DS(18) flying to Melbourne on Monday but no job lined up yet - how easy will it be?

[BellaBooHoo]

How easy is it o get a job when you're over there? He's got a working holiday visa. I'm excited for his adventure but quietly apprehensive about him going over there with no guarantee of a job yet. He's very sensible, fit and has a good reference from a previous employer. He's applied for several positions already from the UK, but no reply.

So far his ideas are checking the hostel jobs boards, looking on Seek.com, and going into places in person to find something. Anything else obvious he's missing?

There used to be an online directory for jobs abroad, listing everything from fruit picking to bar work. Not sure if anything similar still exists.

We moved out there without jobs - both got work within a month. In our experience, until you’re there, no one is interested! As no guarantees.

Is he travelling completely independently?
My sister did the backpacking thing in the 90s and she went via an organisation who helped with the first accommodation and gave advice on jobs. Where is he staying? If it's a backpacker hostel type place jobs will probably be advertised there - or a bit of word of mouth.
I expect the seasonal Christmas jobs will be starting soon in Australia same as here so if he's in a city at first there'll will be the usual retail/warehouse stuff.

Might be worth getting an RSA certificate once he’s here. It’s responsible service of alcohol. A legal requirement if he wanted to work in a pub, restaurant etc.

I think it would be much harder to get a backpacker type job from twelve thousand miles away than it would be to get one when you are right there.

Has he considered doing this?

https://wwoof.net/

It's what I did for most of my time in Australia. It doesn't pay, but you get your accomodation provided and usually a couple of meals a day for (generally) half a days work per day, so you end up stretching your money loads further

I ended up in a variety of places while doing it, suburban farms, a cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere, a hippy commune. Met some really interesting people, ,learned a load of really useful skills, had a load of unique experiences. Fixed cars, vaccinated sheep, built (bits of) a house, rounded up cattle on a motorbike, ate freshly shot kangaroo round a campfire hours from civilisations etc.

My son did this last october .. landed, left stuff in hostel, went to hotel next door and landed a job.. he said quite easy to get minimum wage jobs but some times can be more competitive when higher volumes of backpackers looking for work

Wow - thanks for all the positive and useful feedback! Now I feel reassured that he'll be fine. Of course it's easier to get work once you're over there. I am just having pre-farewell jitters for him. He's super-chilled about it all, which is good, but I'm not built like that so it's not to do some crafty research on the side for him, just in case!

the WWOOF thing looks interesting, and I do remember looking at this back in the 90s for myself...never did though...

If he does decide to do it, then I'd recommend he find someone else out there that fancies going with him. While most places are great, there were one or two I'd have found slightly intimidating without some backup!

He might also want to try some of the temp agencies Melbourne. He might be able to get office work if he is presentable. I did this years ago, but I did have to buy myself a cheap
office jacket and matching skirt before they’d even look at me

Yep, he's doing it completely alone!

Oh wow this is what I did

I went straight to Hays downtown and told them I was available

I think I had a job the next day

https://www.hays.com.au/jobs/temporary-contract-jobs

Here

But there's tons of temping agencies not just Hays

https://www.hays.com.au/job-detail/hr-administrator-vic---melbourne-cbd_2892060?q=&location=Melbourne,%20Australia&applyId=JOB_5120636&jobSource=HaysGCJ&isSponsored=N&specialismId=&subSpecialismId=&jobName=projects%2Fmineral-balm-174308%2Ftenants%2Fab5d683d-f9a5-4b85-bfe0-eb74881e24cf%2Fjobs%2F123313413810987718&lang=en

This looks good. Not sure how his gcses/a levels were?

Prahan is a nice suburb of Melbourne

Try Melbourne cricket club, if he is interested. They hire lots of English kids on gap years. Really like them!

Thank you so much for this. Not something he's thought of yet, but looks good. I'm sending him all these links!

Fab - thank you so much! He is very sporty and worked as a gym instructor in a leisure centre this last year, so might be his sort of thing.

Good luck to him!!

My nephew is out there now, has been for about 9 months. He has never had trouble getting hospitality work when he's needed it.

Thanks, great to know

@BellaBooHoo

How's he getting on??