

ubdai

I would say i am. 10yrs in land surveying. 2yrs in telecoms and now 5years in wastewater design.

ubdai

IvanM

Heh I am an IT monkey not a CAD monkey.

jimbo_d

Funnily enough i'm in water/wastewater design, and don't get anything near $130 an hour, it's all government work. And also from what i've heard today, the only way wages are going is down, following on from Rio Tinto's announcement tons of mining jobs are being canned.

Scubaemma

Thanks Amazulu, that's really interesting. My OH is a CAD monkey/senior design technician. We've only just moved over here from London (although he's an Aussie originally), where he was working for Arup as a contractor, and has just started working for Arup in the Brissie office as a contractor on the airport link thingy. But he'll certainly be interested in the figures quoted here as he's only earning $60 p/h at the sec. He's got 10+ years experience so might be worth a look. Cheers.

xzibit

As well as being an architectural technician, I also do quite a bit of land surveying as well. Is there a great need for it in Oz, particularly SA?