Tom

Hi Jorje, I wouldn't beat yourself up about it too much. As Sunflower points out - people just don't want to employ people from overseas and would rather employ people who are already on the ground. It just makes better business sense. I know you have your flights etc booked but from a companies perspective, its a waste of money and resource chasing people, who, as far as they are concerned, will bail at the last minute. You are however correct with your observation with seek, in the last month or so there has been an increase in engineering jobs advertised, so I wish you all success when you make the trip over as its better now than it was 6 - 12 months ago. However its still not like it used to be and there are alot of people out there looking for employment. Please dont beat yourself up if your here for 6 months and still no job - it does take a while here and unfortunately, you could have 10 years experience however no WA experience and thats what people look for (I don't know why). Personally I do think things are on the up so you will find something, just maybe not as soon as you step foot off that plane. Also be VERY wary of recruitment consultants - they are the devil! They lie about jobs, about availability, about future roles, about pay, and half the time the jobs they advertise are not real vacancies as they just want your CV on their file so they meet their targets. My advice (for what its worth) is not to send CVs willy-nilly to recruitment devils by clicking 'apply now' on seek. Call them and speak to them about the role. Half the time they dont know what they are recruiting for and after talking to them you get a feel for the position. What visa have you got? a 189 perm res? Sponsorship is hard to come by these days, if your asking for sponsorship it may make it a little trickier for you. Best of luck Jorje, you will be fine and you will love it over here - its a cool 21 degrees today - its warming up for spring!

I agree with verystormy - do the move and hit the ground hard once you apply. Have the same attitude as you would in the UK, change each CV and cover letter to suit the position you are applying for, Seek.com.au is probably the best and only job website to use. Check the big companies own websites for job advertisements. Don't trust or believe recruitment agents - they lie and just want your CV on their system so they meet their own quotas. Unless you cant find anything else to apply for I wouldn't really bother too much applying through an agency. There are some 3 month contracts out there and this is a good way to get past the 'you need WA experience' as they want people in fast who don't need to work 4 weeks notice before they can start. You then get an extension of your contract or have the WA experience. Unfortunately Forge has recently gone bust so there are more people looking for work at the moment. Never nice being made redundant. However, there are some mining projects that are due to kick off so fingers crossed this will produce lots of new positions. With regards to salary, don't expect to be paid millions of dollars and live like a king. Perth is one of the fastest growing cities in world and there are hundreds of people coming in every day, therefore companies know that even though WA pay better that the eastern states, the wages don't need to be as high as they were some 3 years ago because there is more people than jobs, unlike 3 years ago where everyone would bite you hand off for your skills. BUT the money is still good and you can still have a very very good quality of life (especially compared to the UK). You will really enjoy life here. Just please don't get stuck in Joondalup or another lego land northern suburb, explore what the Perth area has to offer, haha Also, as verystormy points out - you wont get past reception or HR so best not rock up with CV in hand as you will be asked to just leave it with reception or email it through to HR. Im not going to lie to anyone - we all need to know the reality. But if your prepared to work hard, and you know you wont be handed a job when you step foot off the plane, then once you put in the time and land a job, it will be happy days and you can start to really enjoy WA - and you will!

Yeah I'm afraid I don't think you will get far by applying for positions overseas. There is too much competition here now so it's easier for companies to recruit people who are already in Perth than talking to someone oversea because the way they sit it - you might bail last min. Plus with time difference and things it's just easier for them. Remember your dealing predominately with Aussies - they like it the easy way. By all means though - apply from home before you come as you never know but don't be disheartened if you don't get a reply or phone interview. With regards to going round knocking on doors, it's not the same as it is in the UK, you can't just 'nip in for a chat'. Like verystormy said, you won't get past reception. Also, when your hear I'd put more of your energy in apply to companies direct as opposed to going through recruitment agencies. Unfortunately, they are the same all over the place - full of false advertisements and lies trying to get your cv on file in order to meet in house quotas. There is the gateway project running at the moment which is new road infrastructure. Have a look online at that and maybe target those companies who are involved. It's a highway scheme so could be up your alley.

Hi Jorge, Im a civil engineer in Perth and unfortunately it did take me a while to secure a job when I first got here. Like the others mentioned, its better to be in Perth whilst you look for work as opposed to being in the UK. I think Perth is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and with the majority of their work being in construction it attracts engineers, tradies, drafters etc so competition is quite high. Companies look for local residential addresses and phone numbers on CVs as its easier for them to contact you and arrange interviews. The biggest problem you will find with moving to WA is for some bizarre reason, it doesn't matter if you have 10 years experience in engineering, they want to see 'local WA experience', but that's something that's out of your control until you get the opportunity to work. The easiest way to get into the job market is to take a short term ~3 month engineering job. These jobs usually require someone to start asap which means your not competing with as many people and they need someone so will over look the magic WA experience. These jobs are usually extended too which means you may get 6 months work. After that, you will have the experience and just looking to move jobs because your contract just finished. Looks good on the old CV. Also, depending what kind of engineering work you do, consulting or construction, you may need to look at getting your white card which is like the CSCS card. Its cheap, only about $90 or so, maybe cheaper, and you can do it online, just takes a few hours. Common sense.

Yeah looks like Aussie government are being pretty naughty at the minute. Taking ~$3500 off people, then not issuing their visas. Be better if that money could sit in our bank accounts earning interest instead of the other way round but never mind, what can you do! Lets just hope they turn them around pretty quick. I'm now looking at a bridging visa, once your invitation has come through and you have logged the visa I think because your waiting for an immigration decision you qualify for a bridging visa. (FYI im already in Australia on a working holiday visa). But trying to get through to someone on the phone to ask the question is a right mission! DIACS customer service and phone 'help'desk is atrocious.

I lodged my 189 this morning! Waiting game begins. Just hoping it comes through before mid June as that's when my working holiday visa expires. Its been a long old slog to this point so hopefully this last bit should be ok.

Thanks for the comments guys. DyLeB - thanks for the clarification, if id have known that then I would have applied for the Victoria State sponsored 190 visa a while back and just carried on working in WA. Never mind, lesson learnt there! The reason I assumed that you had to live and work in your nominated state is because I applied for a WA 190 visa and on the agreement letter they gave me, which you must sign, states "You remain living and working in Western Australia for a period of two years after obtaining your visa". This letter came on 22 Aug 2013. I was told this condition was the same for all states. The reason I didn't go down this route was an error on my part with regards to ANZSCO codes. Anyway, I received my invitation for a 189 visa this morning. Long time coming - EOI was logged in October! Happy days

Thanks for your comment DyLeB. 189 and 190 visas are different. You are correct in saying they both give you PR status but the 190 is a sponsored visa by the state and the T&C are that you must live and work in your nominated state for 2 years. After the 2 year period you can then obtain a 189 visa which allows you to live and work anywhere in Australia. Alternatively you can apply straight for a 189 visa which then doesn't limit you to a state or company.

Hi all, Im currently in Perth on a working holiday visa. Ive been here since June of last year and absolutely love it. Im a civil engineer but for migration purposes Engineers Australia have put me down as an 'Engineer Technologist' - Cheers EA! (all because I don't have a masters). Anyway, due to this I cant apply for a 190 WA state sponsored visa as im not on the list. I therefore applied for my 189 visa back in October but im still waiting for DIAC to accept my EOI. Im only allowed to be in the country until June because that's when my WHV expires (unless I get a invitation from DIAC in the meantime then I can go onto a bridging visa). My profession is on the Victoria state skilled migrants list, so my question is, if I apply for a Victoria 190 skilled migrant visa, then move to Melbourne, can I keep my 189 application running and if that comes through whilst i'm on my 190 visa would I then be able to transfer it from a 190 to 189? Thanks in advance, Tom

Hi Paul, There are quite a few second hand garages in Wangara, I think there are a few car yards on Scarborough Beach Road and also check out John Hughes (just south of the river in Victoria Park). But with only $12k for a station wagon maybe look at Wangara or have a look online at carsales.com.au

Hi everyone, Firstly – apologies if this has already been covered (it prob has) but I can’t find it on the site. For background info, I’m a civil engineer with 5 year experience, from an assessment (not official) I gain 60 points for WA migration. My question is - If you submit an EOI for state sponsorship to WA, and you are accepted, I was told you have 60 days from then to apply for your visa. If you don’t do this, are you able to log another EOI at a later date? You may think I’m mad for not applying for a visa if I’m invited by WA to do so, but I’m travelling over to Perth in June on a working holiday visa and want to log my EOI before I go so that my name is on the list so I can (fingers crossed) have my perm visa processing in the background whilst on my working holiday visa. If worse comes to the worse in Australia and I can’t find a job then I’m afraid I might spend my savings on living and so not have enough money to pay my visa fee in a few months’ time. This is a worse case situation but just want to be sure IMMI won’t turn around and say – you had your chance, you can’t apply again. I also visited the Working In expo recently and heard during the presentation that a state sponsored visa for WA was around $4,000. This isn’t the same price quoted on the IMMI website. Does anyone have any knowledge of this? Cheers, Tom