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Dear Lovely Fellow Members, I am a Mechanical Engineer who has migrated to Australia from Japan 4 months back. I am currently looking for work and find it very difficult. Somehow, I did get invited for interview at couple of places but after a few interviews I get rejected due to lack of local experience or very specific requirements of employers. so I am thinking of changing career to being a tradie/sparky. May be the tradie work such as fitter/electrician/plumber might be more stable and has a future here in Australia. I see that a lot of engineering work is unstable, gets outsourced and there is a huge supply of engineers here in Australia. I guess tradie work is always going to stay and can’t be outsourced to India/China so might be good in long term. Would you mind sharing your opinion and how to get in this field? Below are some specific questions 1. For a Mechanical Engineer which would be better field from employment perspective? I feel like HVAC/Refrigeration is very much in demand these days. 2. What is the process to be a tradie/sparky? 3. One of the electrical contractors has shown interest to provide me with pre-apprenticeship. Is it worth it? What would be a good way for me to move ahead? I will really appreciate if you can throw some light on my queries.

My partner and I are considering a move to Bunbury area from Sydney, where we've been for the last 18 months. The big motivation is that my OH wants to retrain at TAFE, and Bunbury seem to do the best course. Plus we love the outdoors, and aren't 'big city' people anyway, so never planned to stay too long in the big smoke. Our main concern is around work and living.... I am an experienced marketing manager for the not-for-profit/government sector, and earn good-ish money in Sydney. I know this kind of work will be very unlikely to come up in Bunbury, but I am ready and open to a change, from admin type jobs (I am very organised and a good project manager) to even something like cafe work. Very much seeing it as a chance for a total life change, and would be quite happy not to sit in front of a desk all day! We've obviously researched rental costs and so on, but most jobs advertised online in the area don't give any idea of salaries or hourly pay. Does anyone know what the going rate is for cafe work? Or a fairly simple office job? Or, conversely, how much you would want as a minimum salary in the area to support two people (while OH is studying)? We're both very frugal with money, and ready to try a different way of life, but equally don't want to be idiots about it! Thanks, StS

Hey there, Now I face a dilemma of my career path, either swap to internal different department or join the competitor's company, both are the same position, same duties but different supervisor or employer. However, my question is not about the job decision but the application processes.... More specifically, during the pending (waiting) period of EOI, what if my position held is changed after I receive the skill assessment letter (positive), does it mean I need to start again from the beginning of skill assessment? or only I need to do is updating on EOI ? or just waiting the subclass 190/489 visa invitation and then mentioning it on the form 1022 (Notification of changes in circumstance) with related documents to enclose such as new company's payslips, contract? :unsure: