Paul A Dubar

Unfortunately that won't pay the rent + living expenses. I've got a family to
support. If I were single it would be easy, but coming here from the UK where I
didn't have to worry about spending 10 quid to a situation where my savings are being
dried up is scary. I've reconsidered and I'm giving it until end April (i.e. 6
months) and then we'll see what's what.

Also, it's a valid comment that having gaps in the CV aren't too impressive,
although some small fabricating can help................depends on how long you have
to cover up for

Paul.

"colin.helen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Did you consider working in another occupation until your chossen job came up to
    > tied you over - say seasonal shop work.
    >
    > I ask because we will be taking limited money with us and it is our intention
    > for one of us to find any job to bring the money in and the other to search for
    > their career.
    >
    > We are expecting it to take about two years to be in the house and job we want.
    >
    > Welcome your comments
    >
    > Helen and Colin
    >
    >
    >
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

colin.helen

Paul - you seem to have forgotten that $80000 is about £30000 it seems a little silly to compare like to like!

sarahw

sorry to sound brutal but when you move to another country you have to be prepared for some hardships. nobody likes a whinger, least of all an aussie.

stick with it - things have a way of working out sometimes when you least expect it. be prepared to do another kind of work in the meantime. one thing often leads to another.

also, don't overlook the importance of networking, especially in australia. try to make as many contacts as you can, and call those agencies every day. drive them crazy - eventually one of them will send you on assignment just to get you off their back.

also have you considered another city? property is a lot cheaper on the west coast.

good luck.

Magwired

Sorry to say but it's not a case of being pessimistic or whinging. I've found Paul's experience and comments to be quite accurate.

We went over to Melbourne (and Sydney) over the New Year and visited family who had emigrated there just over a year ago. They are both highly qualified accountants, but yet battled to find jobs in Melbourne. One of them ended up commuting to Canberra during the week and back to Melbourne for the weekends. Not the ideal situation to be separated when you've just immigrated to another country.

An Australian friend of theirs is a qualified Oracle DBA with many years experience. She worked initially in Sydney, then Europe for a number of years (pulling in the pounds) and then went back to Oz and decided to give Melbourne a go. But she just couldn't find a job and ended up taking a contract in Sydney and commuted up each week. The contract will expire soon and then it's back on the job hunt.

This isn't to say that there's no jobs in Melbourne and they're all elsewhere. It's just that the job market in Australia on the whole (and the rest of the world for that matter) is very tough at the moment. We heard similar accounts of the job situation from Australians in Sydney.

Despite being very excited at receiving our visas last year and being very prepared to give it a go, the timing of the big expedition down under just doesn't seem right.

In the meantime, thanks to Paul and others for relating your experiences and hopefully we'll start hearing more good news soon :-)

onlyme

I'm a DBA on 89K. and it's not enough. no kids, no mortgage. might go home.

onlyme

Paul,

Are you aware that if you contract here, your first $27,000 will be tax free. That is if you go through some of the agencies that give you 'Living away from home allowance' - for contractors mainly.
Some permanent people also get this allowance.

dotty

89K would be a very high salary in Australia. The average wage is $43,000, which is about 16,000 pound a year.

I dont know anyting about 27,000 tax free, and I am not saying that is wrong but the general free tax allowance is 6000 dollars and 49 cents in the dollar kicks in just above the average wage.

It seems a highly taxed society to me, GST is 10%.

Sandra

Living Away from Home allowance is an Australia Tax Allowance available to anyone who is living away from their permanent home. Basically you are not going to get it if you come over on PR and live near work. There are some Tax Links on George Lombards site to the Taxation Office and then look up LAFHA. So you have to qualify for it, people on working visas like a 457 can sometimes be entitled, and other cases as said like contractors who are constantly working at customer sites. I am a bit concerned that 'onlyme' feels 89K is not enough - is this for Sydney? But basically I am not turning back now, and will just have to pull the belt in and enjoy the cheaper things in life.

Bones

I might be mistaken, but I think onlyme was using irony to make his point, Sandra.

Sandra

I probably missed the point, easy done when I am going out in a couple of months hubby, two kids, one salary and less than 89K - but reading this group at least I do have a job and am very grateful for it!

cheers sandra

Alan

I'm a telecoms engineer, TRA successful, PR application about to be submitted. I
earn £12k and have a home, wife, 4 kids, 3 cats and a car to run. During last year
managed to save just over 3 grand. dunno what you lot are moaning about the wages
for. some of the money that I would be able to earn in Oz would have me laughing my
head off. If it's that big a problem either come back to UK or if you are still
being processed, withdraw and let us people who really want to go move up the queue
a bit. My intention when I get there is to find a job, any job I don't care. If a
job comes up in my trade that is a bonus. I just want to be in Oz and that's where
I'm gonna stay.

Bones

Chris,
I take your point about people having a rosy view of life in Oz and thinking that the transition will be trouble free, but when did you last do any shopping in the UK?

When we lived in Sydney our food bill was at least $200 cheaper per month, shopping in Woolworths and Coles than it is in the UK, shopping at Tescos and Asda. Just one comparison, we currently pay over $2 a litre for petrol here, how much do you pay.

Regards.

mxqth

2$ for a 1l of petrol, imagine how is to pay 1.3$/l when you earn 300AUD/month in an ex-comunist country.

colin.helen

Don't buy beans then!

colin.helen

Christian

To put one thing straight, we are not in dreamland about moving to Australia. If you check one-stopwa you will see that we have argued that negative feedback should be considered a positive thing. I think it would be very naive to move to the other side of the world without any worries (I don't know how people could actually could do this without worrying!) Migrating to Australia is something that we want to TRY, and are trying to remain confident and positive about the whole thing. We realise that it might not work out, so are are making appropriate plans if this is the case. You make it sound as if we are running away from problems in the UK that don't exist in Oz - we're not that dumb. I work in the IT sector and my wife also works in a professional occupation. It is clear from this site that we cannot expect to find our 'ideal' job very quickly, but this won't stop us from taking any other job to just to cover our outgoings until a good job arises. You make it sound as if it's almost impossible to work and live in Oz, I don't believe that (the current population seem to manage OK), but do recognise that this site can make the whole thing look rosier than it might actually be.

We're not moving to Oz to get rich, we're just looking for a change of lifestyle and something different in life. The climate is also very appealing to us (moving to OZ then moaning about the heat, sounds like whinging pom syndrome to me).

Anyway, if the outllook on Australia was as you seem to put it, why are so many people keen to emmigrate - and why is it so difficult to get a PR visa compared to other countries?

On with the comments ......