Our journey down under

[LochStock]

Hello All

 

I thought I'd share our experience of our journey for anyone that may be interested:

With our Visas ( subclass 190) being granted in August we found ourselves in the fortunate position of making arrangements for the big move and trying to source employment. My employers informed me they wouldn't support an internal transfer to our Australia based offices and that I would need to resign from the Glasgow office but was free to apply for any vacancies open in the Sydney and Melbourne offices.

 

 

This was more of a minor inconvenience as we were prepared for that scenario and even thought it would provide an opportunity for even more of a fresh start and a new life. I was extremely confident my CV would get me a few interviews and that we'd both be employed within the first 6 months which tied in with how much money we were able to bring over to support us until we found work.

 

 

Now for the journey itself, we reasoned a big life change like this should be marked with a memorable occasion like a once in a lifetime holiday, we could have saved another 3-5 months worth of cash but arriving in Australia straight from Scotland would feel too much like a holiday at first and we'd probably procrastinate about getting our feet properly on the ground and looking for jobs and places to live etc. Some people I appreciate might be in a position where as much money as possible should be taken if going over with no employment lined up for us. I'm well aware of how arrogant it sounds but I just felt anything more than 6 months worth of cash might also cause an element of procrastination. We wanted to go over knowing there were funds there to support us and at the same time know we had to get a move on about getting money coming in.

 

 

We opted for our journey to Oz to take this format: Last November we employed Sevenseas worldwide (after reading some positive reviews about them on this forum, and their pricing being one of the cheapest it was a fairly easy decision to make) to collect our shipment and have it shipped straight to Australia whilst we marched down to Trailfinders and organised an East to West coast trip of the United States. Neither of us had been before and going to live in the Southern hemisphere it seemed unlikely we'd get a more affordable chance than now.

 

 

So from November through until our departure date of January, we saved as much as we could, and sold as much as we could, to completely empty our flat before handing over the keys and making sure we had as much spending money for the States. I also set a personal target of applying for 20 jobs every single day on seek.com.au or other job search websites or even the internal job search pages of some of the largest companies in Victoria. Given we were on a state sponsored Visa, it seemed prudent. Being a complete nerd I kept a spread sheet of every vacancy I applied for and by the time we flew to New York I'd sent over 500 individual applications, I'd heard back from around 50, 49 were rejections but 10 of which encouraged me to get in touch once I actually landed in Melbourne, because they really liked the look of my CV and would like to see what vacancies they could offer me when I was eventually there. Only 1 was offering a Skype interview with a view to offering me a position before I'd actually landed. Numbers wise that's an awful lot of time put in for very minimal return but to be honest in such a competitive market I thought I'd be closer to 1000 applications before I was getting skype interviews. Though I do see the logic in companies being wary of granting interviews to people who are not yet even in Australia I'll admit it was a bit disheartening and I began to think I'd hugely overestimated the skills and qualifications and References my CV gave me.

 

 

The trip to Australia itself was indeed one we're going to always look back on as life changing: New York, Chicago, Phoenix, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Tempe, San Francisco, Los Angeles & Honolulu in 26 days, days 27 & 28 were in Sydney before we flew out to Melbourne to settle. To detail everything we experienced would require a while different thread, I'll consider writing it up though another time. I'm happy to say our route to Oz worked out completely as planned though in that, on our last night in Hawaii we both talked about how as incredible a holiday it had been but we were both ready to stop living out of suitcases for weeks and ready to actually hit the ground running.

 

 

My cousin picked us up from Melbourne and took us to Dandenong where we'd arranged to stay with a friend for the first fortnight in order to get our feet on the ground but also not overstay our welcome and make sure we got right on to job hunting and looking for our own space.

 

 

We gave ourselves 3 days to settle in and see a bit of Victoria and Dandenong and the main city centre of Melbourne itself. Our friends organised a hug barbecue on the 4th night and invited a whole bunch of people in the hope we'd make some friendships and maybe even make some connections around possible jobs, It really struck home at this point that this is the country I live in now and I absolutely love it. The rational part of my brain knows I'm just in the honeymoon period but my partner and I were talking about it and right away feel convinced it's the best decision we've ever made and that as long as we work hard at finding work and getting involved in the local community and contributing something we'll be much happier here than we ever could have been in Glasgow.

 

 

Fast forward to day 14 of living in Australia and I've found a job working in the city whilst my partner has three separate interviews lined up for next week. I spent a day contacting all the Melbourne based IT recruitment agencies, sat down with two of them the following day, both put me forward for interviews, one of which was the very next day, and that afternoon I had my first job offer, the next day I got the second one. I accepted the first one and have my first day at the office next week. I have since been contacted by two other companies that originally asked me to wait until I got to Melbourne asking if I'd been offered anything permanent yet and would I be interested in contract work for either of them. I think it's almost too obvious but it definitely seems to increase your chances of getting interviews if you're actually in the country, some industries may very well be different and I would apply for those 500 odd applications again but I almost feel like it was a waste of time and that most employers, unless in dire need of filling a very niche position, will likely always prefer candidates to already be living in the vicinity as opposed to someone looking to pro actively secure a position before they arrive.

 

 

We both feel that the culture here, the lifestyle and yes the weather, are infinitely preferable to our old life, as long as we look at joining local clubs, and socialise and make sure we're active in the community we'll be much happier here than we ever could be in the UK. We took a huge gamble, left everything behind, had the best holiday we'd ever had getting here, and cannot wait to see what the future holds for us. We're delighted we're finally here after 6 years of saving and planning and waiting on the CSOL list to be in our favour, but for every penny spent and every sacrifice we made whilst our friends we're getting married and taking out mortgages has completely paid off.

 

 

We may very well be caught up in the honeymoon period, our moods may change and I'll try to stay as honest as possible as about this in future updates but for now, we're here as permanent residents and we could not be happier. To everyone else that's thinking about it, take the excellent advice given on this forum, make use of it, and if it really is your dream to live here, I'm sure you'll have the motivation to go through every effort to get here and make it work.

 

 

I want to keep this post positive so I've neglected to turn it into a, 'Australia has this whilst Britain doesn't have that etc'. Kind of thing when talking about why we prefer it because there's no black and white, everyone is different, everyone has their own experiences that shape their wants and preferences and I detailed some of these in an earlier thread but I'm definitely already happier here than I ever could have been in Scotland.

[stephanie1982]

Fab post...thankyou for sharing your experience so far. We can't wait to start ours in 2 weeks!

 

IELTS passed 5.8.15 ANMAC submitted 12.8.15 AHPRA submitted 12.8.15 Skills assessment ANMAC completed 14.9.15 EOI submitted for 190 visa 21.9.15 State Sponsorship WA granted 30.9.15 Invite to apply for 190 visa 10.10.15 Visa Application submitted 14.10.15 all docs front loaded....PCC and medicals completed and online by 13.11.15 awaiting decision!

[calNgary]

Great post and good to hear you got interviews etc so quickly when being in IT as some say that's a tough job market. Sounds like you had a fab time en route and made some memories, now you need to save for an Aussie road trip when you retire to make some more,lol...

 

Cal x

 

p.s,, feel free to post in the Reccie and Arrival section or on this thread - http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/news-chat-dilemmas/193833-positive-emigrating-australia-true-life-stories.html

[kyliedonut]

Lovely, congrats on the jobs too Happy exploring!

[janlo]

Youre definately in the honeymoon period by the sounds of this post. :wink: Having said that there is every chance it will be a successful move with such a positive attitude.

[dimple1]

Hi, really enjoyed reading this post we are at the nearly end I'm hoping of our permanent visa application and everything you have said is what we are expecting. We have done a lot of research and are hoping we feel exactly the same and are going to give it our best shot. Glad your story is a good one and your happy!! I just hope that ours is the same.. :-)

[Pommy Jimbo]

Congrats LochStock! A good move.