incircles

We are in a bizarre situation. Up until recently we were patiently waiting for our visa (175) and had a number of job offers/leads. Now, we have our Visa but no job offers/ leads!

I work in the property and construction industry which is taking a hammering in the UK and I see also in Aus. I currently work as a consultant surveyor/ project manager.

I have a number of specialist agencies looking for work for me but I am now being told jobs are going to locals now and no overseas candidates are being considered. It is getting to a point where agents are not returning emails/ calls.

I am looking to move with the wife and 2 young children to Brisbane in Feb/March 2009, yet if there is a slow down or even recession, I suppose we should wait for the economy to turn around?

My question is, is Australia suffering the same down turn as the UK, or are there still job opportunities around? We appreciate that we need to be there to have interviews etc, but we would prefer to fly over once and stay put, but the risk of having no job after a month is possibly too high.

So, what I am also saying is, does anyone know of any opportunities!


J

ABCDiamond

I think everything is up in the air at the moment. No one knows what is really happening.

Employers are probably concerned about the situation, not knowing whether they will be employing or laying people off. Also, to make matters worse, we are getting close to Christmas, not the best time to start a job in any year.

The timing for you is probably about the worst it could be, unfortunately.

I'll wish you luck, and hope something solid comes along. Things may change quickly, fingers crossed.

incircles

We appreciate this not a great time to hunt for a job/move, but luckily our visa deadline is the beginning of May 09, so we have a little bit of time.

Slider

My wife & I moved over to north Gold Coast 4 weeks ago on a 457 through her new employers, I was to find a job on arrival.

I'm still looking now and applying for everything in site in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

I'm an IT Manager with 17 years technical experience & pretty highly skilled, but I'm finding it quite hard going at the moment.

I've had a long discussion with a well place CEO in Brisbane who reckons that businesses over here are biding their time to see how the financial crisis hits Australia and that the market will be flat for a few months until things become clearer, but that eventually it will pick up again as Australia is no where near as exposed as Europe and Brisbane is very likely to truely become Australias "Silicone Valley" (just relaying what I was told - I'm not in a position to know one way or another here).

He told me that 3-4 months ago I would've been snatched up within days, but now companies are not expandiing due to fear so many projects have been put on hold.

Basically, the short term is quite tough, but it's likely to get easier before the UK does.

There are still loads of jobs coming up, but like you I'm not hearing back from any of them. I'm re-writing my cover note & CV as I've identified a few minor problems there.

I started only looking for exactly what I want, then diversified into any jobs that sounded good, and today I'm looking for any old short term contract to see me through Christmas.

I think if I can weather the storm for 3 months or so I'll be ok, and if you can do the same in the UK until early 2009 you may find things have picked up.

It's quite dis-spiriting as I've applied for jobs I know I'd be ideal for but still had no response.

Like anything though it's just a matter of time. If you try hard enough for long enough you'll usually get what you're after.

And in 4 weeks I've got a stunning house, a Landrover V8, a V6 ute and a dog so it's not all bad.

I even got the internet and phone connected yesterday and it only took 2 weeks!

Good luck whatever you decide.

daddyofthree

A mate of mine moved to Brisbane with a signed government agreement of a job in the Health sector. It has not lived up to expectations and you can imagine how he feels. He hates the locals, out of work and is often slagged off in the street for being a Pom! He is advising me not to mke the move - it aint working though!

Slider

He obviously lives in a bad area then.

Folks round here are considerably more friendly than back home, so much so that it's taking me conscious effort to slow down and take the time to chat, especially in shops where I would normally try to get in & out in as short a time as possible. Trying to learn to take it easy

My advice is to avoid the bogan hell estate your mates obviously moved to, spend a bit more on rent and invite him for a BBQ.

In my experience you can get a nice house for c$400 pw and a very nice house for c$480 pw. If you drop much below $400 though you start seeing some iffy areas, and houses are snatched up faster.

Ours was on the market for $480, we offered and got $470 and then found it had been up for 2 months already! should've offered lower really!

ABCDiamond

How do the locals in the street know he is a Pom ? Is it the T shirt that says "I hate Australia, and I am a Pom" ?

I do feel for him though, as I went through a stage like that when I was first out here, and my life wasn't that great, with many personal things going against me, and I blamed the world, well, Australia, as that was where I was!

calNgary

Hope things work out for your mate, i arrived in Brisbane with wife & 2 kids ready to start work but the company forgot to let me know that work had dried up hence no job 4 weeks before xmas, i felt like i had let my family down. After door nocking for a few days i got some temp work 3 days a week, got us threw until the new year then i got full time employment. If your mate wants to, me & a few guys go surfing on sunday mornings on gold coast he would be welcome to come along & have a go

Dave_Kent

Hi there

I'm in (almost exactly) the same boat as Slider. 15+ years senior IT management experience, have been here 4 weeks and applied for over 40 jobs and had 2 phone calls (both to say no!)

But in terms of construction, for what it's worth , I have *never* seen so much in my life as I have in the last 4 weeks in central Brisbane. There is a MASSIVE property development push here with old commercial and industrial blocks bulldozed for multi-million dollar developments.

A company called WatPac seem to be behind most of the dev work.

Just an observation.

Best of luck
D

incircles

Thanks for the tip off.

The problem is that what you see on the building sites is the last 1/4 of a property development process. i get involved from the planning and design stages upto and including the construction stage. So i may get 6 months here, 6 months there, but nothing steady in this climate.

Like you i am at a senior/ director level which has frightened off most companies who can now basically hire locals much quicker, and sometimes cheaper then say 12 months ago when we first applied for our visa.

How times change.