Jessica Berry

We have lived in Adelaide for 7 years and feel we made the right choice for us coming to Adelaide (our visa enabled us to go anywhere in Australia). In terms of selling/renting your house, it can also be down to timing. When we were getting ready to go I had people saying we should rent our property out as prices were still going to go up, but to me it was blindingly obvious that the housing market was all going to turn to s**t and we needed to sell up and take the equity and run! 7 years later we could buy our property in the UK back for a third less than what we sold it for (we recently returned to the UK for a visit and a property the same as ours was up for sale and for approx the past 5-6 years they have been selling at a third less than what we sold for). So for us, selling up was definitely the right thing to do.

We have lived in Australia for 7 years. We recently visited the UK for a holiday and while we were over there, visited 2 sets of friends who had lived in Australia and returned to the UK to be with family. It was interesting listening to their experiences and both sets of friends said the reality of returning had not lived up to their expectations.

OH works in IT (server infrastructure) and since we arrived 7 years ago he has had no problems getting work, got a temp job within a week of us arriving, perm job within 3 weeks of arriving stayed there for 4 years, decided it was time for a change and within 2 weeks of deciding to start looking for a new job he had another perm role which he has been in for the past 3 years. Confident if he was to look for work now he would again secure work fairly quickly. The company he currently works for recruits on a regular basis due to staff moving onto different roles and also because the business is growing. Of course not everyone will have the same experience and it can depend on your specialist IT skills, the level you want/are prepared to work at and salary expectations. I generally find that a migrants attitude, approach and expectations to life in Adelaide and finding work can make a big difference as to whether it works out for them or not.

I am based in Adelaide, so Sydney may be different and others based in Sydney will be able to advise you accordingly. In general in Adelaide the recruitment/job market 'shuts down' Nov/Dec/Jan and usually picks up again after the Australia Day public holiday (26 Jan). This is also the time when the kids are on their summer holidays (and many businesses also close down to take their holidays), so for example in Adelaide children did not return to school until after Australia Day, so many people are taking holidays over Christmas and in January. As I say, this information is for Adelaide as that is the job market I know well, Sydney may operate very differently being a bigger city.

Where in Australia are you planning on moving to?

Are you planning on training as a gas engineer or electrician to enable you to get a visa to emigrate or do you already qualify for a visa and just want a career change?

Have you had a look on poms in adelaide? There are quite a few threads on this subject, this is one of the more recent ones... http://www.pomsinadelaide.com/forum/money-finance/42418-cost-living-comparison.html Are you trying to decide whether to move to Brisbane or Adelaide?

There was an article in the Career One job supplement on the weekend and the question to a panel of experts was...'What is the most common skill employers want in new workers right now?' One of the answers is below... It got me thinking that the list of qualities could easily apply to 'What makes a good migrant?'. Attitude, approach and expectations in my opinion/experience are what makes a big difference about whether someone will be a good migrant and have a successful experience. I think people have to be honest with their partners before they even start on the migration journey about whether they truly really want to emigrate and whether they have the personality to cope with isolation, setbacks, disappointments, periods of unemployment if these things happen. I have seen several examples where in my opinion either one half of the couple or both have made decisions either consciously or subconsciously that have had a detrimental effect on their migration experience and then say "it is not working out, lets go home" and I think if they were truthful in reality they had no real desire to make it work. I also think a good migrant has patience. If you accept things may take time to fall into place and that you are responsible for your own destiny. So if you are not getting anywhere career wise for example you think "how can I change this, what can I do differently, what will help me get to where I want to be in X years time", look at the bigger picture.

In my experience having a Cert IV in Training and Assessment will not assist you in gaining an OHS role. The two qualifications are different skill sets and it depends if you actual have an interest in training and assessment and want to work in that area whether it will be a worthwhile investment. Out of interest I had a look on seek and the jobs in OHS/WHS in Adelaide and then in Perth, not one mentioned the requirement to have the Cert IV in Training and Assessment. What they mostly did require was extensive work experience and OHS qualifications. Have a look on seek.com.au to get a feel for what employers are looking for. As Eera mentions it would be very difficult to gain an OHS position without any Australian experience and I agree it would be something to build up to by initially being a safety rep at work or sitting on the OHS committee etc and building on that knowledge. I know of OHS guys in Adelaide that are struggling to secure work, there are plenty of OHS people to choose from.

The Adelaide job market in general has slowed down significantly over the past 2 years and as a result of this I know of several law firms that have made staff redundant. I think you are making quite a few generalised assumptions of what life would be like in Adelaide, which may not be the reality if you were to move here. From your initial post there seems to be more reasons to stay in Ireland than to move to Adelaide/Australia.

Employers looking to recruit to Health and Safety positions will generally require the Certificate IV in Work Health and Safety, NEBOSH in my experience has no relevance here. Personally, I would study this specific qualification once in Australia and at a reputable training organisation.

This article was in the Career One job supplement in today's newspaper, thought it might be of interest....

I would suggest having a look on http://www.pomsinadelaide.com under the Money & Finance section and you will find some postings that hopefully answer some of your questions.

I used to work in a role dealing with pilots of many airlines. The only time my boss had to intervene on my behalf was with the Qantas pilots as they were being very disrespectful towards me and refusing to follow guidelines because they thought the requirements were beneath them. My boss reckoned a lot of Qantas pilots come from wealthy families and had an arrogance about them and looked down their nose at us 'common' people! I have flown with many airlines but I have never flown with Qantas!

I am not sure what you would class as 'petty' qualifications, but this statement perhaps shows your lack of understanding of the way things work in Australia. For example if you want to work as a Trainer and Assessor in the VET (Vocational Education and Training) sector the industry standard is a Cert IV in Training and Assessment. It wouldn't matter how many degrees and PHDs you had, this qualification is specific to the industry and provides the knowledge and understanding of this sector. I was talking to a colleague recently, who was telling me his relative had been looking for work for the past 9 months and had not managed to secure an interview in his field of expertise. He said to me "he has got 3 degrees", as soon as he told me the area of work I knew the exact reason he wasn't getting any interviews. He rang a couple of companies up to ask why he hadn't got an interview and their response was 'you don't have a Cert IV in XXXX'. As for not mentioning training courses......in your line of work there is a one day training course that if you don't mention, this may hinder your chances of gaining work.. http://www.safework.sa.gov.au/show_page.jsp?id=111013#.UwgkLGdWGUk

As others have said qualifications are important if they are required/relevant to the position you are applying for. I hold 3 Australian qualifications and depending on the job I am applying for I either put 2 or 3 of them on my resume. I do not include any of my UK qualifications as they are irrelevant to the jobs I am applying for (because I live in Australia and not the UK!) and distract/confuse the recruiter from the information on my resume that I want them to read. If someone feels that their status in an organisation, their job title, the letters after their name, their salary and name dropping is important to them, then Australia may not be the best fit.

What an absolute nightmare for you both. Some poms we know over here rented their house out to 'friends' and they found out when they went back for a visit to the UK that they had had their rabbits living in the house. The rabbits had chewed through and scratched everything the carpets, furniture, skirting boards the place was in a right state. They ended up spending 2 solid weeks of their holiday back to the UK sorting the house out, redecorating, maintenance etc and they made the decision there and then to sell it and cut their losses.

I was talking to a couple recently over on a reccie and they were telling me the salaries and the availability of jobs that they were quoted at a migration expo and in my experience of the Adelaide job market they were very inaccurate. So I would say be cautious with the information and do your own research and ask someone who actually lives in that State and has a realistic view of the current job situation and salaries.

We sold up. Our property settled on the Friday lunchtime and we left the UK on the Monday! We were keen to get over here and start building a new life. We sold our property just at the right time and despite a friend in the UK predicting that property prices were going to double in the next 5 years (I think they must have been living in a different place to the one I was living in!!!) and people saying "are you going to rent your property out just in case you don't like it", we sold up lock, stock and barrel, selling most of our furniture to the lady that bought the property and we took the equity and ran! The property market crashed not long after we left and has continued to struggle. Nearly 7 years later, we could go back and buy our UK property for a third less than we sold it for. Thank goodness we didn't hang around. We were realistic with the price. The estate agent said to me "this is the price to put it on for if you are in no hurry and this is the price to sell it". I chose the quick sale price, which to me was a fair price anyway. I think a lot of people have very unrealistic expectations of what their properties in the UK are worth. My parents were only commenting tonight when they rang from the UK they had been watching the Wanted Down Unders and nearly every episode the families all think their homes are worth far more than they actually are. Generally if a property is priced correctly it will sell. Someone we know over here had a nightmare experience renting their property out in the UK and they decided they had had enough so they put it up for sale, it wouldn't sell, they dropped the price by 10k pounds and it sold straight away. So when poms say to me they can't sell their UK property, I say to them 'do you mean it won't sell or that it won't sell at the price you are asking for it'?

Not sure about stepping off the plane and getting a job straight away, people have all different experiences in the job hunting process in Australia, some get lucky, others it takes time. As Cal says where are you thinking of heading in Australia can alter the availability of work. Would you be looking for bricklaying work?

Great to read this post.

We have been here almost 7 years now. My OH works in IT so we came as a result of his skills. We sold up in the UK, our property, all the furniture, took the equity and ran! We arrived in Adelaide with 3 suitcases and 2 holdalls (basically our clothes and shoes), with nowhere to live, no jobs and not knowing anyone in Adelaide and got stuck in! We have had a few ups and downs along the way, probably no different to most people, but we feel we have a good life here and we still think Adelaide has plenty to offer people. It isn't for everyone and I think some people come with unrealistic expectations about life in Adelaide/Australia and then can be disappointed. I think people have to be honest with themselves about whether in their heart of hearts they would be happy to start off on a lower level job if they needed to, rent for a period (if they have been used to owning their own home), if they can adapt to change, be flexible in their approach and attitude and have the ability that if things go wrong they can pick themselves up, dust themselves down and keep going. My OH has had a dream migration experience, his skills are in demand, he earns more than double what he did in the UK which enables him to drive a nice car and we live in a nice house in a good location. On the other hand I have had mixed experiences on the job front, had to work hard/had some setbacks in employment/study in my own time and at my own expense to get to the place I want to be, but I rise to the challenge and always try to look at the big picture. I am not sure whether programs like Wanted Down Under help or hinder in the process of selling Australia and 'living the dream'. I was also talking to a couple not long ago that were over on a reccie and I was very concerned about the information they had been given at a migration seminar in the UK about the availability of jobs in their sector and also the salaries they were told they were going to earn, which in my experience and knowledge of the Adelaide job market was wildly inaccurate and very damaging.

You would probably receive more replies/information if you posted this question on the poms in Adelaide website.

Please correct me if I have misunderstood (I am based in Adelaide so maybe things are different over there) but my understanding is that you need a Cert III qualification to gain the licence and you need to have a licence to undertake plumbing work. Have they taken you on while you complete this process? Are you on the apprentice wage rate? http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/ftw/Tradespeople/Plumbers_and_drainers.page http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/ftw/Tradespeople/Home_building_licensing/Licence_classes_and_qualifications/Plumbing_draining_and_gasfitting.page http://www.jobguide.thegoodguides.com.au/occupation/Plumber/NSW

Great news. Sheet metal work is an area that is in demand in Adelaide, along with some other jobs. The ability to secure work quickly can very much depend on the job you do and the supply/demand of that job, so not everyone will be as lucky.