StraighttothePoint

I ahve been folowing your posts. I think you are heading into a bit of a panic mood. You just need to try and focus. My offer in another post of helping you with your CV is still there. Try and draft one and get that out of the way. You will need that when you arrive. Sort it now and that is one thing out of the way. Also I would really suggest you stop blogging on here as it is too late to worry either way. Just prepare for the flight. Good luck.

I would pack for a Scottish spring, i.e. can be very cold at night, some heavy wet downpours and some lovely warm days.

No problem.

Good point. The problem here though is that every newspaper, the TV and the Water Corporation all advise us how little water there is and that if we carry on the way it is going then there will be further water restrictions. (I know the water people should be finding other ways to supply the stuff but that costs.) The old saying, "When in Rome" springs to mind. Plant a native garden and get rid of the lawn = one watering per week only required. Don't run the tap when brushing your teeth. Gather the cold water when running the cold tap. I could go on and on. It is easy all folk need to do is think, plan ahead and put any plan into action. If not for the dollar do it for the kids of the future.

Now given my head does not have much hair on it then I may not be the right gender and/or participant in this debate. However I live in Joondalup and boy if I see yet another salon opening here in this area I will just scratch my head and wonder why? I am assuming because at one time hair dressers were on the skills short list that there must have been an influx of people wanting to do the same thing. Jonndalup seems to have dozens of salons and every time I pass one of them they are near empty or empty. Also not sure how many are bought as there is a lot of leasing of shops here rather than outright purchase. First suggestion would be to go onto white pages . com and do a search for salons in each of the northern suburb areas. That should give you an idea of the volume there are. Then go to businesses for sale in Perth and look though that and you will gauge from that how many are for sale and if a big number then you would need to ask yourself why. Finally setting up and running a small business in Perth is a nightmare. I know because I do it. The amount of council rules and regulations, the ever increasing rents and rates, the cost of utilities and so on is so hard to juggle. Ultimately the costs need to be passed on and that hurts the customers. If you are in a niche market then fine but when you are up against similar businesses then the customers just vote for their feet and many look for the cheapest deal. I know quality counts but in Perth my experience is that if it is cheap it sells. All for you to find out no doubt when you get here. The hairdresser my wife went to in Joondalup was run by a Pom couple and they were forced out by customer numbers, high lease costs and ever increasing council rates. They were one of what looks like 10/15 hairdressers in a very small area. They sold up and moved house, one with an extension built on the back, and now run their business from home. Apparently they have never looked back. They do not need to work full time and are just glad that they got out when they did. My wife still goes to them as do many of their previous shop customers. Slight drop in charges to the customer but a huge reduction in overheads. Sure when you undertake the research properly you will then have the facts to decide.

The bottom line is you face the same problem many of us did when we came out to Perth and that is that you will not be able to demonstrate any local experience. In many cases this is the first thing many employers look for and if they do not see any then they, in many cases, tend to look for others to fill the role. I know chicken and the egg but that is the way it is here in Perth. What I found was that where you are have a skill that is required, i.e. one in a skills shortage area, then employers tend to view the CV's differently. You become more wanted. As I say in many cases not good for new comers but perseverince is the name of the game. I agree with Phil that in some cases UK style CV's work but that is possibly down to my point whereby the person has a skill that is in demand. Aussie Cv's are much shorter and to the point. I note from your other post that you "work in the medical sector, also have done alot of catering, waitressing and private cleaning". A fair mix and the advice would be to may be target the medical sector on any CV in the first insatnce. Of course this will all depend on what you did in the medical sector but if you give that sector a go and then it fails to yeild anything then you can move onto the next option, e.g. catering. I would not put down a range of different jobs because it might not help demonstrate what you want it to and could come across as if you don't really have a sole skill. As for the CV itself short, sharp and to the point to catch the readers eye otherwise you will just be one more in a big pile of paper or an e-mail inbox. Keep it simple and include a basic introduction, followed by bullet point lists in date order rather than lots of text. Text and background may be interesting to you but to the reader they will not wade through it unless they are hooked immediately. If you can keep the whole CV to one page or one and a half pages at the most then that is easily e-mailed and circulated in paper based mode. I sift through CV's every month for my company in order to short list people we need and honestly there are some really bad CV's submitted. What we find is that the simple CV's are more professional looking, tend to be from people who know what they are about and have enough information in them to at least make us speak to the submitter. And that is what it is all about in many cases - being able to speak to somebody who thinks you may be what they are looking for. If you are not good at CV's then you will probably need help. Draft one and then get somebody to review it. Happy to do that for you if you like. I will be honest though If that is any help please PM me.

Baths? What are they? Only time I get them now is when I am back in the UK for a holiday!! We are eco terrorists and so it is easy for us to try and do things for WA rather than do it for the dollar or for our relatives. I know it is difficult but once you have the house do's and don'ts put in place it is not long before they become a natural process to follow. The good thing for Piccolo though is that your quote of $800 is off set by the fact that you had three additional people in the house. Assuming Piccolo is talking about less people in the house then the water bill at least should be a lot lower.

I agree with you. Cars are not only expensive so is the servicing and the state tax you need to pay when buying one. One of the big problems is that young famiies get caught up in the new house game and end up so far from Perth that they need at least one, if not two cars, and then totally end up relying on them. Yes it is hot here and a car helps a lot but if people can plan ahead then trying to use a mix of public transport, their feet and family car sharing really places less need on multiple cars. We are going to move house soon and since we have been here a good number of years now our tactics will include a place near a train station again for sure. We hardly use our car and it makes it a lot, lot easier on the pocket.

There are lot's of face painting events New Years what? It is just another day in a lovely city and most folk stay in their back yards having a few drinks and a bite to eat. No doubt the centre of Perth will be a bit more lively. However with the volume of incomers may be in the future Perth city will put on a few more events. It will take time though as change happens that bit slower here than most places. Once you get here you will see what it is like

You get two water usage bills and if you own your house an annual water rates bill.

$800 for a water bill? Jeezwhat are you doing with the stuff? We have a 4 bed / 3 bathroom house and a pool and our whole year was $350 for water usage. Our water rates were $910. Are you sure the $800 was for usage and not the water rates?

Jings I am getting stressed trying to keep up with all the posts I stuck down some advice on your other post and can see why your brother is thinking what he is by saying the 20k. Other threads like yours recently are all pointing to more needed than 13k at this time. 20k is not unreasonable. The bottom line is how fast you get get jobs. I said this on the other post but I am now thinking. Have you agreed what your share of the running costs are for you all when you arrive to stay with your relatives? Maybe they aer getting stressed because they see a big cost to them in the short term in relation to both cost and over crowding? Just saying that to see if there are two sides to all this? As I said before, good luck.

Eh? Don't pay tax in relation to what the car? We do. We pay an annual rego fee for the car. We also have to pay state tax on a car purchase which is circa 3% of the purchase price. Don't worry when you arrive here all will be revealed Shark city and not only in the waters off the coast

Yep go for it because you have come this far. Reading the above comments though if you just try and concentrate on facts then it may help you to see things as they are in reality. Regardless of how you feel the following may be true. Try and remove yourself from the emotional family side of things. Appreciate it will not be easy but best all round. If you are going to stay for any length of time with your sister in law, no matter how short a time, another 4 in a household could mean over crowding and that, albeit is the cheapest option, could be become tense if you do not secure a rental quickly. Depending on the location you would like to stay then securing a rental could take longer than expected due to the unbelievably high demand there is at the present time. 9000 quid in AUD is 13,000 and if you decided to buy a car sooner rather than later then you would use up most of that amount unless you bought a bomb or use public transport. An additional three adults and a 8 year old in a house will increase all forms of living expenses and agreeing up front how that will be funded may be a good tactic if you have not brooched that subject already with your sister in law. (I will assume you have.) If you have then you could be handing out several hundred dollars per week immediatley. If you are living rent and food free for the first few weeks until you secure a rental then that will help you but not the familiy you are staying with. (Obvious but worth mentioning.) Securing a rental requires you to provide a bond as well as your weekly rent. Can be thousands not hundreds of dollars depending on where you rent. If you have no jobs how are you going to secure the rental? In many cases, depending on the demand, the location of the rental, and the cost you may need references from an employer and/or evidence of an income. If you cannot do that then you may need to stay with the inlaws longer until you can sort that out. General living expenses for you all will be a shock on arrival. It has been for all us epecially those arriving in last couple of years. It is all new and spending happens on a daily basis and is like water running down a drain. Yes you will be hard working but so are all the thousand of others who are arriving into Perth and therefore securing jobs, you will get jobs and it will happen, may just take a bit longer than you all think. (I hope not and I hope you all get what you need quickly.) Again though best to be prepared for a period of no work. Are you bringing out the correct clothes for the time of year you are arriving? It will be cool mornings and evenings so pack some jerseys, rain gear and so on otherwise that will be more expenditure on arrival. You may not need them for long but best be prepared. Although a lot of the above can be viewed differently by others it is an honest list based on a common sense approach. It is not meant to put you off just meant to highlight some key areas. You are doing something positive and it will work but the reality is that what works for one family may not work for others when it comes to arrival and set up. $13,000 between three adults and a young one will not last long that is the bottom line. Your sister in law may have another agenda but one fact is true, it is not a lot. As somebody says above if you can get jobs quickly, if you can get into a rental quickly and if you are careful then you should be ok. Good luck.

Weegie 7 quid not 7 bucks...... So yes 10 bucks or more and increasing. Based on circa $1.46 to the pound, which is the way things are today, that works out to 6.85 pounds minimum. Although if you wander into Claremont, Freo and other similar places as you know it can be even more. It is sometimes good to talk in pounds for the folk either just over or those planning to come out. Gives them the idea of the difference and may be helps them to see that they may be need to start digging deeper into the costs before committing to anything. Anyway only relevant if you cannot afford it I suppose. And in Perth it seems that there are some folk with plenty money in their pockets that $100 a pint would not matter to them. Funny place when a boom is happening. A lot of people have, some have enough and a heck of a lot have next to nought.

At seven quid a pint, more in some trendy places, let's see how many beers it becomes

Don't want to spread too much doom and gloom but why, if you want to undertake a balanced piece of journalism, would you not also want to talk to some families where the move has been a nightmare for them? Perth is deep in the stranglehold of a boom economy and that historically usually means that the good times, and wealth, are only linked to specific sectors and that a lesser number benefit. There are so many Australians, and incomers,a re suffering from low income, rising costs, housing shortages, high rents and so on that by simply writing about how well some incomers are doing it may not be showing the real Perth. Although I am not personally down to my last buck yet I would ask simply that you consider both sides of the coin if you possibly can. Thanks.

Holiday town mainly. If I had four kids unless they absolutely loved the solitude for most the year there then I would have second thoughts as a place to live. Perth has everything for the young un's and the teenagers. Busselton has things to do but as they all get older they will want more and most likley have to end up further north for jobs and/or higher education. With Perth being so isolated in terms of where it is then every other town away from it is even more so. I am an oldie and Busselton would be perfect for us to move to now the kid has grown up. In saying all that still a nice place when the sun shines. If you have to be there for your jobs then you just need to go for it but if not then I would look a bit nearer Perth to be honest.

No hysteria here in the part of the UK I live in...... When is it?

Networking is a man's dream task. You go for a beer, you play golf, you go to as many business events as you can but most of all you chat honestly to anyone who will listen. As soon as you meet somebody get their contact details and keep in touch as much as possible. If you shake the tree hard enough something will fall out. You meet people. Now I have been in the IT industry for over 30 years and technical people may find this tough but it's WA give it a go!!

We came here and faced the same thing. A few points. First thing is has he got any Perth experience? If not then people want to see that on the CV in many cases. I know chicken and the egg. Four weeks. That is not a long time in Perth terms for this sector given his background. Think of the hundreds, if not thousands, of people from all over the world and Australia who are flooding to Perth seeking jobs in the IT sector. System admin is not a role that employer will find hard to fill. Datacentre managers. How many datacentres are there in Perth? Not many and so entering at that level will be hard. So what did we do? 1. We networked first and built up a group of face to face contacts. 2. We did IT jobs that paid less than we wanted but it meant being able to quote Perth experience. 3. We built on the small pieces of work and moved towards what we had initially wanted to do which was project based activities. 4. We avoided recruitment agencies but in your case, given the type of role, that may not be wise. Better to take a low paid first couple of contracts and build on them. 5. We had beeen aware of the issues asurrounding IT jobs in perth and had factored that into our first years cash flow. 6. We aimed to work for ourselves. Having a clear goal helped. Perth is a tough place to operate in when first arriving with no job. The streets are not paved with gold, the competition is tough if you are looking for a common role, you need Perth contacts, a network of good folk and Perth experience. You need to consider playing a long game if you can rather than worrying about the first few jobs. This all being said he will find a job and things will improve. If I started in IT again, like we did back in 2003, I would do the same thing again and build a network of contacts and get what I wanted rather than what you could end up in. Good luck.

Ok I will do it in case anyone is feart. In general terms anything north, east and west of Edgewater esecially if the suburbs are new, Ocean Reef, Mindaries, Butler, Clarkson(sorry Somerly some Brits don't like to use the word Clarkson), Quinns and even Yanchep. Also anything south of Leeming all the way down to Mandurah and again any new suburbs in that area. On top of that any other high quality traditional Aussie suburbs if the Brits are doctors, lawyers or FIFO's!! Places like Nedlands and City Beach have a few snuck in there as well. Pretty much everywhere really However I not sure what you are expecting given the fall out from the GFC in the northern hemisphere and also the fact that Australia is a multi cultural society that embarces everyone. Good luck with your avoidance tactics!!

Born in Auld Reekie, then lived in Aberdour, Dalgety Bay and Lundin Links. The pub is the Railway Inn in Lower Largo. I go back every year for around 5 months. Kept a place in Lundie and still a member of the Lundin golf course. Cannot do a year here it would do my head in.

How dumb am I? I just noticed your photo. Looks like it is taken from the South Queensferry side enroute to the Queensberry Estate. Are you from that neck of the woods or do you just like the photo

Played Glen Iris last week funnily enough. First time out for a full 18 holes since last October. Hit and 86 with an 8 on the card. Greens poor, very slow and looking tired. Would not be my choice of a course for a regular game if you really like your golf. Better options in Perth than that course.