Hello everyone.
My story is bitter sweet and I am just looking for some comment, and maybe advice, about my current situation. I have more or less accepted that Oz was not meant to be for me. I'll keep it short if I can:
I gained a resident visa in 2003 based on skills and qualifications. I visited Oz for two months to validate my visa and travelled up the east coast to look around. I then returned to the UK where I had just been promoted in my job and made the decision to gain a couple of years experience as a production Inspector and Quality Engineer in the aircraft manufacturing industry.
Unfortunately my mum was diagnosed with Lymph cancer in 2005. She was treated and went into remission. In early 2006 I asked my employer for a one year sabbatical to start at the end of 2006 and end in late 2007 when I would return to work. A great way to emigrate but still have a job open in the UK. Again, my mum was diagnosed with cancer, however, she insisted I go to Oz and persue my dream. I left her as we were both very confident she would recover. And she did.
So I spent about a year driving around Oz looking for work and decided I wanted to stay, although I was finding it very difficult to get work. It seemed that I was the only guy in Oz, despite my qualifications, who couldn't get work. Towards the end of my trip my mum took a turn for the worst, the cancer was back, so I went home to be with her. She went into remission again and things were looking up for her, however, it was now 2008 and my resident visa had expired.
I was gutted so I wrote to the Oz immigration to tell them the story and, unbelievably, sent me an RRV for another five years. Coming home was the best thing I ever did because I was able to hold my mums hand when, sadly, she died in December 2010. I was devastated for ages but returned to Oz in 2011 where, again, I had a few interviews. In some instances I had three interviews and didn't get the job at the last hurdle. Again, I returned to the UK and continued working here.
My visa expires in April 2013 and I have almost given up on trying again. I am convinced that ageism played a part in not getting a job whilst in Oz: I think it is rife. Also, I noticed that some employers couldn't grasp the concept of transferring skills from one industry to another. For example, one said to me: 'how can you be a quality control engineer in the mining industry? We don't make aeroplanes'. The Ozzies seemed somehow, dare I say, a bit backward with regards to how flexible an intelligent, well qualified and experienced person can be. These attributes are actively sought in the UK.
So, to my dilemma. Because of the trauma and sadness of my mums illness, and eventual passing away, many of the years have gone by and I am now 51 years of age. Despite being a more experienced, fit, healthy, young looking and young minded fella, I feel that leaving the UK for Oz now is a lost cause. I couldn't get a job before, so why would I now? I am on the verge of giving up on the idea.
However, before I do I would like some comment, and maybe advice, or to hear similar experiences off people who are in Oz now, or who left the UK in their late 40's early 50's. I don't mind straight talk either so don't hold back.
Is it too late???
Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you.

Hi Manc68

I can't offer too much to help, just wanted to say hi, and welcome to BE

We're planning to move next April so I'm hoping I manage to find a job when we get there.

Anyway, Good Luck with what ever the future holds

Sorry you are having troubles getting to Australia, but although you are over the magic age of 50, don't give up hope entirely. OH was 45 and I was 48 when we emigrated, and I'm now 52 and have just had a job interview. You may have to lower your ambitions jobwise if you want to be out here- I have, but a job is a job, and if it allows you to be here, then might it be worth putting up with a less than perfect job if you can be in the country you want to be in- just voicing my opinion???

Best of luck mate, I hope something works out for you.

I would have to say that your précis of the Australian employment outlook rings bells. Yes they are very much fixated on ignoring transferable skills and the benefit of different, expert, perspectives. They are also fixated on qualifications, even if those qualifications are of less worth than toilet paper.

Mind, the same is true of the UK as well. 'Modern' HR looks for cogs to fit into a machine - exactly the right size and shape for what they have already got, and replaceable with an exactly similar cog on a whim. It's a very mechanistic outlook, exemplified by their use of computer sifting of CVs looking for keywords. Needless to say it's very, very daft, counter-productive to a world built on change, and almost guaranteed to get a duffer.

It's for that reason that you have to attempt to sidestep HR at every opportunity - for both sides of the employment negotiation they are a net negative.

As for UK or Oz, all I can say is when I looked at the decision, I saw the UK on a downward spiral that didn't show any sign they could pull out of, and Oz having opportunities that even idiot politicians would find it difficult to stuff up. For you a break from the past would also seem a benefit - new horizons, no old memories....

On the employment question, my view is you need to sidestep the bigotry of age discrimination and shortsightedness - and not go for conventional employment. Have you considered setting up your own niche company offering quality engineering type services? In this, your age actually counts as a plus (you are expected to be the expert), and you can scope your offering to your perception of need, which is informed by those fresh pair of eyes that they so need. Setting up and running a company has fresh challenges and you need to learn lots of new skills (not least selling), but the pay off is potentially larger than base employment and, of course, outsourcing continues a pace in most companies.

Doing that in Oz would give you the benefit of a vibrant economy, and if it didn't work here you could always setup a UK arm and see what the take up was there.

Sorry to hear about your mum and your bad luck with jobs to date.

These are my thoughts.

Yes, I agree that your chances of success are lower now, because of the economic climate. However this doesn't mean that you can't succeed.

You have 2 choices:

stay in the uk
try and get work in Aus before April 2013.


What are the costs and benefits associated with each ?? Perhaps you are in a position where you have little in the way of family ties/responsibilities and you are already relatively well off.

If your job hunt in Aus turns out to be unsuccessful, perhaps you would be able to pick up another job in the UK relatively easily within the next 12months.

If that is the case - then why not give it another go? The worst that could happen is you lose a few thousand $$$ and you get your pride knocked about a bit.

However, your situation might be very different to the person I describe above! All you can do, is weigh up the pro's and con's of each option.

good luck !!

I'm sorry to hear about the death of your mother - that couldn't have been easy for you to consider emigrating while that was going on.

As Garry said, there are many bells ringing in your story relating to employment here. I am currently going through it at the moment - I have a very diverse set of skills, qualifications coming out of my arse, and I can't even get a bloody interview. There seems to be a fundamental inability to consider that skills are transferable between roles and industries here.

An ex colleague of mine - incredibly talented and experienced in Fluid Mechanics applied for a role simulating pipelines in the mining industry. But because his experience was ink delivery systems, the agent wouldn't put him forward. He explained that the maths and physics was all exactly the same, only the viscosity of the fluid and Reynolds Number of the system differed, but the agent was resolute. I think the company would have taken him in a heartbeat if they had met him.

I have found that when I can apply to a company directly, then I will get a conversation at least, and and usually an interview. When it's a f**king agent I may as well just print my CV out and stuff it down stormdrains.

Unfortunately, the recruitment industry seems to be very transient here, and you end up with some 20 year old on a working holiday visa telling you what you are and aren't qualified to do. It sounds harsh, but I think it's a large part of the problem.

If it's still your dream to come here, then I think you should at least give it a go - maybe give it a 6-8-12 month period and set some clear deadlines about when you will decide that it's not going to work out.

Personally, I've had a gut full of the place, and am seriously considering moving on now.

Good luck.


S

We (husband and I) emigrated to t'other side of the the world last year. OK, it was NZ not OZ but if you don't mind an interloper I'll give you my two pennies worth.

Sorry you've had a hard time finding work in Aus. I'm especially sorry your mum died. My mum died in 2005, she had bowel/liver cancer. The very next year my husband floated the suggestion of moving to NZ. I asked if I could finish mourning for my mother first

We had been to NZ to visit in-laws on about 3 occasions. At no time did I want to emigrate to NZ. Just not my, 'cup of tea.'

Anyway, in Feb 2011 we did. Couldn't get work in Auckland despite my husband being a kiwi with kiwi and UK experience. Same deal in Christchurch. He felt he wasn't being taken seriously when he was interviewed.

At his first interview in Christchurch (for an international contracting company that shall remain nameless) he was asked by the HR bint on the interview panel, who had seen his local authority experience on his cv, has he applied for a job at the City Council ? It beggars belief. As it goes he had but that went nowhere fast as well.

He was eventually offered a job for a central government department which meant moving to the North Island of NZ. His background is finance and the job is relevant to his skills and experience.

It then took me a year to be offered a job. Which entails a daily 80 mile round trip. I'm into office administration. I was getting interviews albeit few and far between but no offer was forthcoming as a result of the interview. (So why interview me then ?). OK I wasn't expecting to be offered the first job I went for, but the phrase in brackets is experience talking.

It's all about pigeonholing here. If they can't neatly pigeonhole your experience into once category or the other, then you just go straight into the 'Too Hard' basket.


S

Sorry to hear about your mum.
Can you afford to come back to Oz and give it another try? It's really tough here, but if it's your last chance, you could give it a go. Of course if there's ample opportunity in the UK, I'd be tempted to stay and get a few decent holidays out here.
I am 50 and an experienced IT professional. Am struggling to get work and find agencies are, to the large part pretty useless and act more as blockers than enablers. You need to get them on side but it's so hard. As someone said if you can target companies directly this may be a better approach.
In Brisbane, agencies seem to prefer qualifications over experience. I found it different from the UK in that regard. I'm shocked at the number of graduates with 2-3 years experience getting 'heads of IT' roles that they wouldn't have got near in a more mature environment. I've had better luck with removing chunks of my resume and dumbing down experience - employers are easily threatened here. And I'm also learning to spin my resume too (my Aussie mate told me 'we all lie on our resume here!) Don't like doing it, but needs must.

My uncle is 76. He spends at least 6 months a year backpacking

On his last trip it was singapore, australia, and USA, just in OZ he did from maryborough to melbourne, adelade to perth.

He hopes to meet a lady on his travels, married twice and would give that another go too.

So I doubt at just 51 your travelling days are over completely

So sorry to hear of your experiences over the past few years - it sounds like you have definitely been through the mill.

But, pragmatically, I would say draw a line under an Australian future and concentrate on what you have got. Australia is ageist, no doubt about that and once you are over 50 it gets exponentially harder to find employment. Not only that, unless you are very well off (in which case you can do what the heck you like) you are going to struggle to set yourself up with a decent retirement in Australia (they reckon 20 years at the very least). If you have a decent job now you are still going to have the freedom to travel the world and have adventures all over either on holiday or in retirement. Australia is just another first world country so you aren't missing out on anything in particular.

To OP

So sorry to hear about your Mum. It must have been very difficult for you.

My situation was a little similar before we came to Oz in January this year.

We got our PR visas in 2007 and was planning to move over in 2008. I was just about to book our flights when we found out the devastating news that my Mum had Ovarian Cancer. She died 5 weeks after diagnosis.
We then decided that we could not up and leave my Dad (they had been married 50 years) as it would have felt like a further bereavement for him.
So we stayed in the UK, with time slowly ticking away towards our visa expiring.
But as we knew that was getting closer, we adopted a now or never attitude and arrived in Oz two weeks before our visa expired! Thank god we didn't have any flight delays!

I am 42 and my husband is 45. We have two children aged 13 and 11. We don't have pots of money or outstanding careers but we are very happy here (although my daughter does have wobbles!). It was hard to start with but We both found jobs within 6 months or so and we are so glad we made the leap.

With regards to the job front, as many will tell you, its more who you know than what you know!
Go for it, or you will always be wondering.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Cheers

Jo

It's not really pigeonholing! I believe that 90% of agency staff don't know/have never heard of/don't understand the qualifications people have. Happens with Aussie degrees too. Forget the agencies and apply direct to the company - it's the only way to go and when you get a foot in the door network like crazy.
Had plenty experience over 46 years -OH, 4 sons and self have found that the direct route is the only way to go.

That might not be very comforting to OP if he doesn't know anyone! I don't think it is true anyway, yes some people get jobs through people they know but many do not. I have definitely always got jobs based on what I know, what I can do.

OP, I think the decision really hinges on how financially comfortable you are. If you can afford to give up your current work, support yourself in Australia for X months whilst you look for work and maybe even know that you could return to UK and pick up work easily should it not work out again, well then in this case I would give it a go before the visa expires in April.

But in your shoes, I would not risk my financial security (current and future) for the sake of moving to Australia. Indeed maye it just wasn't meant to be..