Looking for some direction
Replies: 11 - Last Post: Mar 20, 2013 4:55 AM Last Post By: gawkabout
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Looking for some direction
Hi Everyone,Sorry if this sounds a little vague, but I'm looking for some unbiased advice.
I'm a 23 year old Australian female. I recently decided to move from Australia to New Zealand to live and work for a while and spend time with Family, however I have just heard that some family problems have come up, and they are planning on moving to Australia. I had already planned to move, I have resigned from my job, and moved into temporary accommodation. In my head, I had already left Australia, so to find out that my plans of leaving have been halted, has been a little devastating.
I now have a few options:
1) Stay in Australia, find another house/job
2) Go to New Zealand, but live alone, not have that family network around me.
3) Go to the UK
Option 3 is the most appealing to me, I have a friend in South-West England that has offered accommodation, I would just need to find work. However, I have heard that the job market over there isn't great. I have a lot of experience in office work (admin, reception, PA etc.). Also, I don't know if I have enough money, I will have about $4000 by the time I go (around May), but my plane ticket would come out of that, and I don't know how long it would take me to find work.
New Zealand was always a stepping stone for me getting to the UK, I was planning on living there for 12-18 months, and save up enough money to get to the UK.
Hopefully you can give me some guidance!
1
The universe is telling you to go to the UK.From what I remember from when I lived in New Zealand, a lot of the natives went to live/work in Australia because the money was a lot better there. Seems odd to go the other way and hope to save money? No doubt there is more to the story than you have mentioned.
2
If I had gone to NZ when my family is there, I would have lived with them, paid minimal bills etc, and been able to save the majority of my earnings. If I still go, I need to live alone, and so I wouldn't actually save any more money than what I would staying in Australia.It does feel like everything is pointing to the UK at the moment, I guess my biggest concern is finding work over there. Also, I would like to spend some time with my family when they get back to Oz, but I finish my Australian job in April, and I can't really afford to hang around without work for more than a month.
5
You need enough money to fly to the UK and BACK plus enough to live off for a couple of months. If things don't pan out you fly home and are no worse off than you are now.You need a WHV before you go, so get your application started.
When you say stay with friends, for how long? Bearing in mind the saying fish and company start to stink after 3 days. Don't overstay your welcome and that means having money to pay for accommodation.
It may be you need to work a few more months in Australia in order to have enough money to leave with.
I don't think there is any question of what you want to do under the present circumstances, so just get on with figuring out how to go about it.
6
As one who left NZ for England over 40 years ago (and made my home here, too) I'm adding my voice to those who say come on over.But, as TiS says, make sure you have everything sorted out in advance. It's especially important to have saved enough to do some European travel while you're here, so you need a flexible visa/ WHV(?) And it's quite hard to save money in the UK, at least until you know the lie of the land.
In the meantime, why not look at house-sitting opportunities? I'm sure these exist in Australia, as well as in the UK. This would enable you to save more of your money for travelling.
Also, check flight fares; http://www.skyscanner.net is very good for this as you can put in a whole month and find the cheapest days. Check for both May and June, possibly even July as by then companies will be looking for temporary staff to cover for holidays.
7
Thanks for all your advice.I don't need a WHV, my mum was born in the UK, so I'm eligible for a UK passport. So at least I don't have to worry about that.
House-sitting is something I have thought about doing, in both Australia and the UK, I might look into that a little more in depth.
I think I do need to save up some more money, travelinstyle46 is right, it's important I have enough 'reserves' to be able to come back to Australia if I need to. Plus, I'm sure being that close to the rest of Europe, I won't be able to resist travelling around!
I would be looking at staying with friends for no more than 3 months, I wouldn't want to outstay my welcome, and I would be actively looking for work and other accommodation from the day I arrive.
I've been looking at job sites online, and from what I can see my experience more than qualifies me for the jobs in office work/admin, so hopefully companies are interested in hiring an Australian!
10
if your coming to the UK, make sure that you start looking for jobs asap even before you arrive. I'd say that London has the most job opportunities at this moment in time, however its still very tough there trying to find a job, so I'd save as much as you can whilst still overseas as the UK is not very cheap in the South.
