Better city for job search, Bris/Melb
 

Hello,

We are planning to relocate to Australia in July and have no jobs as of now. We've been steadily applying for the last few months with a few promising leads but nothing seems to have materialised as yet. My husband is a bioinformatician and I am in Software (although I am looking to switch careers and possibly do a course) so its really him that's looking for jobs right now.
We are very undecided about which city to live in during our job search. So far most of the job leads we have gotten seem to be from Brisbane and the cost of living is perhaps lower there too, compared to Melbourne. However, I realise Melbourne is a bigger city and there could be more possibilities that open up once we are actually there.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Please keep in mind that he is in Science which is very different from IT. Not sure if there is anyone with a scientific background in this forum. Would love your inputs.

Thanks!

Re: Better city for job search, Bris/Melb
 

Hi yellowpuppy,

Are you ruling out Sydney? Looking in general for the keyword "Bioinformatics" on job-sites, the majority of positions seem to be there?

Re: Better city for job search, Bris/Melb
 

well, so far Melbourne and Sydney have had about the same number of opportunities but Sydney is so much more expensive. I am not sure if it makes sense to make it our base while we are still looking for jobs.

Re: Better city for job search, Bris/Melb
 

So? Which location is paying the money?

Re: Better city for job search, Bris/Melb
 

Yes, but just rent alone in Sydney is significantly higher and its not like there are abounding opportunities there either. I just don't see the cost/benefit, which is why we are contemplating between Melb/Brisbane. It is not an easy problem to solve, on the one hand we want to maximise any chance of getting jobs (sooner the better, obviously) and at the same time we would want to go easy on the spending so we can last longer incase we don't get jobs soon enough.
Ofcourse, there is the possibility of taking other jobs in the meantime to sustain ourselves but I don't know how easy or tough that will be. Wow, i just go into such a panic everytime i think about this.
Sorry for the rant.

Re: Better city for job search, Bris/Melb
 

Sounds like you have already solved the problem by using domain.com.au.

Brisbane it is.

Re: Better city for job search, Bris/Melb
 

Very sensible to put ability to get employment at the top of your wish list. So many people ignore this.

We also were choosing between Melbourne and Brisbane and chose Melbourne primarily because of more jobs in my field (IT). However Melbourne also has tons of other great stuff going for it, and I am so glad we chose to live here. One item on our wish list was being able to walk to the beach within commuting distance of the CBD. We could do that in Melbourne, but not in Brisbane.

BB

Re: Better city for job search, Bris/Melb
 

We moved down from qld to melbourne in february.

Its very competitive here to get work, I think there are more jobs advertised but there are 2 million more people of course!

My partner is still working in QLD (construction project manager) on a fly in fly out basis.

Even the kids getting part time work while at UNI, has not been the walk in the park we thought it would be. Most of their fellow Students are working for very low wages, on foreign visas. It was not a factor we had taken into account.

One now has a job, but its below minimum wage :sneaky: despite being 21 now.

You have quite specific fields you work in, I would come out, visit both places and see what the job situation really is before you make the jump. Moving to one city then deciding the other one would be better for you personally can be an expensive business.