Originally Posted by chrisandelaine

we want a great live for our kids, we live in N.Ireland, and have looked t moving to OZ next year, but i now have mixed feelings ready alot of forums.

we have 2 kids 3 and 8 both girls, my wife is a specialist nurse, and i am a product coordinator. we want a place that has good school, nice place to go, maybe theme parks of activities to be able to do things with our kids, sunshine most of the time etc etc.

but with forum for OZ alot of ppl slate it for being: expensive, boring, way to far from everywere and so on.

IF you where in our shoes and from you own experiences where woul;d you recomend.

USA !
OZ !
Canada !
or other. idealy a english speaking country to make life easier for kids to settle.

thanks

chris

Originally Posted by fish.01

.

I work in technology and the difference is neglible unless in a very niche area possibly. My Australian company successfully exports highend software to the UK. I found my education and skills translated easily to the UK and I was eagerly pursued for extensions to contracts, as were my friends. I found they were less strict with the correct qualifications in the UK when employing IT professionals which meant they carried quite a few local staff that had unsuitable quals and not enough interest in IT. Any degree seemed to be enough. Of course this is just anecdotal evidence from my experience.

Originally Posted by westaussiegirl

I would recommend Australia. Espically since you have a young family. The beautiful beaches are hard to beat. Plus the school system is a hell of a lot cheaper then the US both public and private. (not sure of canada)

Job market wise you will have a much easier time finding a Job in Australia then any other western country at the moment. The aus unemployment rate is like 5-6% while it is like 10% in the US.

By product managment i presume you mean in IT? if so plenty of roles in Sydney. I recently left sydney and moved to the US for my partners work. While I found work in the US (i work in IT). there is a lot more jobs in sydney. I work in project management. I still get calls and emails from recruitment agents in sydney seeing if im looking for work. Plus i have found the pay is better is aus espeically with the Aus $ as it is. And you get 4 weeks annual leave. The US you get 2 weeks. How f'd is that. plus if you get sick in aus you can go to a dr and hosptial without any insurance and not pay anything. try doing that in the US and your will be hit with $$$$$ bill.

As you can tell im starting to think why i moved to the us. I do enjoy it over here. Though I am in my 20s and enjoying the new experience and metting new people. Though once im ready to have a family there is no better place then australia.

Originally Posted by chrisandelaine

hi there, we are from Lisburn, hope u r liking OZ, where abouts r u al from in N.I
what made you pick QLD then and not perth, melbourne or brisbane etc.

chat soon, myabe you can tell me how much it all cost you, and how long it took to get your visa.

chris

Originally Posted by ian1976

We considered going back to Australia which is where I grew up. But there was simply no way I would get anywhere near the pay I get in the USA. Also tax exemptions are very generous here in the USA for families on one income.

We couldn't live on one income in the UK or Australia. I get 4 weeks vacation though and have good health insurance so these aren't an issue for me.

Personally, for me, the USA is a better place to raise a family.

Originally Posted by Devlin

Strongly disagree with this. Europe and North America are LIGHT YEARS ahead of Australia when it comes to technology skills - both hardware and software.

It is true that work is easier to find here because there is so much more demand, and when there is more demand employers have to be less picky with who they hire. Having said that, some of the brightest people I've worked with here don't have university degrees.

Originally Posted by ian1976

....
But there was simply no way I would get anywhere near the pay I get in the USA. Also tax exemptions are very generous here in the USA for families on one income.
.....

Originally Posted by ezzie

Well, everything I've read and experienced suggests that we are pretty ordinary in the technology front, we're certainly last on the countries which get new releases. Our broadband is woeful...and expensive. However, apparently we're leagues ahead with financial software. I'd rather buy a house using the Australian process and I think our service is MUCH better in Australia. Whenever I go to the UK I always end-up feeling that I am treated with total indifference by companies, whereas here I know that if I'm unhappy, I've got a pretty good chance of my complaint being resolved.

To me, the UK is a land of extremes - you can get such a great personal experience from someone, or something SO unbelievably awful that it becomes the highlight of the holiday as you know they wouldn't last a second in Oz.

A good deal of the year IS nice weather. I think most Brits are really shocked as to how flippin' cold it gets here too. Not Brisbane, but Melbourne and Sydney. Personally, I love a good cold snap. I'm scraping the ice off the windscreen for a good few days over two months of the year. The difference is here, that it soon warms up in the day. I think the coldest it'll get is just below freezing during the wee small hours, but will soon be up to 15C in the day..in winter of course.

Each city has it's strength. Sydney and Melbourne are the biggies of course. Melbourne is more European, more comedy, cafe's, fashion, it's surrounding countryside is more interesting and varied. Sydney is packed with high-end Arts events, the Harbour, higher wages, fabulous beaches, fringed by the Blue Mountains but Greater Sydney is a vast urban sprawl with crap transport. Brisbane seems a smaller, friendlier version of Sydney but lacking the wealth of Arts/Theatre. Gold Coast is for those who like living as though they're on holiday - sun, sea, surf, theme parks and a glorious hinterland that's often overlooked when you think 'Gold Coast'...not an area exactly reknown for it's culture though. Perth.....errr......thinking, thinking. Nope, can't think of any reason to go to Perth unless you're an oil or mine worker. Ditto Canberra, replace 'oil' with 'Government'.

Originally Posted by 77hil

I'd like it if Australia could get it's broadband sorted out that would be good. The prices and download caps are in the dark ages. Isn't there a big load of investment going into broadband though?

Originally Posted by ian1976

We considered going back to Australia which is where I grew up. But there was simply no way I would get anywhere near the pay I get in the USA. Also tax exemptions are very generous here in the USA for families on one income.

We couldn't live on one income in the UK or Australia. I get 4 weeks vacation though and have good health insurance so these aren't an issue for me.

Personally, for me, the USA is a better place to raise a family.

Originally Posted by fish.01

I don't think demand is the only reason....I think it is a culture thing where if you have a degree, any degree, it is given more weight than here rather than a demand thing - we all know demand is cyclical so this practice would have died out in a down turn but it didn't - this is how different locals explained it to me. And no-one I talked to found it strange (or said they grudgingly accepted due to demand) which suggested to me it was a more accepted cultural norm to employ a non IT person with a pure arts degree, for example, for a professional IT position.

Originally Posted by bcworld

I'm not sure what the point being made about non IT grads having IT roles is?

I can tell you though that some of the most capable & professional technical consultants I have worked with have come from that background, yes even pure arts degrees.

I don't find Australia to be technically backward, however what I have observed is consistently poor project management compared to my experiences in the UK.

Originally Posted by westaussiegirl

It must depend on the industry. I work in IT in project managment. I am earning about 50k a year less at the moment in the US. All other PM jobs i have look at in the US are pretty much the same. I think its prob due to the current economic climate. (well i so hope so and it picks up soon) pay for a IT PM in sydney is def better, my reason for moving to US was for my boyfriend. As for tax benfiets. Im still getting to know the US tax sytem but from what I can tell being single and the level of income I am on its pretty much the same as back home.