Working in Australia
I recently arrived back in Australia as part of a year of travel around the world. Having lived in Melbourne before, I decided to make it my southern hemisphere base for 6 months to gain experience, live in another country and to save for our return leg back to Ireland. I managed to secure a 6 month contract working for a large Multinational in their Web team. It’s turning out to be a great experience and it’s good to gain experience in a large organisation having previously worked in a 10 person design agency. I just thought i’d offer a bit of advice based on my recent experience for those coming over looking for work.
Before you go
Well first and foremost you’ll need a visa. The most common visa is the working holiday visa and this can be obtained online via the Australian Government Immigration website. It’s fairly straightforward and costs about 100 euro. The visa will allow to work for up to 6 months with any one employer.
If you’re coming for a web job, get your CV, references and online portfolio in place before you leave. I spent two months travelling before I reached Melbourne and thought i’d get bit’s and pieces done on my site before I got here but it didn’t work out. Instead I wasted a few days when I arrived trying to get a site together instead of applying for jobs.
Sign up to seek.com.au and start receiving daily emails of current job offerings. Even if you’re not applying it will give you a good idea of jobs on offer, salary expectations and where the appropriate jobs are available. If you’re not set on a final destination you might keep your options open and see that one city has more .net jobs and another has more design based jobs etc.
On arrival
For any job you’ll need to get yourself a TFN (Tax File Number). This can be obtained online and can take around four weeks to process. You’re best off applying the day you arrive just to get the ball rolling and so that you have one for when you eventually start work.
Open a bank account
You’ll need an Australian bank account for any job you get. It’s good to get this out of the way early too and is a pretty straightforward process. You’re probably better off going for one of the larger institutions as there is a charge evrytime you withdraw money from an ATM that isn’t your bank. The big players around Melbourne are ANZ and Commonwealth. Commonwealth offer a mastercard debit option which has been handy. It acts like a credit card but only debits from your current account and dosn’t come with any extra charges.
The Job Hunt
I can only speak from experience but the situation at the moment seems healthier than home. Once set up, you should fire off your CV, cover letters, and applications to any appropriate positions from seek.com. Also have a browse around and apply to a few agencies directly. In Melbourne, the Chapel Street area has a lot of design houses with plenty others pottered around the city. I’d recommend living in the city or Eastern suburbs on a rail line as this is where most of the jobs advertised were based.
Be patient as, like home, recruitment agencies can be slow to get back.
Starting Work
If you manage to secure work then you’ll probably get taxed and start paying superannuation. Keep tabs on all this as if you don’t plan on staying permanently you’ll be entitled to claim alot of this back. I havn’t gone through this process yet but plan to when I get back to Ireland. The tax year here runs from 1st July – 30th June so you’ll probably have to wait until the following August to make any tax claims. There are online resources that can help you with this but it might be no harm to try things yourself and save giving them a cut.
Enjoy your stay
Stating the obvious here but it’s something people forget, particuarly when travelling and using a city as a pit-stop. Find out what’s on about town, libraries are a good resource. There always seems to be something going on here such as Film festivals, Design festivals, Sport etc. I personally enjoy Melbourne. It’s got decent transport, good live music, sports and alot going on. I can’t speak for the other cities yet as I havn’t stayed long enough in either one but I’m sure each has it’s own charms.
Great info, can’t wait for the book…