julieanne

Hi,

I am 29, visiting Australia in Sept and planning to stay on a 1 years working holiday visa but would like to extend my stay.

What is the best way of going about this? ideally I would like an employer to sponsor me. My background is in IT and have been working in this area for 4 years but I would be happy working outside my specialised field.

Any guidance greatfully received.

Many Thanks.

wmoore

Julienne, I've heard that it's damn near impossible to get an employer to sponsor you, because the government put quite strict rules down, basically to protect the Oz workforce I guess.
If you are going on a WHV, then there are restrictions on the type of work you can do (non-porfessional level I think) and the time you can stay in any one job (3 months).
Haveing said that, if you are applying for PR too, then there is a chance that by showing your face and how you work while on the WHV, something could happen.
Good luck.

estarriol

Ooh, I know, I know! Choose me, choose me!

Seriously, I know all about this, I've just got to do something then I'll write what I know.

estarriol

OK, the WHV is good for any type of work as far as I am aware, but the 3 month limit will impress nobody. You have to bear in mind that generally (and I don't want to be unfair here) Australians tend to prefer to hire Australians.

I got work because I have really good skills and there were IT roles out there that just weren't getting filled by Aussies - one because it didn't pay much and wanted a lot of skills, another because they required excellent skills and gave the hardest tech test during the interview I've ever had by a long way.

What isn't legal any more, and there was a clampdown on this at the end of February, is a 3rd party company taking on your visa and then hiring you out to another company through an agent. This means that in order to get a corporate sponsorship, it needs to be directly with the corporate client, or via an agency who then hire you out directly. It all depends whether you want to go the permanent or contract route.

I think, if you have good niche skills but they're not *too* niche, you have a reasonable chance, as the skills availability in Australia doesn't seem to be as high as in the UK. I would recommend going to potential corporate sponsors and notifying them that you would need their sponsorship for the visa, but that you could begin work immediately under the 3 months allowed by the WHV, as the corporate sponsorship visa usually takes less than this to go through.

In practice, some corporates are willing to sponsor overseas workers for visas and do already, some will do but may need education and persuading, and some just won't care for the hassle. This will narrow down the range of people who will hire you. You will *always* be less attractive to a company than an equally skilled and experienced Australian, because it's less hassle for them.

You may wish to try beginning your jobseeking in England, going to the large multinationals that have branches in the UK, such as ANZ bank and many others.

It will be hard, and it's possible that you may go many months without work. I was entirely prepared to work in a video store to support myself, but as it happened, I got two offers pretty quickly - I have very good skills though and interview well.

As you may have noticed, I'm being cautious here, because IT jobseeking is always tricky, and it's going to be harder and more stressful in Australia. It is possible to get that corporate sponsorship, but very hard, and you can't bank on it.

I hope that's helped give some general information. Feel free to send me a personal message if you want to ask more specific stuff that may not be of interest to the general forum.

I'm back in the UK in a couple of weeks, if you want to meet up to discuss this, let me know. I have a couple of contacts who may be of use to you.