Help me make my decision on where to live when I finish!

gags89

ok so here's my situation

finished my business degree in June and want to get out of Ireland and go work abroad..ideally set up elsewhere permanently , good job etc and fly home on holidays.

Haven't lived at home since I was 18 been living and working in Dublin for college, traveled and lived abroad both as a foursome to New Zealand and alone to California the last 2 summers!

So here's the 3 options Im considering which I hope you guys out there can share some views on!

1)
Move to California (los angeles) where I spent last 2 summers, have some friends, a slight love interest and all that Californian living (wont list pros's as have limited space but we all know them). Would be going to Santa Monica/ Venice parts with 2 of my friends, both of whom are finished college aswel. Visa's aren't an issue, we qualify under the recent grad programme for 1 year then all going well will hope to get sponsored , get a 2nd year extension , marry a green card or win the diversity lotto!

Drawbacks as I see them - American Jobs are hard to come by , Necessity of a car and expense of living in Los angeles , overall impersonality of living in a big urban sprawl , I find some people out there are WAY too obsessed with other peoples perceptions of themselves, there are good people too but the culture in LA irked me a bit.

Option 2 ) Move to Australia like a lot of Irish people at the moment, get the 1 year working holiday visa , get the 2 year and hopefully get sponsored. Have well connected family (two uncles) in Sydney where I have a place to crash when I land and while I get on my feet.

Drawbacks : I'll be going alone and don't really want to go live in an Irish suburb in Sydney , up against California, I think the only reason keeping Sydney in my head is the security of some family out there and might be easier to get a good job because of contacts my uncles have but it is good to have especially when starting out.

Option 3 - Work at home until July , Do a bit of Euro-tripping , go with some other friends to Thailand in July and possibly fly to Australia from there.

Drawbacks - Don't want to stay in Ireland, Will have to find a new job here for a month as my current job only runs during the college year and will eat into my travel savings!

4) Live the tropical Island lifestyle in Hawaii , out there alone but its a dream that's achieveable!

Some Info about myself :

22 male,

Solid Word exp for my age - top admired company on the CV w/ references, CV built with help from careers service here in college

Looking to get into Strategic Marketing side of things , Currently doing my thesis on the Marcom tools, word of mouth and viral marketing..this is what I want my day to day job to be.

Only planning to 'holiday' for 2-3 weeks all the while looking for full-time serious careery type job. Am a meticulous planner, so as soon as I'm set on a destination, I will spend hours sending emails, viewing ads, sending C.Vs and generally networking. Ive done the 'gap year' , see how it goes trips the last 3 times, now Im ready to work hard and start thinking about somewhere permanent! Ive been to Hawaii, California twice and Australia and lived in nearby NZ for a year and am fully prepared to put in the hours, as I have been doing all year just generally looking into every option out there!

Have about €5000 saved up to get me started , (circa $7000usd / 7000aus) (Australia will be cheaper to start out in , with help from family and a place to stay ) (USA, will be more expensive , but housing costs etc will be offset because I will have 2 friends sharing aswel and plenty of friends to stay with also)

Visa's for a year at least wont be a problem.

Been to other places including San fran , New Zealand , NYC , Singapore and Amsterdam , England ,Portugal and Spain but set on the 3 options above to set up a life there.

So yep there you go! Any advice is really , really appreciated...heads been melted all year trying to make up my mind so some outsider advice is mucho appreciated!

Thanks a million for taking the time to read this looooooong post and again, any replies truly appreciated!

Eoghan

seachto7

gonna be hard for anyone to advise where you want to live. It will be your call.
Why not try the states first and see how it goes, then if it doesn't work out, you still have loads of time to apply for the Aus WHV.......

Have you considered continental Europe at all? Working in marketing and having English as a native lingo would be an advantage if you wanted to live a slightly different, or non Anglo speaking lifestyle....

Plus think of a few years down the line. I know when I was your age I was living in Rome for a few years, went back last year (10 yrs later) and wouldn't live there for love nor money. It's very early to be thinking about it, but where would you prefer to raise a family for example...?

TheoBoone

I'd go with California! F**k Australia, pretty much everything that can crawl or walk out there can kill you.

syklops

So if I understand this correctly, your looking for somewhere english-speaking and hot.

I'd go with the USA. Or Australia.

myflipflops

You seem to be putting all your hopes into getting a sponsored job. It's an incredibly competitive market place for these types of jobs and it will only be getting worse. Get out there and try it out but have a back up plan in case it doesn't work out.

Realistically, the odds are against you picking up a sponsored position.

Jim2007

Have you thought about a graduate program with a European company - Nestle for example?

Jim.

Sooters

Gags...

I know this won't help with your decision, but I need some advice, Im headin to Santa Monica now in less than 2wks and was wondering could u share some info from your experience there?

We have jobs sorted (two females travelling, both Irish) but accomodation is proving harder to get, and so expensive (which I do understand considering we'll be on outskirts of LA)

Anything at all will be a help..cz at the moment we are pretty clueless..
PS Go to America.. Australia is full of Irish, think you cant walk down the street but a GAA jersey meets u!!!

Fysh

I wouldn't want to bet on getting a sponsored job unless you're prepared to be very flexible in terms of where you work and/or have some serious skills that can't easily be sourced locally. While the sponsorship programmes exist to bring in talented people with the right skills, there is growing pressure on companies operating within the US to hire locally (ie existing US citizens/residents) rather than sponsoring prospective immigrants.

That being said, it sounds like you're putting a lot more thought into planning ahead than a lot of people your age would bother with. Best of luck with it - keep us posted with whatever choice you make and how it works out