Jessica Berry

1 hour ago, JZT said:

Hey Jessica! Thankyou! That’s great to hear, how long have you been here now? What area did you settle in? 
I’m trying to pull myself out of the funk and change what I can, such as looking to join the gym which was a huge thing for me back in the UK and hopefully make some friends for my little boy too. 

 

Sent you a PM.

On 18/04/2023 at 17:47, Jem said:

Hmmm I feel like QLD might be our state! I’ve always had this feeling we should have gone! 

there is a company on the Gold Coast who does what my husband is skilled in and he’s tempted to make contact ! 

there are a lot of positives about Adelaide and the kids school is amazing !

it’s tough ! 

It looks as though from previous posts you were going to Victoria, then Geraldton, came to Adelaide, then considering a move to Perth and now perhaps Queensland.  I am just wondering if what you are looking for is in Australia.  Is your husbands job the main motivator for moving because you mention job opportunities for your husband in both your considerations of Perth and Queensland?

On 19/04/2023 at 11:09, JZT said:

Hey Jem! We really like it so far, though I am struggling a bit at the moment which is frustrating as it’s something we wanted to do for so long. I think the reality of knowing no one has sunk in a bit. My husband loves it! 
We are in Brighton, what suburb are you in? 

Welcome to Adelaide.  We were in the same position of not knowing anyone when we arrived, but we have a good group of friends now.  When we came over, we were quite focused on getting settled, finding jobs and a house and everything that entailed, that the first year seemed to whizz by.

Planned to come to Adelaide and that is where we have stayed.

Welcome to Adelaide.

As others have said life in Adelaide is fairly normal.  I go out to cafes, restaurants, the cinema (social distancing in place), shopping, hairdresser, beautician, take my car to be serviced and generally go about my business as before.  You don't see many people wearing masks.  I use the QR code app on my phone when I visit places, which is easy to use.

If you switch on TV on channel 7 at the moment you will see the Adelaide Strikers playing cricket at the Adelaide Oval with crowds in attendance, although again with social distancing requirements in place.

Definitely feel very privileged to be able to live in Australia when you see what is happening around the world.

On 03/09/2020 at 15:49, Kavi09 said:

Hi Jessica 

Thank you for the above response that's very good to know. At the moment we might be looking to go either Adelaide or Perth. We are considering Perth as well, so if you have any advise on how to go about getting an administrator job in Perth and how long that may take then that would also be a great help. 

I am based in Adelaide and the job market within Adelaide is my area of expertise, so I am not able to advise on Perth.

Thank you for the information.  I will send you a PM.

Hi Lavers

Belated welcome to Adelaide.  I have enjoyed reading your journey to get here and your positive attitude and approach.

JB

I would usually advise people to have a financial buffer of 3 to 6 months while they look for work, just in case.  For administration roles, employers can often receive 300 applications for a position. 

Adelaide can be a hard job market, but it depends on many factors such as what you do, what you are willing to do, your attitude and approach, your skills set and obviously your covering letter and resume you submit for the advertised job.

There are some areas of employment in Adelaide that are booming and others are struggling.  Some people will find work very quickly others it can take months.

On 27/08/2020 at 09:44, Andrew from Vista Financial said:

I would encourage anyone with a private UK Defined Benefit Pension Scheme (sometimes referred to as a final salary pension) to obtain a transfer value.

Values have been increasing steadily over the years and it is believed that they have now perhaps peaked.

We are seeing values on average standing around 25x the current annual pension benefits.

This means that if you have a UK pension and the current benefit gives you a yearly pension of £10,000 the transfer value could be £250,000.

 

 

 

Andrew, do you know why the values have been increasing and why they may now have peaked?

On 26/02/2020 at 19:34, Natski1 said:

Thanks Jessica 

How did you find the house search? I’ve heard it can be quite a daunting task as it’s all about auctions is that right? 

We found the house search a bit of a pain to be honest, but that was also down to us taking the time to make sure we bought the right house in the right area.  We did a lot of research and went to a lot of open inspections and a few auctions to get the feel for what was going on. Initially our plans were to find a block of land and build a new house on it, but that didn't happen in the end.  We are very happy with our house and location so the time taken was worthwhile for us, but everyone is different.  When we were looking to buy, house prices had jumped massively and houses were selling before they even got to auction, this is not necessarily the case now.  Our house was up for auction but because we had been following what was happening we knew it would be sold before auction so we made an offer too good for them to refuse because we knew if it went to auction it could possibly go higher and they accepted it.  In our area a lot of the houses around us go to auction because they are in demand and attract buyers, however a couple of the houses haven't sold recently but that is simply because the owners are greedy and are asking way above the going rate so they are now renting them out.

When we arrived in Adelaide we rented for a year.  We wanted to take the time to find the right house and area to buy in.  We spent a lot of weekends attending open house inspections in different areas to get a feel for the houses and the local area.  It depends on your personal circumstances, budget, lifestyle, location of your job etc etc etc so what might suit one person isn't right for another. 

28 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

When jobs are scarce and applicants are plentiful, there’s bound to be a bias towards locals

Although there are jobs that will go to new arrivals specifically because the locals know not to touch them!  Happened a lot in the 457 visa days, high profile roles in Adelaide that were career suicide for locals, but to the poor sucker overseas seemed like a great opportunity then after a while there would be an article in the paper about the person returning home for family reasons!!!!!  Although when I work with my clients, if they are willing and are aware of the risks there are organisations I suggest they target because I know they struggle to recruit and it is a chance to get their foot in the door and some Aussie work experience on their resume.

20 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

The main problem is not the insularity but the overall lack of jobs. When jobs are scarce and applicants are plentiful, there’s bound to be a bias towards locals

Exactly. A recent admin job advert a friend applied for received 400 applications and this happens a lot, nothing new in the time I have been in Adelaide.  Some adverts will state at the bottom...due to the volume of applications received only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Again, this is not to say there isn't work here, but it depends what you do, what you are willing to do, attitude, approach etc etc etc.  I applied for a job recently and within 1.5 hours of applying on Seek the company was contacting me to arrange an interview.

21 hours ago, SteveandKirsty said:

All the rest of the comments on Adelaide above I pretty much agree with.  I have lived and worked in Melbourne and Cairns, albeit 20 years ago and whether it is that I am in my 40's now rather than 20's making a difference, but I met people far easier there than I have here, so far at least anyway and the job situation is now starting to worry me. I have done and continue to do everything I can - applying for jobs I see, contacting agencies - who so far have bluffed me off or simply given me an honest "no", putting my CV through doors, trying word of mouth through the limited number of people I/we do know here but all to little avail so far.  What I have learnt is that many places in different industries are looking to decrease their staff rather than increase which doesn't bode well.  We cannot move to another state as we are on SN PR and the SA Immigration have already shut me down when I asked the question they didn't want to hear, largely owing to Kirsty being the named applicant and she has a job.  When I attended the jobs seminar the state government put on they as good as admitted that the job situation for newcomers is hardly great, and there were others there from countries such as India, Iran and Egypt who have been unemployed since their arrival over 8 or 9 months ago. Not good.

Kirsty on the other hand settled into the job she got soon after we arrived very well, and is making friends and contacts, albeit slowly and she has noted how inefficient South Australia appears to be in many ways.  Note SA rather than the country itself as we are both convinced that there are some things (will not bore with details) that are not the case in places like Sydney or states such as Victoria.

I thought I would re-post a thread that I have posted in 2013 and 2015!  The unemployment and under employment issues in Adelaide/SA are well documented in the press, on this site and in the past on Poms in Adelaide.  SA currently has the third highest unemployment in Australia, which is quite good at the moment, usually we are number 1 or 2!  You did multiple reccies and did your research so you were expecting it to take a while.  In my experience, 3 months of job seeking is not unusual and up to 6 months I wouldn't be panicking, this is perhaps why SA Immigration have already shut you down.  They are also aware that some migrants use SA as an easier option to get into Australia and then try to move elsewhere very quickly by saying they are unable to find work without giving it sufficient time.  Kirsty has picked up work quickly so there is work out there, but this doesn't apply to everyone.  I would also add that sometimes new arrivals can be harming their chances of finding work in various ways which they are not aware of because perhaps these things don't apply back in the UK.

20 hours ago, SteveandKirsty said:

When I attended the jobs seminar the state government put on they as good as admitted that the job situation for newcomers is hardly great, and there were others there from countries such as India, Iran and Egypt who have been unemployed since their arrival over 8 or 9 months ago. Not good

In my experience there are often other reasons certain groups of people are struggling to find work.

On 17/06/2019 at 14:45, Paul1Perth said:

I was out of work for 5 months and got a bit of luck filling in for someone taking long service leave in an IT dept of a big hospital. From there someone I worked with new someone else with his own company and I got the job. Hated it but it got me my first employment here and I've never been out of work since. 

We had a 2 year old and I made the most of being with him every day. Went miles on the bike with him in the baby seat. Didn't panic, felt a bit down but always thought something would turn up, which it did.

I was between contracts one summer and had a job lined up but it was too hot on site to start so we had to wait for the weather to cool down! Timed perfectly with the Australian Open and I got to watch two weeks of tennis at home in the air con, reignited my interest in tennis.  Every cloud and all that!

On 05/07/2019 at 13:22, JetBlast said:

 

Anyway - based on the Medicare Levy Surcharge I will be getting insurance anyway as it will be cheaper in the long run.

Have you found employment? I am sure you are aware the Medicare Levy Surcharge is only payable if you go over the threshold, $90,000 for a single and $180,000 for families.  If you haven't started working yet or will start in a few months, depending on your salary you may not go over the annual threshold.  Just thought I would mention it in case other people are reading and they are not aware of the thresholds.

https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/medicare-levy/medicare-levy-surcharge/

On 21/06/2019 at 23:57, SteveandKirsty said:

Yes and no - one of the most popular job search sites here seek.com.au, do not actually show salaries, just a guide graph.  Newspaper Ads - which are mostly limited to government jobs these days, do generally show a salary. 

Also many employers/recruiters appear to talk salary at the interview stage. 

Also initial phone screening is very popular in certain industries.  This is undertaken before any face to face interviews and generally designed to knock people out of the process.  The recruiter will ask what salary you are looking for.  You need to be in the 'range' (or have some unique/exceptional skill to ask for more generally) or you usually won't proceed any further.  When I work with clients, this is one of the areas I guide them on.

I work with skilled migrants as an independent voice on the realities of them finding work in Adelaide, what that would involve and how to approach it.  Some people choose to meet with me when they are over on a reccie to get the information before they make the move over (or decide not too!) and some meet me when they have already moved here.   Migrants often make the assumption because they are on a skills list, their job/skills must be in demand which is a fair enough assessment but sometimes this is not the case.  I've met people who have attended events in the UK who have been given, in my opinion, widely exaggerated information on the availability of jobs in Adelaide and the salaries they would earn.

I may be able to assist.  I will send you a PM (private message).

On 22/05/2019 at 20:12, Tricky said:

All in all, I feel like I never went away for 8 years and it merely seems like a holiday, which is strange. 

I can relate to this comment, even though I am still in Adelaide!  I always comment when we return to the UK for a visit and are seeing friends and family and going to the same places we used to when we lived there, how easy it would be to slot back into your old life and like you say above, almost feel like you never went away.  Then I give it a bit more thought and realise all the reasons we emigrated and still there.  The curse of the migrant I guess!

I reckon when we came the first 12 months seemed to fly by! I have known people that have been homesick and returned within 3 months of arriving, but for us there always seemed to be something to do or sort out in that initial year.

Have you looked on Meetup?

https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/cities/au/adelaide/

Although when you say country SA, not sure how far out of Adelaide you are and whether it is practical to meet up in Adelaide.

We always get our money's worth from our 'extras' cover and feel it is good value.  We keep a spreadsheet every year and are always quids in, often getting back double or triple our premiums, but we are also smart with how we use it!  As with everything you need to look at your own circumstances and whether it is right for you.

I thought it might be useful to add on a link I started on Poms in Adelaide back in 2015.  The information is still relevant so might be worth having a read through.

https://www.pomsinadelaide.com/topic/41327-guide-on-dental-costs/