helmet

Salford Quays is nice. The borough of Salford isn't.

In Mandurah, even if you do get burgled twice a day, assaulted and then have your car nicked, you will probably still be getting off lightly compared to Salford, haha. Used to work there, second only to Luton in a worst-place-in-the-Universe competition.

We brought everything but I reckon about a 1/3 never even got unpacked and most of the remainder was replaced within a year. Even so, I think I would still do the same again.

UK references are fairly useless, hence the 'Oz experience' issue. They're too HR-centric and offer up no real evidence of you as an employee. I brought written references and recommendations with me from the UK, all were pretty much ignored, more than 1 interviewer suggesting that I could have done them myself; which, to be fair, I couldn't disprove. Telephone refereeing seems to be the norm.

It took me about 75 applications over 5 months to secure my first Oz posting, that was 9 years ago and the market was much more buoyant than now. The ‘Oz experience’ issue is a genuine problem, some employers are very wary of dealing with migrants with no Oz work background. I brought a ruck of certificates, work documents, recommendations and the like, and they were pretty much universally dismissed at interviews. One thing that struck me is that references in the UK are too generic, too HR-centric. Whereas over here, they seem to encompass what you are actually like at doing your job; and if you’re rubbish, they will say that. So, a lot of employers are looking for that level of detail. Just persevere is all I can say really. The only real advice I would offer up is make sure you have enough money to live on whilst you are applying (which could be 6 months +), don’t bother with Perth as there is no real market here, don’t fall out with anyone as it will come back to bite you, interact socially at work as that’s how most internal opportunities are leveraged, join an official body of knowledge for the industry that you’re working in, etc….. Good luck all.

I'm only really going to see people and my Dad has convinced me that's when the weather is best.

Yeah, I have already committed to a return journey but am thinking August/Sept next time, never doing winter again.

Verystomy, sounds great, London is cool.

To be fair, if you go on a 7-week 'holiday' at Xmas time, it can be quite difficult to avoid shops completely; for obvious reasons. Even if you know the experience is akin to Night of the Living Dead.

Nothing that I really wanted to do, no. I’m from the NW of England and, to be honest, other than family visits, I just found our extended visit there a thoroughly depressing experience, right from the moment the plane broke through the multitude of black clouds. Not much going on apart from people shopping, watching the telly and going to the pub. And, when we did go walking around the shops, everyone looked totally fed-up. A lot look they’ve only got a week to live, never seen so many people who look so drawn, ill and/or unhealthy. Granted it was Nov/Dec/Jan and it had been raining non-stop for about 7 years but I kind of expected a bit more Xmas cheer. Wearing multiple layers, coats and hats everywhere, even whilst doing some indoor activities, gets tiresome and uncomfortable very quickly. Just a personal assessment of course. And the Xmas telly was great.

We've been here 10 years and love it. But, there's no way I'd be moving here right now, not a chance. I've read people's opinions on here about Perth, boring, nothing to do etc. and I totally disagree. The place is great. We were back in the UK for a month in December and there's nothing to do there more like; well, apart from go to the pub. But, unfortunately, economy-wise WA is in free-fall. Anyone planning a move to Australia should be looking at Sydney & Melbourne full stop. We've had a round of redundancies in work, as have plenty of friends, the investment is just not there. You stand a slight chance if you're a tradie on the skills list, forget it if you're an office worker. Shame really as the place has been great for us. If worst comes to worst, we will have to head over East ourselves. Don't want to mind, and moving back to the UK is option # 897,001.