PR visa, no work on arrival in Brisbane - can we temp?

[SerenaJ]

Hi all, My husband and I are in our mid forties and are in the fortunate position of having PR visas. We plan to move to Brisbane in October with our 7 year old son. My background is in marketing, communications and fundraising and my husband is an engineer, however we are realistic about the fact that it could take many, many months before we both find work that matches our skills.

 

Whilst we have been putting some savings behind us over the past couple of years, so should be able to manage initially, we're wondering what the situation is in Brisbane with finding general, unskilled work (temporary office / admin work?) until we find something more suitable. Does anyone have any experience of either temping, or finding permanent work initially in a field outside of their main profession, and are there any specific recruitment consultants (or larger employers that are active in recruiting) that anyone can recommend? We're not fussy about what we do.

 

We are in contact with recruitment agents in our respective fields, but they are reluctant to talk seriously to us about positions until much nearer the time, and say their clients wouldn't recruit anyone while they are still off shore. We're just seeking some reassurance about the prospects of finding paid work there once we arrive, as it's pretty nerve-racking taking such a big step with no jobs to go out to...

[Keith and Linda]

What sort of engineer is your husband?

I feel sure that you will find some sort of work once you get here but doubt it will be permanent more likely casual, however casual could still mean full time long term it is just that some employers use casual as a means (or a belief) of keeping their costs down and red tape stuff. Casual employment can lead on to permanent but at least it will give you some Aussie work experience/references.

Good luck with the move.

[SerenaJ]

Hi there, Thanks for your reply. My husband is a structural engineer. We'd be fine with any work to begin with to be honest, casual or permanent. Just not sure the best way to go about it - is is better to go through recruitment agencies, or direct to employers would you say? Or perhaps cover all bases and do both! :-)

[Marisawright]

Hi there, Thanks for your reply. My husband is a structural engineer. We'd be fine with any work to begin with to be honest, casual or permanent. Just not sure the best way to go about it - is is better to go through recruitment agencies, or direct to employers would you say? Or perhaps cover all bases and do both! :-)

 

Yes you should certainly do both at the same time.

[Keith and Linda]

Both! also, though I really know nothing about it, try 'Linked in' somebody else on here will come on here and offer more detailed information on this.

[SerenaJ]

Thanks for your help so far... :-)

[Peachy]

Office/ admin work is highly sought after in Brisbane. There can be 100 people applying for a basic admin role in an office. A lot of the CVs that I see are from extremely qualified people looking for work. Going via an agency may be more successful because hopefully they will match you to roles. There are jobs out there but it is a tough market. If you can research a niche area and make some contacts before you go, you may have more luck.

May be other sorts of jobs that are less competitive than office admin.

 

Hope it works out for you.

 

P

[Guest Libra]

I just wanted to say not to be afraid to apply for casual positions. From an employers point of view it's a very sensible way to recruit someone. It can sort out the wheat from the chaff by trying out staff first to see if they are as good as they sometimes pretend to be on their CV's. Both myself and my Husband got Perminant positions whilst initially starting as casual. Good luck.

[srg73]

Structural engineer should be fine, Chartered? Make sure he has records of past projects. Ensure all his qualifications transfer.

 

S

[SerenaJ]

Thanks everyone for your comments. Does anyone have experience of going via recruitment agencies - and if so, are there any that are recommended? Or did most of you scan the jobsites daily and applying for positions directly with employers? My husband is a structural engineer, not chartered, but a good range of projects behind him. Re casual work, can this go against you if wanting to purchase property? Whilst we plan to rent for the first few months, we are keen to buy. Do mortgage lenders consider people on fixed term contracts or do you have to be permanent?

[Zack]

You will Find It Hard finding work in any capacity in and Around Brisbane.At this point in time. Queensland has the highest proportion of unemployment in the country.Lets not beat about the bush here.Where we live in Queensland,the Government has just announced it's going to give the area a pittance boast of $20 Million to the area.where there a 20% unemployed. And that's common all over Queensland.But If you don't mind doing anything.Buy a small 1-2 or 3 ton truck,you can drive that on a car liecence. Download The Courier Mail Job Vacancies. Owner Drivers Wanted.There's All types of companies advertising for owner drivers,with different types of vehicles.And you'll see some vacancies. As long as you can read a UBD map Of Brisbane you can earn about $1500 a week.My son Did when he came over from NZ for 9 months.Then if you get a job in your own field, you can sell the little truck/ute with the work.Good Luck.

[NicF]

You will Find It Hard finding work in any capacity in and Around Brisbane.At this point in time. Queensland has the highest proportion of unemployment in the country.Lets not beat about the bush here.Where we live in Queensland,the Government has just announced it's going to give the area a pittance boast of $20 Million to the area.where there a 20% unemployed. And that's common all over Queensland.But If you don't mind doing anything.Buy a small 1-2 or 3 ton truck,you can drive that on a car liecence. Download The Courier Mail Job Vacancies. Owner Drivers Wanted.There's All types of companies advertising for owner drivers,with different types of vehicles.And you'll see some vacancies. As long as you can read a UBD map Of Brisbane you can earn about $1500 a week.My son Did when he came over from NZ for 9 months.Then if you get a job in your own field, you can sell the little truck/ute with the work.Good Luck.

 

As much as I hate to talk my state down I think you will find that South Australia has the worst unemployment figures in the country.

[Marisawright]

Thanks everyone for your comments. Does anyone have experience of going via recruitment agencies - and if so, are there any that are recommended? Or did most of you scan the jobsites daily and applying for positions directly with employers? My husband is a structural engineer, not chartered, but a good range of projects behind him. Re casual work, can this go against you if wanting to purchase property? Whilst we plan to rent for the first few months, we are keen to buy. Do mortgage lenders consider people on fixed term contracts or do you have to be permanent?

 

Get on seek.com.au and notice which agencies are advertising jobs in your fields. See if they have a contract/temporary division and go and enrol with them when you arrive. I would enrol with two or three - after all, the agencies won't go out actively seeking jobs for you. They'll just wait until an assignment comes in and then see who they've got on their books that might suit. So if you only enrol with one agency, you may be waiting a long time.

 

If you get an assignment from one agency, then it's only courteous to let the other agencies know you're not available for work, but don't tell them it's through another agency!

 

PS You seem to be a little wary of recruitment agencies? It's very common for Australian companies to use agencies to recruit - because many of them have small HR departments and don't have the resources to manage the recruitment process. If you don't apply for jobs through recruitment agencies then you'll miss out on over half the market.

[Skani]

Queensland has the highest proportion of unemployment in the country.

 

The OP is talking about Brisbane which has a lower unemployment rate than the national average and lower than 4 other capital cities - Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart.

[ramot]

Sunshine Coast unemployment rate April 2016 4.3%

[SerenaJ]

Hi Zack, Thank you for your honest and helpful answer. We will consider most things and plan not to be closed-minded about anything. You say unemployment is at 20% where you are - is that Brisbane? 'd be interested in asking you a couple of questions about the driving work your son did. Am I OK to private message you? :-)

[SerenaJ]

Thanks Marissa. I do spend quite a lot of time on SEEK, and have done over the past year... I just don't see many jobs come up in my area of expertise, so I wondered if I'm looking in the wrong place (i.e. maybe you have to be on the books of the agents to even find out about certain jobs). Or perhaps it's just reflective of the market that there isn't a lot around? I emailed 3 agents that offer work in my field, letting them know when I'm arriving and asking whether their websites hold all live vacancies, but none of them have replied to me. I think I need to get a bit more focused and hunt down ALL the agencies and make sure I'm registered with them. Thanks.

[Skani]

You say unemployment is at 20% where you are - is that Brisbane?

 

5.7% for Brisbane (Small area labour market statistics, Aust. Bureau of Statistics).

[Gbye grey sky]

Hi Zack, Thank you for your honest and helpful answer. We will consider most things and plan not to be closed-minded about anything. You say unemployment is at 20% where you are - is that Brisbane? 'd be interested in asking you a couple of questions about the driving work your son did. Am I OK to private message you? :-)

 

Hi Serena.

 

As a newby to any forum you will not be familiar with some of the more flamboyant characters on the site. By tapping on the name you can view anyone's posting history which you can then use to evaluate the usefulness of the advice they may be giving you.

[Marisawright]

Thanks Marissa. I do spend quite a lot of time on SEEK, and have done over the past year... I just don't see many jobs come up in my area of expertise, so I wondered if I'm looking in the wrong place (i.e. maybe you have to be on the books of the agents to even find out about certain jobs). Or perhaps it's just reflective of the market that there isn't a lot around? I emailed 3 agents that offer work in my field, letting them know when I'm arriving....

 

If you're not seeing much advertised on Seek then I'd be worried - if anything, Seek tends to paint a rosy picture of how many vacancies there are, since some agencies can be lax about removing filled positions. Are you looking just in the Brisbane area or are you looking Australia-wide?

 

If it's just Brisbane, then you are up against the fact that most large companies have their headquarters in either Sydney or Melbourne.

 

There is an element of "who you know" about getting jobs in Australia, but no, agencies do NOT keep jobs secret and only offer them to people on their books! I'm suggesting registering with the temporary arm of agents upfront, because they fill temp jobs from their books. - but registering upfront with the permanent arm usually just puts you in a "slush pile" and you get forgotten about quickly. The best way to register with a perm agency is to apply for one of their vacancies.

 

I'm not surprised you're not getting a response from emails to agencies - they're not interested in migrants who haven't even arrived in the country yet. They don't know your situation but they know the average migrant with a family will need a couple of months to get packed up and moved, and then they'll be distracted for a month or so after arrival by the demands of settling in. No employer wants to waste time hiring someone like that, unless there's a desperate shortage of local candidates (who can start work in a few weeks' time and be totally focussed on the job).

 

If you want to get some idea of the market, the only way to speak to agencies is to ring them up and interrogate them, even if you have to get up at midnight to do it!

[GoldcoastMAD]

5.7% for Brisbane (Small area labour market statistics, Aust. Bureau of Statistics).

 

Brisbane is a very large area, the north looks good!

 

[TABLE=class: DataTable, width: 100%]

[TR]

[TH]Labour Force Region[/TH]

[TH]Unemployment Rate (%)[/TH]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Brisbane - North[/TD]

[TD]3.2[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Brisbane - Inner City[/TD]

[TD]4.1[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Sunshine Coast[/TD]

[TD]4.3[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Brisbane - West[/TD]

[TD]4.5[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Moreton Bay - South[/TD]

[TD]4.6[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Darling Downs - Maranoa[/TD]

[TD]5.3[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Toowoomba[/TD]

[TD]5.3[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Fitzroy[/TD]

[TD]5.4[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Brisbane - East[/TD]

[TD]5.9[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Brisbane - South[/TD]

[TD]6.0[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Mackay[/TD]

[TD]6.1[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Gold Coast[/TD]

[TD]6.2[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Logan - Beaudesert[/TD]

[TD]6.3[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Moreton Bay - North[/TD]

[TD]8.0[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Queensland - Outback[/TD]

[TD]8.4[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Wide Bay[/TD]

[TD]8.6[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Cairns[/TD]

[TD]9.3[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Ipswich[/TD]

[TD]11.0[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Townsville[/TD]

[TD]11.7[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

[SerenaJ]

Thanks Marisa - this is really helpful. It does feel little like a catch 22 situation... we need to feel pretty secure about job prospects before choosing Brisbane (over, say, Sydney), but can't really get a proper feel for things until we have arrived, by which case we'll have made our decision and burnt our bridges (i.e. moved to Brisbane, not Sydney). I will definitely do as you ask and give the agents a call though. Thanks.

[Marisawright]

Thanks Marisa - this is really helpful. It does feel little like a catch 22 situation... we need to feel pretty secure about job prospects before choosing Brisbane (over, say, Sydney), but can't really get a proper feel for things until we have arrived, by which case we'll have made our decision and burnt our bridges (i.e. moved to Brisbane, not Sydney).

 

One of the problems with migration is that people think, "if my occupation is on the list of occupations Australia wants, then it must be in demand". It's not true. The Australian Government is very slow to react to changes in the employment market. Just look at accountants - they are still on the list, yet there is a major oversupply of accountants in Australia even at senior levels. So you need to do your own research and be prepared to believe the results - don't imagine you're missing something and it will be OK, because it may not!

 

I'd say that for both of you, phone calls to several recruitment agencies would be in order. You may need perseverance to get through, but it will be worth it, as agencies who specialise in your field will have a good idea of what the market is like.