cava83

I was on okaish money in London, could have been on more (everyone says that don't they .....) but liked it where I was. Been offered a few as stated before in Melbourne, but travelling from Geelong to Richmond is not something I want to do (most are there) Nevertheless, possibly looking at a low end IT job here where I have been just informed the pay is $40,000, which is less than when I started in IT after leaving Uni over 10 years ago! I think it just really depends where you are to be honest and an element of luck too.

Really depends where you are in Australia and what IT sector you're in. For instance, where we are based in Geelong, shocking. But there is a bit of movement in Melbourne. Nevertheless, if you're looking into it, wishing you all the best

Dear all, Need some external thoughts, apart from the obvious that you never own a lease car. Other half has a lease car, which was managed by her company but done through custom fleet. Money is deducted from her salary. She is currently paying $1450 a month, for a Rav4 GL, new. This includes maintenance, insurance, petrol on an operators lease. This to me is a ridiculous amount of money. We have just done our first tax return, and were informed we could not claim for anything on an operators lease. We have been here for 7 months and now I am thinking that we would be best buying a car. As it just seems to be throwing money away. We are unsure how long we are going to be here, one more year or another 4, so that makes this a bit harder. However, taking into consideration the purchase of a new car and possible depreciation, it still seems cheaper than what we are currently paying for now. (Jeep compass 27k) Additionally, on the tax return, we can claim up to 5,000 kms without a log book, depreciation and god knows what else. Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks, C

It depends where you are and what skill set you have and experience. Neither which you have stated Sydney - I could get a job no problem. Melbourne - I could get a job no problem. Where I am in a smallish area, no luck and I am not wanting to commute everyday, done it for many years in the past. Therefore, the next logical question from the others and I is, what job roles have you been offered? Nevertheless, good luck and enjoy.

I think it can be mainly down to one's perception. I have lived in several places and I have to say, that even though the weather in the UK can be frustrating, it is a good place to live (depending on area) I was privileged to live in Surrey for most of my UK time, but did live in Portsmouth for a while and some other locations down there. I was always warned how rubbish Portsmouth was, but I had a great time and Southsea was brilliant. Spain is a beautiful place as a whole, I come from the Islands, there are no jobs, it's really shocking how it is and how the government are managing people with pensions, far worse than the UK. But it is still a great place if you have work/money. I've also had the pleasure of living in Cancun, it was a splendid place, but as soon as you go out of the "norm" poverty really strikes you. However, one of the happiest places I have been to. It just all depends on people's perceptions and circumstances and who you are with. Where would I live? No idea. Like I say, England in my view, if you are in an ok area and family/friends around you, it's a great place. Yes TAX sucks, a lot of 1 d 1 0 t s and so on, but generally it is good. Make of this what you will, but really does depend on the individual. Whatever route you choose, good luck. Try to be positive, if it doesn't work, move onto the next thing. Good luck

Think we are both on the same boat. Agencies here somehow don't feel me with confidence. Most don't get back to you. Which I find rude. My CV is fine, my experience is fine, I could do with some more certs but we all know that is not true knowledge. If push comes to shove, I will start up as something small and knock on people's doors. There are some technical roles going around here, own car, no petrol paid for and so on, thought I would ask and see what the rate was, $24 inc SUPER per hour! Get the same money working in Burger king, no stress and food included !!!

Well done and thanks for the update. No job is always as stated I've been for 4 interviews, but nothing either in 5 months. Which is frustrating. And I refuse to be an on the road engineer for $22 an hour, providing my own vehicle, rather work in a shop What kind of IT are you doing? In all seriousness, well done and congrats. I am sure you will be fine on your next job

Ah, apologies, for sure

Thanks for the reply. More than that price? Most deposits here as far as I have read on average is 5%, can increase to 10%, if a new build can be 20% to 40%. I really want to buy, but just isn't feasible. Even if we released a large amount of equity from our property in the UK, it would still be a lot here sadly.

Good evening all, I have gone through the search quickly but cannot find anything too descriptive on this, if there is, please point me in the right direction. I was reading a website the other day about prices in victoria, stating that buying is a lot cheaper than renting, I see quite the opposite. They were talking about $1200 pcm rentals in victoria vs 880 pcm mortgages, however in semi descent prices, there is no way those are the prices. Seems that mortgages are a lot more than the rentals. We are currently paying $2500 pcm for a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with a garage, house is ok, but not built very well. This house is valued at around $750,000 if I were to take a mortgage out at 4.89 it would be $4336 a month (25 years), that is nearly 2k more per month. Am I missing something? I have a house in the UK which I own, mortgage stuff there is easy. I understand there is negative gearing here on investment properties but not sure on main residence. I know the numbers are rough, no stamp duty, no fees or nothing have been included but what are your thoughts? If we are going to be here say 5 years and properties go up at the standard rate they have been over the last 3 years, on average, I will probably still be better off renting than buying. Thanks, C.

Could not think of anything worse than commuting again. I used to do it to London, was around 1.5 hours one way. We moved for quality of live and avoiding those trains Saying that though, all the jobs are in Melbourne, descent pay ones anyway Rippleside is good as stated. I'd live there if I had kids.

Agree with your point as I can relate to it. For instance, I have 3 years full experience with Sage/Act, however that ended in 2007 and would not have a clue now, apart from the basics. However, it's also the willingness of someone to work and learn that counts a great deal Household name clients, then they bring our their NDA talk, seen that so many times! Meh

Just out of interest, how did you find the jobs without agents? Finding agents here to be harder work than back in the UK, even then I used them mainly for employing people and found it a pain

Hi, Not interested, but pics could help. I also found Gumtree to be ok, apart from the scammers. Best of luck with everything

Any update on this, I am keen to hear how it went Or maybe I killed the thread ?! Opppps

I see some love or it hate it. We've only just moved from the UK (Surrey) to near Melbourne. It has been a shock, not what we were sold by the company that hired the other half, and not what we were told by people who lived here. There are positive and negative elements living in any country. For me, it was easier than the wife moving abroad. I moved from Spain at a young age to the UK, then back and forth, and other places, back to the UK and now here. The biggest element is missing the family or family events, that means a lot for us. However, some of them we didn't see that often so it's not the end of the world. What is upsetting is not being able to see a relative if they are poorly or funeral. Also, unable to catch a flight back to Spain without a moments notice is a bummer or quick holiday. Saying that though, we like it here, it's nice and most surprisingly, the wife does like it. Financially, we are not better off here. A lot more expense. One of the main things on the back of our heads is, if and when we are going to return back to the UK. Because you become "unsettled" as you don't really feel rooted, so that is one of our main concerns. Not sure if we are going to live in other areas of Australia, I hope so, specially if a bit warmer. Overall, people will have different opinions and reasons for staying/or going back. What is important to remember is that everyone is different and GENERALLY we cannot criticise people for their opinions/actions in regards to staying or moving back. This is a forum after all, from my little postings on here, seems like a brilliant community and some really great advice. If you stay or go, make sure it's a joint decision, not rushed and be happy Thanks, C. ps: I hate polished concrete flooring that doesn't have underfloor heating, this house is freezing !!!

Thank you very much

Thanks Tina, appreciated. I will have a look. This is the issue with Australia (please don't think I am being negative) there isn't much competition i.e on this instance coles and woolworths, hence they can charge what they want The pricing fluctuates so much, red peppers the other week where $11.99 kilo at Woolworths, then went down to $4.99, then again down to $3.99, now gone back up I think. Steak and chicken is great here, that isn't too bad. The chicken breasts are massive. No reason for the pricing of food to be too high, specially if locally produced. I do love it though, how the massive business chain's here aren't so prominent (well at least from what I have seen) love independent businesses. Geelong is cool, so many people where the wife works hate it, as they have another office in Melbourne and they think Melbourne is amazing and Geelong is a dive. Sure it's sleepy, but it's not too bad. Wish there where more pubs though and alcohol didn't cost a fortune, even when I was working in central London, the alcohol was cheaper there, crazy Right, time to try out the trains and work out how to get into Melbourne and figure out the trams. Thanks again for responding.

I'm sorry for my naivety, but what tax rebate is this? Thanks in advanced.

We are from Surrey (sort of) And have moved to Geelong just south of Melbourne. We were both working in London, taking home a descent amount of money. Were able to save (well I was normally, wife is not so good. Bless her). I did the typical analysing costs and so on, of what to expect but nothing worked out to plan. We are really enjoying Australia, at the moment we only have one income (wife) which is enough to live on comfortably but not enough to save (unless you stay in all the time) Somethings we have found cheaper such as petrol, but we have a company lease which is a ridiculous amount of money. RAV4 (basic), with petrol card is $940 a month roughly. Rent isn't too bad, but only because we are in Geelong, been looking at Sydney and other places, they are crazy. We are paying $540 a week. Food , interesting one, there is only two of us, and I really don't know how we spend so much (we aren't obese!) Avocado's in Woolworths are normally around $3.00, which is crazy. Small salad bag you are looking at $4. Juices around $4 for cheap ones. Cereal and so on. Some people are recommending Aldi, I will need to consider that. I see some people have mentioned they have more left over at the end of the month, but this is not for us (even on a single salary) Not sure how we would manage if we are lucky enough to have children. Even if we were on say 100k, not sure how it would work.

Been here 5 months. No job as of yet. Been looking, but not killing it. Wife has a job here in Geelong, we manage on one salary. I used to be an IT manager, Have a degree, HND and some other small qualifications. Currently working on vendor qualifications. Seems they tend to prefer Australians for a lot of the jobs or they don't love me

Agreed within reason They did state the following "That is internal corporate users, not web based users. I personally designed and lead the implementation on one of the largest corporate internet gateways in Europe, providing proxy access and content scanning for 150k users across offices all over the UK, as well as designing several other internal services including Blackberry BES, remote access, and SSL content scanning." You cannot learn how to design and implement a system for multiple locations, with the spec that was stated, simply by looking at youtube videos and therefore, to me, that is some good experience. In regards to your comment regarding experience should be measured in intensity, not duration. This is not always the case

150k users is a huge amount. I'd be a consultant if I had that experience.