londoncalling

Gosh, have I hit a nerve moaning about Aus? Sorry if you're easily offended! I don't think it's that hard moving over here with 1-2 years PQE experience depending on where you qualify. Yes I am fully aware being on a secondment isn't comparable to moving somewhere permanently and people are probably put off when they find you're going to be heading back in a matter of months.

Presumably with sponsorship, yes. But my WHV has been used, yes. Not sure if I would realistically come back though - it is very, very far!

Also, I should add, with just two months left here, I'm beyond the stage I think where I want to actively try to make friends and want to spend the rest of the time exploring as much of Australia as I can before I go back

Hi there, I'm new here. I'm not sure why I'm really posting anything, I'm not an 'expat' and I am just in Sydney on a secondment from the UK. Anyway, as an introduction, I'm a 24 year old on secondment to a law firm here. If I could describe the experience so far, it's a mixture of emotions. I arrived in March and will be returning to HQ in London in October. I think this is a beautiful country - I love the far higher quality of life in almost all respects, the fresh produce and food, the quality, the unimaginable space and sense of freedom. I've loved these aspects to my time here and will be sad to go back. That said, I've made basically no friends in Sydney. I don't know what it is and can't put my finger on it, but I get the impression that networks are just really difficult to break into here? Or locals just hang out with people they went to school/university with and are not very trusting of newcomers. Which is the complete opposite to my life in London where newcomers are always coming and going and always welcome in my friendship group. I've been busy with work, but even at work I have found a lot of people to be pretty antisocial and some fairly unfriendly or just interested in showing up for work and going home with no after hours culture at all. So I've found myself feeling pretty isolated a lot of the time in the evenings with no social life. I've put that extra time to good use by exploring aus as much as I can and getting fit (no alcohol opportunities has actually left me feeling amazing!). I guess I just feel that, while it's been an incredible experience work-wise, professionally and opened my eyes to potentially working abroad again, it's also been a very weird experience and I feel sad that I just haven't made any friends. Sure, I've made 'contacts' through 'networking' but friendships - not really. It's been exacerbated by the time difference when I want to tell my mates in the UK something but won't receive a response for hours and even when I have downtime in the evening, they will be flat out at work so not really possible to contact. Professionally as well, I feel very out of the loop with HQ in London and am concerned about qualification as a solicitor when I return as I've been away for so long. I also don't really hear from my friends in the UK very much these days - I guess 'out of sight out of mind' is true. When I went to Melbourne, I had the complete opposite vibe to Sydney. Everyone was lovely, ridiculously friendly and I loved the vibe of the city. I'd love to come back to Australia for a couple of years at least but would it just be the same as I have felt on this shorter term move over here? It's odd because I feel very sad knowing I have to go back to London (hate it there) but also excited because the work is higher quality there. Is it just Sydney? Or are these feeling normal for Aus in general? It's been 100% the opposite to what I expected and I haven't really seen much of that laid back care free super friendly Aus culture we all see on TV in the UK. That said, super grateful for the experience, I just want to know whether it's worth looking at coming back as it's been very lonely over here... ?