THE BACKPACKERS’SURVIVAL GUIDETO JOB HUNTING

IN AUSTRALIA

Everything YOU need to know to get a job in Australia

Quinn Askeland & Lilian Doyle

16 Tried and Tested Ways to Find

Work in Australia

How to Make Australian Employers

Want to Hire YOU

FEATURES:

www. .com

The People Behind The Guide

First Things First

Australia – Here You Come! Now what?

Culture Shock – Arriving in AustraliaMaking Australian Employers Want to Hire YOU!Having the Right Attitude

An Offer You Can’t Refuse Finding and Getting the Best Jobs

16 Tried and Tested Ways to Find Work in AustraliaThe Best Aussie Backpacker JobsAussie Jobs by Location

Ready For The Adventure Ahead

Having Your Resume Aussie ReadyInterview Tips

Ultimate Resources

Jobs ClubsWorking HostelsWebsites with Job PostingsAgenciesHostels with Notice Boards

More Aussie Resources

Visa ResourcesTax, Banking and Financial ResourcesVolunteering AccommodationTransportResources for Buying a Car or VanHealth and InsuranceMobile Phone (& Mobile Internet Providers)

Conclusion

Most Important Points to Remember

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CONTENTS

CONTENTS THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE GUIDE

A native Queenslander, passionate traveller and founder of Jobaroo, Quinn Askeland has over 15 years of experience rooted in the recruitment indus-try. After working as a recruitment consultant in the UK, Quinn identified a severe lack of helpful infor-mation for backpackers seeking employment back at home in Australia. Keen to fill this void, he set about creating a useful resource to offer valuable advice to travellers looking for work and so Joba-roo was born. Since then, Quinn’s mission has been to deliver genuinely helpful and unbiased advice to backpackers looking for work in Oz. On his days off, Quinn can be found on his mountain bike, scaling various peaks throughout the world.

Lilian Doyle has been working, living and travel-ling around the globe since early 2011, with no signs of stopping. After leaving her home in Ireland, her travels so far have included 16 months working and travelling around Australia, doing every odd job imaginable. During her time down under, Lilian has worked on a cattle station, picked grapes in the Barossa Valley, been a cook on a wheat farm in the outback and worked on a barramundi fishing resort in the Northern Territory. It’s fair to say she knows a thing or two about how to find work in Australia. Her experience was life changing and she hopes to inspire other to do the same.

Hailing from the cooler climes of England, Molly Clifford is a graphic designer and blogger, and is rarely seen without her electronic appendage: her camera. After circumnavigating 20,000km around Australia in a rusty station wagon, Molly has recent-ly (and reluctantly) returned from her year of living and working in Oz. Molly’s Australian occupations ranged from making macchiatos in Melbourne to labouring on a flower farm with a few stints of strip-ping unsavoury hostel beds thrown in. With the last few grains of sand in her hair, and the memories of sunsets and ocean breezes still lingering, Molly looks back on her time in Australia with great fondness and a lifetime’s worth of photographs.

QUINN ASKELAND

LILIAN DOYLE

MOLLY CLIFFORD

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You are going to the right place! There are so many things that make Australia awesome – spectacular landscapes, a diverse and unique culture and amaz-ing animals, with the odd dangerous one thrown in for added excitement!

Yes it’s true; Australia is the land of poisonous snakes, deadly spiders, menacing crocodiles and seemingly a million other things that could (po-tentially) kill you. In fact, an impressive third of the world’s most dangerous species are native to Aus-tralia alone. But don’t fret, the likelihood of being eaten by one of these crocs, or even being bitten by a snake is absolutely minimal.

Now, what you need to really worry about is find-ing good paying work quickly and often, so that you can travel the country and enjoy all that Australia has to offer.

Each year, Australia welcomes about 250,000 work-ing holidaymakers. That’s a lot of people looking for work, especially when that number is equal to roughly 20% of the unemployed people already in Australia.

CRIKEY - That’s a lot of competition!

Unfortunately many backpackers struggle to find a good job simply because they, like most other work-ing holidaymakers, follow each other and try to find work in all the typical backpacker hotspots.

The second working holiday visa has also meant that more backpackers are staying longer and the economy in Australia (whilst being better than many parts of the world) is still not so great.

Despite this, there are always a lot of jobs for back-packers in Australia; you just need to be proactive and have the inside scoop on how to get them.

That is one of the ways that this guide will help you!

FIRST THINGS FIRST(IT’S NOT THE CREATURES YOU NEED TO FEAR)

ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ADVENTURE?

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This Backpackers’ Survival Guide to Job Hunting in Australia, is a concise guide designed to uncover the important stuff you really need to know, such as:

• Where the best jobs are.• How to get the best jobs.• And heaps of insider tips that only a group of people who have been there and done that would know.

This guide was written by three backpackers who have travelled extensively, through every state and territory in Australia. We’ve worked every job you could think of as backpackers in Oz (and perhaps even a few you might not have thought of!), from working in a barramundi fishing resort out in the “bush” in the Northern Territory, to working in retail in upmarket Melbourne. We have even worked as recruitment consultants helping other backpackers get jobs! So as you can see, between us we have a wealth of experience, which we can’t wait to share with you in this guide.

This is no ordinary guidebook.

What you hold in your hands will be the key to you finding the very best jobs in Australia.

We want you to really understand what works when it comes to looking for work in Australia.

While writing this guide we continued to ask our-selves, and each other, over and over again: what was really important to getting this job, or that one? We wanted to explore the successes of our experi-ences, and go just as far as we could go.

What we found out will both surprise you and make it a lot easier for you too.

THE INSIDE SCOOP

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It is truly amazing the effect Culture Shock has when you move to a new country. Just having some idea of what you are in for is really helpful, not to mention an interesting aspect of travel, too. See page 11.

As you may already know, Aussies have a very unique culture. Knowing the basics of how to com-municate and work with Aussies makes it much easier to get the best jobs, get promoted and just have more fun interacting with the locals. We wrote a whole chapter on, Making Australian Employers Want to Hire YOU, which you can find on page 14.

In Australia, within days of getting off the plane you will start to hear things like, “yeah, no worries she’ll be right mate, he was just taking the piss”.

What the heck?

Translated, you might already know this means “everything is fine, he was just playing a little joke on you”. We also want you to know that when someone “takes the piss out of you” it is actually a compliment! You can easily see how this could go wrong in a work or social setting – so we wanted to give you all the basics. We think you will really enjoy our chapter on page 22 about Having The Right At-titude and how this can get you far as a traveller in Australia.

There are lots of ways of approaching the job hunt. To make sure that you cover all the bases, using our insider information we’ve put together 16 Tried and Tested Ways of Finding Work in Australia on page 29.

CULTURE SHOCK

MAKING AUSTRALIAN EMPLOYERS WANT TO HIRE YOU

HAVING THE RIGHT ATTITUDE

16 TRIED AND TESTED WAYS OF FINDING WORK IN AUSTRALIA

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No doubt you’ve chosen to come to Australia look-ing for a work experience like no other. Australia is host to some truly unique employment opportuni-ties, from sailing in the beautiful Whitsundays to working on an outback cattle station. We’ve round-ed up the Best Backpacker Jobs available on page 35.

Australia is huge, and your experience will really vary depending on where you are. Perhaps you fan-cy the tropics of Queensland, or conversely maybe you’d like to experience the dry and vast landscape of the “bush”. Whatever your preferences, we have identified Aussie Jobs by Location on page 52 so you can see exactly what’s available and where.

Hopefully, you will already have had some experi-ence with preparing a resume in the past. However, did you know that there are a few basic rules you need to adhere to when applying to an Aussie em-ployer? On page 75 we give you the best tips for perfecting your resume and having it Aussie Ready.

So, after a bit of job hunting your application has been successful and you’ve bagged yourself an interview. Firstly, congratulations! However, if you’ve never had an interview for an Australian employer before, this could be a whole new (and potentially daunting) prospect for you. This needn’t be the case. See our Interview Tips on page 79.

Finally, we have also included all the Resources you will possibly need to find a job in Australia on page 110. From recruitment companies to working hostels, we have included websites, phone numbers and lo-cations to make your Australian work experience as hassle-free as possible.

THE BEST AUSSIE BACKPACKER JOBS

AUSSIE JOBS BY LOCATION

HAVING YOUR RESUME AUSSIE READY

INTERVIEW TIPS

ULTIMATE RESOURCES

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Travelling to Australia is an incredible opportunity,

experienced by a very lucky few. The amazingly di-

verse and unspoilt landscape offers a wealth of truly

unique working opportunities, securing Australia’s

top position as the ultimate backpacker destination.

Every year, the number of working holidaymakers

travelling to Oz for work is steadily rising, which

does translate to a greater amount of competition

for jobs. However, job hunting in Australia doesn’t

need to be a daunting experience.

That’s where The Backpackers’ Survival Guide to Job

Hunting in Australia comes in. This guide has been

put together to ensure that you are armed with all

of the knowledge and resources you’ll need to se-

cure that perfect job in Australia. The information in

this guide will give you the head start you need for

finding paid work and quickly. The sooner you start

earning, the sooner you can start exploring your

new home and having your adventures down under.

AUSTRALIA – HERE YOU COME!

NOW WHAT?

Experiencing culture shock and extreme emotions when you arrive in a new country is COMPLETELY normal. In fact, we would be worried if you didn’t experience at least some of these – it’s a part of the backpacker experience!

In this section, we will talk about the four main stages of culture shock and how you can prepare yourself better for it.

Don’t let culture shock hold you back from finding your perfect job and enjoying Australia!

Moving to a new country can cause feelings of nerv-ousness, alienation and frustration – this is known as “culture shock”. Sometimes backpackers may not recognise these feelings as culture shock and sim-ply think that Australia is just not for them.

Even though Australia is a westernised and English-speaking country, backpackers from Europe, Asia and North America will usually experience some form of culture shock, to varying degrees. The lev-els of this that backpackers experience, like many things in life, vary greatly from one individual to the next. It really all depends on your own personality and responses to certain circumstances.

Knowing the different stages of culture shock will help you deal with it a whole lot better when it hap-pens, rather than it hitting you out of the blue.

Depending on the person, some stages of culture shock will pass quickly, while others may even skip stages or worst, never get to adjust to it at all.

CULTURE SHOCKARRIVING IN AUSTRALIA

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If you understand and anticipate these stages, they can be dealt with to make your adjustments much easier. This will then free your mind from stress and worry, giving you more time to find the job you want and to enjoy your stay in Australia.

When You First Arrive - Excitement

During this stage, you may feel happy and excited about your move to Australia and perhaps a little nervous, too. Everything is new to you and you are constantly being stimulated by your new surround-ings.

During this stage you will probably focus more on what your country and Australia have in common. Because of this, you will be feeling confident and ready for your Aussie experience!

Looking for Work and (Trying) to Get Settled

By now, you may be happy with the difficulties you have overcome so far. Or perhaps, some of the dif-ficulties you have faced have led you to become frustrated or even disillusioned. You may jump from being happy one day, to being confused or discour-aged the next.

You may also start to focus more on the differences between your country and Australia, but it’s unre-alistic to wish that Australians did things the way people in your home country do them.

The difficulties you may face include:• Finding work• Homesickness• Finding somewhere suitable to live• Making friends• Understanding Australian phrases and slang

STAGE 1:

STAGE 2:

FOUR COMMON STAGES OF CULTURE SHOCK

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Learning from Those Difficulties and Adjusting

Once you have encountered some difficulties and overcome them, you will start to feel more confident again and better equipped to handle these difficul-ties in the future. Maybe you found it difficult to find work, but now you realise that you were looking in the wrong place. Perhaps initially you didn’t under-stand an Aussie phrase, but now you’ve even started saying it yourself.

During this stage you will begin to have a better understanding of Australians and the Australian way of thinking. You will begin to realise that Australia is never going to be exactly like your home country, and so you begin to adjust.

Best of all, you will start to appreciate the benefits of living in Australia, like good pay, a great lifestyle and the company of new friends. Things will get easier from this stage onwards; how quickly you get there is up to you.

Acceptance and Adjustment

During this stage Australia will start to feel like home, or at the very least a home away from home. By now, you will have a much better understanding of the Australian way of thinking.

Perhaps you will have found an awesome job or two since arriving, or maybe you have travelled and seen loads of amazing places in Australia. Basically, you will have come to terms with being away from home and be more content with living in Australia.

Now that you know what the stages are, you can anticipate them and deal with them a whole lot better, leaving you more time to enjoy your stay in Australia! Learning more about Australia and Austral-ian culture (which we will discuss in the next chap-ter) before you arrive, can also lessen the impact of culture shock.

STAGE 4:

STAGE 3:

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Now that you understand “culture shock” a little better, we can move onto making Aussie employers want to hire YOU! But, how do you do that? Won’t they just hire you based on your skills alone?

Well, yes skills and experience are both very impor-tant for obvious reasons, but you also need to un-derstand what specific traits Aussie employers look for, as well as the Australian work culture. The more you understand these, the more you can endear yourself to an Aussie employer and therefore get the best jobs! In order to understand both of these, we’ll start off by briefly explaining Australian attitudes towards work.

An Aussie’s attitude towards work may be a little different to traditional European or Asian or North American attitudes, but it’s pretty simple really. Aus-sie’s tend to take on a more laid-back approach, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t hard working or ambitious.

Aussies believe in working hard to achieve their dreams, whilst maintaining a healthy work/life balance.

In other words:

Most Australians work to live rather than live to work.

MAKING AUSSIE EMPLOYERS WANT TO HIRE YOU!

AUSTRALIAN ATTITUDES TOWARD WORK

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WHAT AUSTRALIAN EMPLOYERS LOOK FOR

Like the rest of the world, Australians value honesty highly. However, the difference is that if Australians think that you may not be genuine they may also start to distrust you. Fortunately, there is a very easy solution – be yourself.

Australians like people to do things rather than say things. A backpacker who is all talk and no action won’t get very far. Show them what you can do by giving examples of how you solved problems in the past, rather than just saying “I’m a problem solver.”

Whether or not you need experience depends on the job. If the job doesn’t require you to be experienced, then a willingness to learn will also work to your ad-vantage. As we will discuss in more detail in the next section “Understanding Aussie Culture”, Australians really appreciate someone who is prepared to “give it a go”. Employers also like to see that you have Australian experience. Obviously you won’t have this when you first arrive, but you could get some by volunteering until you find a job. Once you get some Aussie experience, be sure to include it on your resume.

If you’re looking for work in regional Australia, then having your own transport will put you at an advan-tage over backpackers who don’t. For many em-ployers, it’s a big bonus if you can be self-reliant; it means that they don’t have to worry about trans-porting you to and from work every day and bring-ing you to the supermarket to do your grocery shop-ping (although some employers will help you out with that). If having your own car or sharing a ride with others is not an option we have included a list of transport resources at the back of this guide so you can be as self-reliant as possible.

HONESTY

A HARD-WORKING ETHIC

EXPERIENCE

SELF-RELIANCE

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