Moving to Aus

Kiith

Oh look, another I'm thinking of moving to Australia thread :pac:

Anyway, I'm thinking of moving to Aus at the end of the year/early next year, as i need a major change and could do with some hot sunny weather. Been looking through some of the threads, and they have some great advice. Thanks for that. Some quick questions though...

1. How's the IT sector in places like Sydney or Melbourne currently? I've an honours networking degree with 5 years experience, so it should cover me for most IT support jobs. I've been looking at some job sites (SEEK etc...) and even the lower level support roles seem decently paid. Not looking to make money, just keep me topped up while i'm there.

2. Regarding apartment rental costs, how does it compare to Dublin? I've been living on my own in the City Center for the last year, and would like to get a 1 bed apartment when i go over there if it's financially possible. Any good sites for searching for places?

3. If i have a full motorbike license here, can i use it over there or do i need to apply for an Australian license? I've only a provisional at the moment, but will hopefully have the full one before leaving. Was thinking of doing some travelling near the end of the year, and want to buy/rent a bike for some of it.

4. I know it's entirely dependent on how long it takes to find a job/apartment, but how much would you say i should have set aside for the first few weeks/month? I know they say 5k, but how much did you spend before getting yourself an income?

5. More to come once i think of them...

6ix

I'm only going to answer questions 2 & 4 because I don't know about the other two.

Kiith wrote: »

2. Regarding apartment rental costs, how does it compare to Dublin? I've been living on my own in the City Center for the last year, and would like to get a 1 bed apartment when i go over there if it's financially possible. Any good sites for searching for places?

Use www.domain.com.au and www.gumtree.com.au for searching. Domain is probably best for rentals, while if you're just looking for a shared place then Gumtree. Rent is expensive here - I'm paying more than twice what I was in Dublin... but at the same time the wages are lot higher so as a percentage of my salary I'm only paying slightly more than what I was in Dublin. A 1-bed in the city will set you back around $500 a week. For two people that's fine, but for one person it's pretty expensive. You'll be able to afford it if you're on decent wages, but it would be a decent chunk of your wages so it depends on how comfortable you are spending that much on rent.

Kiith wrote: »

4. I know it's entirely dependent on how long it takes to find a job/apartment, but how much would you say i should have set aside for the first few weeks/month? I know they say 5k, but how much did you spend before getting yourself an income?

I really can't give an estimate of how much, but bring as much as you can. I was lucky to get a job pretty much straight away, but I know plenty who weren't as lucky and money disappears fast even if you're not drinking much/eating out etc. It's an expensive place and when you're spending Euro it seems twice as bad. Once you're earning, it's fine because it's all relative. Day to day expenses add up, but the biggest outlays will be for setup costs. For example if you did get an apartment, you would have to pay the bond (deposit), which is usually 4 weeks rent. So for the one-bed mentioned above, that's $2000 straight off. The apartment (or even a lot of rooms) would most likely come unfurnished, so you're looking at kitting it out with a bed, living room furniture, kitchen stuff, etc, all of which is pretty expensive.

Anyway, although that might sound a bit daunting, you sound like you've good experience and some IT people on here should be able to give an indication of job prospects. That's the biggest hurdle - once you can get a good job all of the stuff above will fall into place pretty easily.

Best of luck!

hussey

Kiith wrote: »

1. How's the IT sector in places like Sydney or Melbourne currently? I've an honours networking degree with 5 years experience, so it should cover me for most IT support jobs. I've been looking at some job sites (SEEK etc...) and even the lower level support roles seem decently paid. Not looking to make money, just keep me topped up while i'm there.

Yeah IT is going pretty well at the moment, decent pay and good jobs

2. Regarding apartment rental costs, how does it compare to Dublin? I've been living on my own in the City Center for the last year, and would like to get a 1 bed apartment when i go over there if it's financially possible. Any good sites for searching for places?

As 6ix said - expensive, although if you are will to commute (20-30mins) on train it will go down a lot and there are good areas too. Beach = expensive

3. If i have a full motorbike license here, can i use it over there or do i need to apply for an Australian license? I've only a provisional at the moment, but will hopefully have the full one before leaving. Was thinking of doing some travelling near the end of the year, and want to buy/rent a bike for some of it.

If you are on a WHV or 457 then you should be able to use it, if you are on a migrant visa you'll need to swap
here is the NSW (sydney) link http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/licensing/newtonsw/international_riders.html
have a read through

4. I know it's entirely dependent on how long it takes to find a job/apartment, but how much would you say i should have set aside for the first few weeks/month? I know they say 5k, but how much did you spend before getting yourself an income?

It's not uncommon to pay 6weeks up front for an apartment (4 weeks bond, 2 weeks rent) so that alone is a huge cost, and they generally come unfurnished, so add that to the cost.
If you are hosteling it until you get a job it will be cheaper. But otherwise I would add another 3k on to the 5k