It's finally happening!!!!

Thanks for the update, been a busy few weeks, and continued success Ken.

B

Lovely update, really enjoyed reading that. We've friends who live in the Docklands, amazing location. So central and so much going on, yet not a place that felt crazy busy and rushed. Great choice. Sounds like you've really settled in well. Hope the great start continues for you. Great you've got so far with the administration side of things too.

 

That's amazing you were able to secure employ so soon - although given you put so much detailed research into it, not surprising. If you're able to swing any learnings out way when it comes to research please let me know. Were you speculative with companies or did you canvas agencies? Or both? My OH is in quite a niche role so we're concerned agencies may not be able to see how he could fit into different companies, in albeit slightly different roles. I have heard that many companies don't exactly adore speculative CV's. How did you carry out your research if you don't mind sharing?

Thank you for your lovely reply. We didnt do anything different to what everyone else would normally do

1. We first compared our experience to what was advertised in the Melbourne market.

2. Luckily our UK experience was very similar to the Australian market so we didnt have to change or re-word our CVs a lot

3. I kept an eye on jobs pretty much the whole of 2016 to get a sense of when the market picks up, when there is a lull and when there is a sudden spike in demand

4. Again, very similar to the UK, jobs tend to pick up just after the holiday season and we learnt quickly that Feb is when things pick up in Aus. Then, for my line of work, hiring picks up again just before the financial year end and then a month into the new financial year when budgets are in hand to hire resources

5. I used LinkedIn the best I could. I posted an update about my move in mid Jan to my network and requested they share my updates with any recruitment agents they knew, and this worked very well. I took the 1 month free premium membership as well. I also started following several IT recruitment agents so my feed showed what roles they were looking for. I used seek and indeed as my main search tools but I signed up, in total, to 27 companies which was a mix of recruitment agents and actual company career portals so my CV was shared as much as possible in the local market. I kept connecting with as many recruitment agents as I could, and LinkedIn then suggests even more similar profiles to reach out to, which I did

This is specifically what helped out my CV in a lot of agents hands. From my experience so far, recruitment agents always want to meet you first, in person, so they can gauge you, decide if you are a good candidate to then shortlist you and send your CV for potential roles. I've never had this experience in the UK as agents speak to you and then its over to the client interview. Over here, agents first assess you on the initial call, then setup an hour meeting for which you dress up in complete business formals. After that is the actual interview over the phone or in person, where again, business formals is a must.

I do want to point out that we have been lucky with the timing of our move and experience, if we arrived in Sept 2016, we would have to spend 3 months job hunting so keep a time frame of up to 6 months to get the right role. I was selective in what I applied for initially as I wanted a permie role but a few weeks in I decided to apply for contract roles as well as to software development and services companies, which I wanted to avoid.

Wish you the very best and I'm sure your dreams will come true soon

Cheers

KnK

Many thanks @Kenfrapin some really good insights there, great idea with LinkedIn about asking others to share with recruitment agencies they were networked with, hadn't thought of that. Cheers!

Just over a year on since the last reply here and we are still here in Melbourne, happily counting our blessings. Thought I give another update, although a much shorter one this time

The construction is going quite well, and we expect to move to our home in about 10 weeks from now. Of course, this does mean giving up our rental in Docklands and those lovely late city nights pub and club hopping. I, for certain, will miss that but the OH is ready to head out and away from the city. Just leaves me with a few weekends of exploring rest of my favourite CBD watering holes. I dont think anything come close to the late night magic of Fitzroy (specifically Rum Diary, Naked Satan, Baxters Lot, Night Kat and The Provincial)

Work is going smooth too. Both of us moved into new roles a few months back and continue to build our Aussie work experience. We did manage to buy a new car on lease so the driving around Victoria has started too. We have plans for add 2 boxers to our family once our home is ready, so it will be really early morning walks before the rush to get into work

Still missing UK TV but getting more into AFL and my lost interest in NBA, plus using technology to our best to enjoy UK catchup (its a mortal sin to miss BGT, TGBO and Strictly!)

My last post on this thread will probably be once we move into our homes as I'd say that's where the moving part of our lives come to an end and the living part begins

Enjoy the rains this weekend and hope everyone's doing well!

Cheers

KnK

44 minutes ago, Kenfrapin said:

The construction is going quite well, and we expect to move to our home in about 10 weeks from now....

Still missing UK TV but getting more into AFL and my lost interest in NBA, plus using technology to our best to enjoy UK catchup (its a mortal sin to miss BGT, TGBO and Strictly!)

I assume you bought in Sanctuary Lakes then?  

I hope you noticed that BGT is on Australian TV(Channel 9) now?  What's TGBO?

3 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

I assume you bought in Sanctuary Lakes then?  

I hope you noticed that BGT is on Australian TV(Channel 9) now?  What's TGBO?

We ended up buying behind Santuary in Saltwater Coast. BGT is on here but a few weeks behind and since we still follow news from home we can't afford to wait so long!

My bad on TGBO : Its The Great British Bakeoff so TGGBO

19 minutes ago, Kenfrapin said:

We ended up buying behind Santuary in Saltwater Coast. BGT is on here but a few weeks behind and since we still follow news from home we can't afford to wait so long!

My bad on TGBO : Its The Great British Bakeoff so TGGBO

Its on Foxtel 

What a great thread, plenty of good info in here.  I would like to ask a question about hiring periods. 

"jobs tend to pick up just after the holiday season and we learnt quickly that Feb is when things pick up in Aus. Then, for my line of work, hiring picks up again just before the financial year end and then a month into the new financial year when budgets are in hand to hire resources... I do want to point out that we have been lucky with the timing of our move and experience, if we arrived in Sept 2016, we would have to spend 3 months job hunting so keep a time frame of up to 6 months to get the right role"

For private sector jobs in management, is the hiring market primarily in two bursts - mid-Jan through Feb  and then July-August?  That is what I have heard, and we were thinking about arriving at the first of September, but I'm concerned about that two month hiring slowdown in Dec/Jan (holiday break).  If we don't land jobs right away, I would hate to burn savings in Dec/Jan waiting for the second crack at the employment market, but my OH really wants to get to OZ asap.  Is September not a good time to turn up looking for work?

Thanks,

Phillip

8 hours ago, npkz said:

What a great thread, plenty of good info in here.  I would like to ask a question about hiring periods. 

 

"jobs tend to pick up just after the holiday season and we learnt quickly that Feb is when things pick up in Aus. Then, for my line of work, hiring picks up again just before the financial year end and then a month into the new financial year when budgets are in hand to hire resources... I do want to point out that we have been lucky with the timing of our move and experience, if we arrived in Sept 2016, we would have to spend 3 months job hunting so keep a time frame of up to 6 months to get the right role"

 

For private sector jobs in management, is the hiring market primarily in two bursts - mid-Jan through Feb  and then July-August?  That is what I have heard, and we were thinking about arriving at the first of September, but I'm concerned about that two month hiring slowdown in Dec/Jan (holiday break).  If we don't land jobs right away, I would hate to burn savings in Dec/Jan waiting for the second crack at the employment market, but my OH really wants to get to OZ asap.  Is September not a good time to turn up looking for work?

 

Thanks,

Phillip

 

Hi Phillip,

Now that we've been here for over a year, with some local experience and advice, I can add some more to this

• Along with Feb/Mar and Jul/Aug bursts, we noticed a spike in jobs in Oct, could be specific to our line of work ( I am a PM/PgM and missus a Project Finance Analyst)
• Comparing specifically to the UK, there always seem to be a lot more roles available here. These arent phantom non existant roles by recruitment agents. There are literally a lot more roles out here for us than UK. If we lower our day rates then there are even more roles
• Timing and your area of expertise both play a factor in how quickly you get a role. 
• Not that everything shuts down over XMas and pretty much most of Jan. so mid Dec to early Feb is all but a write off
• Lot more tech jobs in Sydney than Melbourne. I applied to a few jobs mid - Jan and got called the day I applied to schedule interviews with start dates in Feb

You do have Sept and Oct to get the jobs you want, or worse case get a slightly junior role to get the experience going and in 6 months you will be fine. Unlike the UK, just because you go for a lower paying job now doesnt mean you cant move to a much better paying role as you always have a valid excuse (you took the first job available to start working and get local experience)

Best of luck!