NEW ZEALAND VS CANADA VS AUSTRALIA?!

paulo6891

Hello,

I graduated in engineering last summer and have been unemployed since last summer. At this stage, enough is enough, I'm jumping ship.

New Zealand, Canada and Australia are places that I am thinking of. There are pros and cons regarding each.

New Zealand would possible be my 1st choice, but it's a small country, not a big population so I can't imagine job prospects would be great.

For this reason it will probably boil down to Canada vs Aus. Advantages of Aus would be the sunny weather and the beaches. Downsides would be the creatures, although it isnt something that would stop me from moving there. It just seems like a place you'd love to go to for a holiday with your friends.

Canada would be more like home, albeit with colder winters and warmer summers. I'm also a huge America fan, so I would have easy access. I imagine all the countryside on the westside would be great for outdoor activities such as hiking (even though i dont hike). The downside would be that it doesn;t come across as young and vibrant as Oz, like it's nearly more of a place you'd settle down with your family.

I sent an email to a recruitment agency in Oz, and they replied saying that they are now feeling the affects of the recession, and that job prospects are not good at all. That is not what I was expecting at all. I haven;t tried the Canadian agencues yet.

What do others think about this decision?

watna

paulo6891 wrote: »

Hello,

I graduated in engineering last summer and have been unemployed since last summer. At this stage, enough is enough, I'm jumping ship.

New Zealand, Canada and Australia are places that I am thinking of. There are pros and cons regarding each.

New Zealand would possible be my 1st choice, but it's a small country, not a big population so I can't imagine job prospects would be great.

For this reason it will probably boil down to Canada vs Aus. Advantages of Aus would be the sunny weather and the beaches. Downsides would be the creatures, although it isnt something that would stop me from moving there. It just seems like a place you'd love to go to for a holiday with your friends.

Canada would be more like home, albeit with colder winters and warmer summers. I'm also a huge America fan, so I would have easy access. I imagine all the countryside on the westside would be great for outdoor activities such as hiking (even though i dont hike). The downside would be that it doesn;t come across as young and vibrant as Oz, like it's nearly more of a place you'd settle down with your family.

I sent an email to a recruitment agency in Oz, and they replied saying that they are now feeling the affects of the recession, and that job prospects are not good at all. That is not what I was expecting at all. I haven;t tried the Canadian agencues yet.

What do others think about this decision?

To be honest, it will be hard to get a job relating to your degree in a new country with no work experience at home. Did you do any related internships or summer work?

As for NZ, I'm living there at the moment and it is quite like home (with warmer summers) but different enough to keep me interested.

The job market does not seem too bad here at the moment but I don't work in engineering and as I said it will be very hard to get a job with no experience. If you came over and were willing to do any job then you will be fine. Check out www.seek.co.nz for job listings.

Also, be aware of what kind of visas you can get. For Aus/NZ you can probably only get a WHV (working holiday visa). On this you can not take a permanent job, only contract work and I believe in Aus there is a limit to how long you can stay with one employer (There is no limit in NZ). Again, WHVs are designed for you to work a little bit and see the country and only last a year (unless you do 3 months rural work in Aus - then you can get it extended to two years). It's harder to get a "proper" job on it because you can't sign up to a permanent position. I was lucky and got a 3 month contract covering maternity leave. The company I work for then gave me a new contract to expire the day my visa does. Without any experience you probably won't get a skilled migrant visa - only a WHV.

In my opinion, if you are looking for an experience abroad and don't mind what you work in, go for it. What have you got to lose? If you want to get a proper job and settle down, I'd say think twice about it. According to other posters on the aus/nz forum (which you should check out) they're making it harder to get sponsored to stay on in Aus and a lot of posters are having trouble finding a job at the moment.

As for the pros and cons of each country. it depends what you are looking for. Again, check out the Aus/NZ forum to see what posters living in Aus or NZ think about it.

paulo6891

As for NZ, I'm living there at the moment and it is quite like home (with warmer summers) but different enough to keep me interested.

Thats precisely why NZ would be my 1st choice. I've been looking through the different websites and contacting a few recruitment agencies, and it seems as though there's a close to 0% chance of getting a job in NZ, Oz doesn't seem to be much better as I have been told that they're being hit by the recession nowadays. Canada is my last hope, but it does not bode well.

It looks like it's either going to be another year or two of doing nothing, go traveling for a year (although none of my friends are up for it), or do a phd, although I'd rather not. Shame being stuck in this position after 4 years in college, but I'm not the only one... Although that's scant consolation.

watna

Have you got much money saved up? You could always do a year of travelling but go to one of these countries and see what happens. If you can get a job (and are flexible about it) then great, if not at least you've got away for a bit and can go home when the money runs out.

To be honest, recruitment agencies really have no interest in you unless you're in the country and have a valid work permit. I sort of work in HR and we get applications from all around the world. The people have no right to work in NZ and my company won't sponsor people unless it's for a senior management position so they just get rejected.

As for no jobs, where I work have a large call centre. There are doing three big hires over the next three months where they take on 10 people at a time. There is jobs there - you just have to be willing to be open.

pclancy

Bite the bullet and come down to NZ or OZ and apply directly to companies with a good cover letter explaining your situation. Plan that if after 2-3 months you get nowhere you'll have enough cash to get home. You're never considered for roles seriously unless you're here and right now many companies dont want to pay agency fees. Look up Architects in the major cities and apply once you're here.

You wont earn much compared to euros but the quality of life here is awesome.

shoegirl

Friends living in Sydney tell me that the recession is most certainly starting to bite, especially for contractors, but there is still a lot of permanent work, less money than contract obviously (my buddies would be very high skilled PM type roles on 160kAUD PA so you're not talking entry level here).

The big hitch with Australia is the cost of getting there, there is very little in terms of flights for less than about 1100 euro compared to Canada which can drop to as little as 400-500. The makes it effectively impossible to go over for a week to check things out or go to an interview or two in advance. Otherwise, to me its more attractive, but I've spent time there on holiday and have really close friends living there so it would depend on your personal preferences and circumstances.

ibh

shoegirl wrote: »

The big hitch with Australia is the cost of getting there, there is very little in terms of flights for less than about 1100 euro compared to Canada which can drop to as little as 400-500. The makes it effectively impossible to go over for a week to check things out or go to an interview or two in advance.

Etihad are flying from London to Sydney for approx £650. Euro exchange is very good and get a cheap low cost flight to London and your sorted.

To the OP. I have a couple of years Eng experience and i'm sitting here in Ireland unemployed since January. You need to get some experience before you go anywhere or you are wasting your time and money. I was in Oz when things were flying and i still couldn't get an Engineering job cause i went out with no experience. You need to ring a sh'tload of companies and offer you services to them, do it for free, do it for 2 days a week or whatever but i think you need to get something before you leave. When you put it on your CV nobody will know you only worked 1/2 days a week.

What area of Engineering are you in?

Another factor is the visa. It's harder to get a canadian visa than an Oz or NZ one so consider this. It also costs quite a bit to go to Canada on the working visa as you must go with USIT and book your flights with them, which means you can't shop around for cheap flights.

Get your ass into gear and get into the workplace, even if you are not technically working as an engineer get some form of useful experience (CAD drawing??) and you will at least be in witha shot when you go away.