Andy_Newcastle Upon Tyne

Just as a bit background myself and my partner emigrated to Australia on 23 November 2008 on a 457 visa as she was sponsored to work there as a registered nurse and her, myself and our son came over on the same visa. Despite a 10 month job hunt I was unable to even get so much as an interview. Unfortunately as a result of this due to financial commitments back in the UK I had to return to England on the 26th of September this year which is where I currently reside (my partner and son are still living over in Brisbane). I now have a job here in the UK and once I have enough money together I am going to return (I've pencilled in the end of December this year).

This is where I'd appreciate some advice as ideally I'd prefer to be going over to a job rather than getting there and being in the same situation again. What would you say is the best way to try and secure work prior to getting out there? I have20 years of experience in admin but unfortunately the timing was bad when we emigrated back in 2008 with the worldwide recession and the reluctance to employ migrant workers (not my assumption this was spelled out quite frankly by another agency). As a result of this I'm obviously very wary that my lack of any encouragement last time may be repeated, can you help?

concretepump

hi what else can you do besides admin even a low paid job is better than none
go knocking on doors let them see what your like, have you tried goverment jobs hope this helps

Andy_Newcastle Upon Tyne

Well I've done almost every kind of admin work there is to be honest but I'd do any work in all honesty to get back to the Mrs and my son. I've registered with loads of agencies and I am making a few calls next week to them as I find registering online a soul destroying experience as you dont really get any kind of response. Many thanks for your help and support though and I will keep plugging away

paulandcelia

I don't think you'll be any better off this time while your still in UK. Loads of posts on here saying the same thing. Can your partner give you any idea what the brisbane situation is like/improved since you left. sorry to put a downer on it. Good luck

concretepump

hi if you look , down the page from wqhere you put this theard
someone has put local council lookin for recruitiement in brisbane

Andy_Newcastle Upon Tyne

yeah its not easy over there at the moment, there are lots of jobs in admin I get nearly 40 admin jobs a day available in job alerts from various job sites. She says that things are picking up over there and that even people she works with are starting to find their partners are getting jobs after a long wait for anything so theres some hope there. I do have other avenues to consider but its not putting a downer on it, always pays to be realistic

Andy_Newcastle Upon Tyne

Excellent thanks for that Concrete!!! I'll have a look !

The Bloke

It was for regional Queensland, not Brisbane.

Andy_Newcastle Upon Tyne

Yeah I found that out when I went into it and it was for a rural Expo lol. I'm ringing agencies this week to get my foot in the door as I dont trust registering online...particularly when you are not actually in Australia itself. My partner is passing my CV round the hospital she works in to see if that generates any interest as well.

quoll

Unfortunately for every admin job there will be tens of applicants and the chances of you getting one when you arent in the country are between slim and none. If you have a skill set which sets you apart from the others then you would stand a chance but there are loads of people wanting admin jobs out there (we recently had over a dozen applications for one paying absolute peanuts - usually we struggle to get more than 2). You are disadvantaged too because government jobs usually require citizenship which you dont have and you are also disadvantaged by being on a 457 visa which means you could leave at any time.

Good luck with it but I am not sure your chances are going to be any better this time around. You may get casual stuff in retail or something quite menial to get your foot in the door - and that is the key, this is very much a "who you know" community. You could try volunteering or something like that, just to get known. Also - just as a heads up, December/January is a bad time to be looking for work as much of the country goes on holiday so you wont be in serious job hunting mode until about Feb.

E3only

Very tough mate. I think UK is in deeper shite but the fact that there are more jobs out there (purely # - sure the ratio of jobs to unemployment could be worse in UK) give you a better probability.

Sorry to say but Bris is worse than Sydney/Melb. The majority of business up there is property which is in massive problems (and I know a thing or two about it believe me). Yes it's picking up with admin/supports do take the extra time to find their feet.

It's hard - support/admin jobs get cut almost first before anything when recession hits which makes it difficult. Remember, the job losses here have not yet bottomed out (according to IMF, RBA and even the govt which is forecasting increase in jobless rates.)

ALl this is not to scare you, nor do I think you don't know this but just reality. You have to be prepared.

Dorothy

Unfortunately you have a couple of things going against you in relation to finging work.

First, you are a spouse on a temp visa which loads of employers don't like since your visa depends entirely on your partner. If she loses her job or if you split up you won't have a visa and therefore no right to stay and work.

Second is that you are not in Australia. Employers are unlikely to hire someone for any job from outside the country, but admin work is next to nil chance I would say. Unless you are highly skilled in an occupation in high demand it's unlikely you will find an employer willing to hire you from thousands of miles away.

Third is that admin work is not seen as skilled over here and therefore there are dozens of applicants for every job. Especially with employers tightening their budgets, since the admin staff are usually the first to go when money gets tight for them. The public hospital where I work are in the process of getting rid of a shed load of admin staff right now. Unfortunately with a temp visa you probably wouldn't be able to be hired as a permanent staff member at a government job, so when the layoffs and redundancies start it's the contract people who go first.

Sorry to be a buzz kill, but realistically it's not easy to find work for those of us here, never mind other side of the world.

James516

You won't want to hear it, but a hospital department I work with just advertised a couple of months ago for a receptionist. They had 240 applications

Pollyana

we have an admin job going at present (Qld Govt), base AO2 level, which will be filled by a redeployee, so it never got officially advertised. Just pure word-of-mouth that the post holder had left has resulted in over 50 enquiries.
The last one that was advertised got over 150.
Having been in admin for my first five years here, and on temp spouse initially, I'd have to say to the OP - you need to wait till you get here and then apply for EVERYTHING. You'll get one in the end, but I doubt very much you'll get even a sniff of one before you get here.

Cheetah7

You know what you can do for that all important 'Aussie experience', if you go onto Seek and check for voluntary work - there is a whole section dedicated to it, you can choose the sector you like - as in Admin, register for some voluntary work, do that for a month while you are looking.

It will give you contacts, it will give you 'aussie experience', it will give you some sort of reference and it will look good on your resume as you will have been doing something while you are job seeking.

Seriously, there are heaps of voluntary opportunities in a vast selection of skills and areas to choose from and it will also get you out of the house.

And you can actively seek employment while you are doing it.

But as others have said, you are best waiting until you get to Australia.