truemana

Hey guys,

I'm a Canadian currently living in Germany and moving to Australia where my girlfriend lives. I'm flying out of Germany to Australia on Feb 8 and will be looking for a new job. I'm an electrical engineer with several years experience, and already assessed by EA.

I'm arriving in exactly 3 weeks. When should I start contacting recruiters to express serious interest and list my location as Australia to be found on online search engines? I don't want to mislead and rub anyone the wrong way. Right now I have my resume listed as current address and the dated future one in Oz (e.g. "Effective Feb 8"). A couple of online profiles are still located in Germany, which makes me non-visible to recruiters in Australia.

What would you do?

old.sparkles

What visa are you arriving on?

truemana

417 at first.

old.sparkles

The problem you'll have is that you are limited to how long you can work for an employer. I would probably send enquiries through to some recruiters now with a covering letter, and see if they can place you on any short term roles - commissioning or similar. I don't think you can do any hands on elec work as that is licensed. What type of work do you normally do?

truemana

It's electrical engineering, so design-based mostly. I have commissioning experience so I could do that.

And yes, I'm aware that I am limited to six months of work with any employer, but there is also the typical six month probation for most jobs. If they want to keep me, they can sponsor me for a 457 or 186. If not, I try the next employer or use plans B, C, D and E for permanent visas independently. I am eligible for permanent visas but the processing time is long and I can only get a bridging visa if I am in Australia which is why I am entering first on the 417.

So you think I should contact recruiters now? I touched base with a few two or three months ago, but was told to get a hold of them once I'm much closer to moving since it wouldn't tweak the interest of any employers until I'm ready to attend interviews and work.

old.sparkles

I probably would contact them now - it's less than 3 weeks til you arrive, and you can see about maybe making appts with some of them to sit down and discuss options. Plus recruiters seem to take an age with the whole process so as long as they have a definite date for your arrival they have something to work on

truemana

Cool, thanks for the thoughts! Good to bounce ideas around.

Cheers,
Aaron

old.sparkles

No worries - where abouts are you headed?

truemana

Heading to Brisbane. My girlfriend is entering UQ medicine in a week, so we'll be looking to live near St. Lucia.

But, I see you're from Adelaide? My girlfriend grew up near there in Tanunda and I visited Adelaide and Tanunda with her last April. I see you guys got quite the heat wave right now...

old.sparkles

It's cooled down the last couple of days - we had a big storm a couple of nights back.

I hear Veolia may be recruiting for water treatment plant in Brisbane area - might be worth a look - and both QGC and Origin. I'm a sparky and was given that info by someone I know - don't know about engineering roles, but may be worth a look if you're interested

Bermudashorts

I think three weeks ahead of arrival is a reasonable time to start contacting recruiters, we did that before we came for validation trip and both got interviews lined up for arrival.

There is no need to be anything other than honest about your location and intentions, if you were to pretend you are in Australia now you wil soon be found out and then you look deceitful. So I agree with your approach to that.

My concern would just be the visa, not a great one so your luck will depend on whether there is a lot of demand. Not sure why you think a skilled migrant visa takes a long time, they are being processed in no time at all at the moment.

truemana

The immigration website states that skilled migration 189 visas take 12 months not including EOI lead time. Plus I'd need to write an english test to get enough points which adds another two months to test lead time and processing. I have over five years of engineering design work but for one, EA doesn't consider any pre-graduation experience (I have a year of co-ops), and two, I couldn't include my current employer without informing them of my departure six months in advance (which causes other problems).

I'll deal with the visa problem though. Plan B is write the english test if I'm striking out after a month and go for a 189. Plan C is partnership visa when we become eligible. Might even need Plan D to do some rural work shearing sheep for my girlfriend's family in Victoria to get the second 417. Anyway, there's lots of options for me that don't require employer intervention and I'm prepared to do all of them.

And if you're wondering about why 12 months seems so long, it's because her and I have already been doing the long distance thing from Germany for a year now. It gets old after a while and sooner or later you just wanna be around your person for more than a few weeks a year :-)

Bermudashorts

Regardless of what the immigration website states, many people are getting their skilled migrant visa through in a couple of months. There is the time it takes for skills assessment and IELTS to consider though, yes.