Joelle

Hi there,

I am new to this forum and I've already found plenty of useful information.

I am planning to immigrate for about two years to Sydney.
I have chosen the "most" risky option of immigrating which is going to Sydney with my holiday tourist visa and try to find a job in order to be sponsorised and thus be able to remain longer in Oz (unfortunately, since I am Spanish, I cannot get access to a working holiday visa).

I've got 4 years of experience in Finance and more particularly as a Financial Business Controller

My questions to you are as follows :

a) What are according to the job market conditions my chances to get a job in Sydney ?
b) What is the type of salary I could expect (so that I can assess which type of accomodation I could have for this).
c) Are there any expats associations in Sydney that I could join in order to make some friends ?

Thank you very much for you information.
Take care.

xxx.

Jo

Herman

Jo
I am an accountant here in Sydney.
I wish you luck with finding a job as a financial controller. There are certainly jobs out there but a problem you may encounter is that many employers here insist on you having a permanent visa/residency before they will give you a job. I'm no visa expert but I am not sure how you are able to apply for work when you have no visa entitling you to work - is that allowed?
My advice is to contact the big recruitment agencies before you come - try Michael Page and Hays Accountancy. They got me plently of interviews when I came out.
Salary depends on your age, qualifications and experience. Financial controllers in Sydney earn anything from $60,000 per year to $150,000 per year. If you are not a qualified accountant you should probably expect a salary of around $60,000 to $100,000 depending on the size of the business.
Good luck.

Joelle

Thank you so much Herman for the information.

Indeed, I cannot work without a working visa. BUT I contacted some sort of contracting agencies and they are ready to provide me a letter of intention to sponsor me in order to help me to get a job. Once I get an offer, it would take 5 working days for me to get the working visa under the sponsorised procedure.

My biggest issue would actually to find a job because without this I can't access the working visa. That's why I was so interested by knowing the market conditions in my area of competence.

The issue is that I do not know to which extent $60.000 per year is a decent salary to live in Sydney...meaning that if it will allow me to have an small appartment and live with basic comfort.

Thanks again for the info.

Jo.

Jaj

    >On Mon, 30 Sep 2002 17:12:07 +0000, Joelle wrote:
    >Hi there,
    >I am new to this forum and I've already found plenty of useful
    >information.
    >I am planning to immigrate for about two years to Sydney.
    >I have chosen the "most" risky option of immigrating which is going to
    >Sydney with my holiday tourist visa and try to find a job in order to be
    >sponsorised and thus be able to remain longer in Oz (unfortunately,
    >since I am Spanish, I cannot get access to a working holiday visa).


Question - Why is any Australian employer going to want to sponsor you
for a visa when he can recruit Australian citizens and permanent
residents freely?

The other thing you've got to bear in mind is that while it is legal
to look for work in Australia on tourist status (although you would
need to get a work visa before you could start any job) if an
immigration officer on arrival thinks you're planning to look for
work, you'll probably be refused entry.

    >I've got 4 years of experience in Finance and more particularly as a
    >Financial Business Controller

Most Australian employers will expect (for a finance job) you to be an
Australian CA (or a CA from Britain, Canada or South Africa) or an
Australian CPA. Sometimes being a member of the British ACCA or CIMA
will do.



    >My questions to you are as follows :
    >a) What are according to the job market conditions my chances to get a
    > job in Sydney ?

See above. What special skills do you have that aren't available in
the Sydney job market?

The one area where you might have an advantage is with a Spanish
company or Australian company trading a lot with Spain or South
America (because of language).

Contact the Spanish Embassy in Australia, or maybe a
Spanish/Australian chamber of commerce, do some research and maybe
start approaching companies directly.

And if you really want to migrate to Australia, why not start
researching how to qualify for skilled independent?



Jeremy