cooperman

just spent 5 weeks in the gold coast after spending 14 months getting residency for oz to find that you cannot get a job as a plasterer because you need a licence which seems almost impossible to get for yourself,you need to apply all again and take a 3 day business course and then they have to access you on site for your work but nobody will give you a chance in the first place without this licence...... this all seems down to the unions which we found are quite strong over there and make there own rules,,if our agent or somebody else had warned us of this nightmare we might not have sold our house in the uk,uprooted our 2 kids to the other side of the world and spent a fortune setting up a new home from scratch......I cant beleive that they can get away with this but on now looking on this website and talking to people in oz we found it to be quite common,country was lovely,people fantastic,way of life seemed great but couldnt get a job so what a waste of time,money and all our dreams of a better life for the whole family down the pan,any replies welcome of help or people with the same experiences.Who knows what can be done about this so that more people dont keep going over and finding out the hard way?????????? regards cooperman and family,now back in essex uk........

Hels

So, are you back in the UK then?

skyblue

M8,

Couldn't you get a job direct with a plastering/building firm as I was led to believe that a licence is needed to be sub contract ?

Another Plasterer on here (Robert Cowan) got work more or less straight away and is working in Melbourne.

I am a plasterer hopefully going to Adelaide.

We will be selling the family home and taking the 4 kids out of school having never been to Oz to start a new life there.

We will do whatever it takes to make it work. I will trapse round every plastering/building firm introducing myself if neccesary and my reluctant wife will also look for work in admin too. If in the beginning if it's not going good we will pick grapes,change trades, anything.We have put too much stress and hard work into this visa application no to mention more for it not to work.

I've already been contacting plastering/building firms from this end who have said to give them a call as soon as I arrive and they can probably set me up with something.

What did you do to look for work, just get the job papers and go to the carrer center ? Alot of what I hear is you have to do alot of networking and socialising and introducing yourself to people, making contacts etc.

Shame you gave up too soon and also a little worrying from my perspective.

Regards,
Ian.

jad n rich

Sorry to hear you havent found a job easily. Have you tried to get work as a trades assistant/labourer while you get your licence its what most people do , then work their way back up once they know the way things are done here.

One thing tho, the licence rules are nothing to do with the unions, the government brought in the legislation to protect the consumer from the amount of tradesmen who set up and went broke. Once the licence is issued you are very accountable for the work you perform.

And the rules and regs are the same for aussie tradesmen too, some seem to think its just immigrants being put through the hoops, but that isnt so, its the same even if your a aussie.

Good luck too

Centurion

Can I just say that you really have the right attitude to migration and I'm completely certain that things will work for you.

You seem to understand that emigration means starting from scratch and having to take a few blows and drop of couple of rungs in the ladder to suceed in the long run.

Sounds to me that you've done your homework and know thats its going to be hard work initially.

Good on you. Most sensible "tradies" post I've seen in a few days!

annier

sorry to hear you didnt get a job, but is 5 weeks really long enough a lot of people come over here and it can take a few months , we live on the gold coast and have done for thirty years, my husband is an accountant but when we arrived with 2 young children he got a job in woolworths until he could get back into his own field. when you emigrate you have to adapt to a new lifestyle and give yourselves time to settle not expect your new country to adapt to what you want, hope everything works out for you in the end but try and not be bitter. annie youwantwant. australia doesnt have to adaptchilh sORRY

jad n rich

Quick point, its not just tradesmen coming out here THEN finding out what they need to do to get a job.

Look at how many teachers arrive then find out about rural postings, contract work etc, or nurses then finding out the casual employment thing or hairdressers/mechanics shocked to find out the shortage is really cause the award wage is about $550/$600 a week.

Surely this has to become the MOST important piece of research, finding out what exactly you will need to do to get a job and what it will pay and what sort of employment conditions you are likely to get. And keep your eye on whats going on in Aus, is there still a building boom, where exactly is that trade shortage that sort of thing, when people post about stuff like workplace reform read it, dont just fu fu it as that person is a whinger.

I think too, that research trip is vital, not doing the seaworld/ dreamworld experience, but come out and apply for jobs, find out what exactly whats going to be required of you in your job. I know people say they cant afford it, you dont have to send the whole family send the breadwinner for 2 weeks of job hunting then decide if its for you.

phoenixinoz

There is sound advice in your post J&R however coming to Aus for a few weeks/months aint going to solve anything I don't think.

IMHO it seems you have to demonstrate your worth in the market by literally taking whatever you can to earn a crust. The key is to do that until you get your name about and you get some kind of work history behind you. It seems no matter what trade or profession you are in, and no matter what UK qualifications you have, it counts for nothing over here. You will be expected to start again. There is also a bit of rivalry too in that Aussie workplaces don't want to hear what you did in UK. As far as they're concerned, you're in Aus now. So no amount of UK experience is valuable. You have to demonstrate your worth here.

After living here nearly 19 months things are only just starting to come together for us. In the meantime we've had to take on some crappy work to at least get on the rung of the ladder. Only just now are things starting to come good.

If you aint a Pomie battler...then the Aussie battlers aint interested. It is a harsh country and you have to earn respect. It's a different country with different rules and different ways of doing things.

As much as we don't like it....it makes sense.

ABCDiamond

The difficulty there is that if people do feel that the poster is "a whinger" they may find it difficult to accept what they say.

It has been said that Mike S used to post some very useful info, but when he became 100% negative towards Australia, he lost the ability to get any important information over to many people, as just about everything he said was totally negative, and consequently difficult to believe, if so many other people were happy here.

It becomes a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees

That is how it has been put across to me, and I do see their point.

phoenixinoz

Agree.

This is not aimed at you ABCD....but to some extent there are also people on this site who don't like to hear anything negative aimed at Aus. They wind people up [usually via others] if anyone so much as says anything bad about Aus. This in turn creates negativity and discredits or disregards those who show any difference of opinion.

Australia is a wonderful country and for the majority of people, including us, it's a great place to be. However even for those who are happy here, they also see it's faults. Most people have a balanced and healthy view of Australia and are happy to share the good and not so good. This balanced view of life in Aus is healthy.... and should be respected.

BadgeIsBack

agreed. For everyone who can't get a job, there is someone who can..

jad n rich

When pennyhenny first posted about their problems ( a very different poster to mike stanton ) they too got a bit of a hard time and in one thread some jibes made at them. Yet finally a lot of people came out and said they had the same problems. People dont need to be mike stanton to be reluctant to speak about tough times here be it jobs, relationships, kids etc. Its more like a kindness (misguided maybe) that people have such high hopes (uk media maybe) about australia that most people dont want to be seen as dashing them.

What people want to hear is simply more popular, be it a person who just did a 3 week holiday and attached kangaroo/ koala / beach snaps, or a business person promoting a particular area.

Look at how many "whats work for tradesmen like" posts get answered with, jeez mate theres loads of houses going up, loads of work here, thats a popular reply recieving thanks and karma, but its not exactly the correct reply, but say thats not the case and woe :scared: be upon you. your suddenly in the mike stanton crew

As someone else pointed out theres another side to this too, the poster who wont have a bad word said, despite the fact their posts are obviously very unbalanced thats rarely pointed out as its exactly the sort of stuff people would want to hear. Imagine the person about to post a downside, they know damn well they will be jumped on by the OMG you cant say that about australia crew.

fraser

Well I like living here, the work thing is a pain and I'll be unloading containers again tomorrow.

But it's a dream realised and I don't intend to let the plumbing commision ruin it for me as frustrating as it is.

We've been here nearly six months we've hardly been out and we haven't barbecued anything yet

But we don't have a lot of money coming in and that's shit whereever you are in the world as I keep telling myself.


The potential for a wonderful life is out there though and I'll stick with it for a fews years yet regardless of how things are at the moment.

BadgeIsBack

I think we have to stop going around in circles all the time(!) Even stop assuming people are taking sides, and keep to facts and experiences. There's nothing wrong with any argument. The funniest thing is, I will tell you it is OK here, you like to bring the negative, if in an original and funny way. You have your agenda as much as the next 'serious' poster.

Come on Jad, Mike was a law unto himself. He systematically went out of his way to prove with stats what a shit place this was, and lost respect. He lost it in my eyes beacuse, to be honest, I've had the same priveleges as he has had, even do a similar kind or work, similar experiences (OK I kept quiet about it at the time) yet I can STILL make it work here, AND relate to it, and can do well too, whilst doing all the things he said he could only do in London, but over here. He couldn't stand that. He used to assume he was the only bod on the site with an education and even used that against tradies correcting their grammar and spelling. Diabolical. In the end, all he proved to me was that he was an interesting man, but sadly one dimensional. I'd still buy him a beer if I ever met him. And maybe slog him one for being such a dick.

jad n rich

Not really that up on mikes posts or the rivalry between you, but you could say anyone had an agenda, like you proving any critiques of the lime green suburbs of a certain gangster city are not quite right!!