What sucks about Australia?

[Mara]

@ miraclebabyclaw : I guess you will just have to get used to seeing people with mental disabilities around you, Australia is a compassionate country, they do not hide those with disabilities behind closed doors, they are members of society and you will see them everywhere in Australia. With regard to not hearing from companies, yes that happens, especially when the company gets 200 applications for one job, they only reply to those that interest them. Employers that do not want to employ you because you are over qualified - well they are trying to fill a permanent position, not wanting you to use them as a stop gap, until something better comes along - at which time you will be off like a shot...! Not trying to rain on your parade, just giving you an explanation of why it happens in Australia.

[miraclebabycaw]

Whilst I appreciate exactly what you are saying Mara, I worked in Human Resources for a number of years in South Africa, and yes we also got flooded some times with applications. It takes no time at all to have a standard letter setup, and do a word merge and send those letters out. All it takes is one person punching in the email addresses into even a spreadsheet, and then performing this function. It's not rocket science, and definitely is not as time consuming these days as most people apply via email. In the old days you used to have to type replies individually. Personally I think it is very bad manners in any organization (and yes I am sure it occurs all the time in South Africa as well).

Over qualified I agree...but on the other hand it also seems to have become another buzz word..just like the "Australian experience", or the "we have applicants with better skills match" even though you have every single tick on their list, and another excuse not to hire "foreigners". Who is to say that you do not actually want to be in a position without the responsibilities that you had in your high powered job, and want a general admin job because you specifically want to have less responsibility. You are not even given the chance. Agencies here are the same..You call them to try make appointments with them to discuss your options and the standard answer is send me your cv and I'll look at it and if we have anything suitable we will call you back. Maybe it is different in Queensland and other area, but here in South Australia we have been having no luck with them (and yes even with direct applications to companies).

it just sad that people come with the expectation that their skills are sought after because the government says so, there are jobs on seek and all those sorts of places, they spend a fortune getting here, a fortune finding a house, a fortune buying a car, getting a license and and and, and then a fortune to have their CV changed to an "Australian Resume", and then they sit for months on end because either companies do not bother to reply to let you know you are unsuccessful, or finally 2 months down the line have the decency to send you a mail to say thanks but no thanks. It's just very frustrating...

Mental disabilities - got no issues with it..that wasn't my point...My BIL is a psychologist in SA so we heard a lot about mental patients and things like that, but here it seems to be extreme. I don't think it has anything to do with Australians being compassionate and not hiding the disabilities like in SA, it just seems to be the area we are in...maybe more the socio-economics and the "hill-billy" mentalities I don't know. It's just really weird.

Anyway apart from that, does anyone else find that time seems to fly a lot quicker here in Australia? Maybe it is really relative but boy I don't know where the past 4 months have gone. It's a blur.

[Jacques Voogt]

Hang in there, you'll find a job somewhere. Perhaps consider lying on your CV, as in do not tell them you are so well qualified. As a student I applied for a security guard position at a retail store and was questioned why I would want to work as a security guard after getting 3 distinctions in matric.

IMHO, I would not want to land beginning of December myself. Companies close over the holiday period. January presents a flood of new just out of school or just qualified workers. Then by Feb companies start picking up speed again and in March or April the flood of new skills starts to settle and they could be looking for new employees if the one they hired was totally useless. Then I'd expect a quiet spot just before middle of the year (end of financial year) and based on how they did they could be hiring again from July/August, somewhere there but now the supply of newly qualified workers has dwindled.

If I could, I'd move middle of the year.

I managed a fast food outlet once. 1st year students were preferred, cause you know you will train them once and they will work for a couple of years before moving on.

Final year students and people coming to you saying they were retrenched but have these skills and qualifications and just need something to survive were not preferred as they would move on the moment they find a real job in their minds. In addition, South Africans were always preferential over foreigners. You first look after your own, then you look after your neighbors. This would hold true for most countries in my mind. So it is crucial to get to citizenship asap as it will allow you to compete on more equal grounds.

Good luck!!! We'll be fighting this same battle as well in coming times. Not looking forward to it.

[GideonVD]

Agreed... its going to be a little bit tougher, but not impossible. You might have to lower your expectations in the beginning to get a food hold and start earning Auz experience and work your way up the food chain

[miraclebabycaw]

Thanks guys..I wasn't really moaning about not having a job yet, just that everything is soooooo slow...on the up though I cannot fault the public health system. I woke up on night in terrible pain. After a number of hours I couldn't take it anymore and hubby took me up to the local hospital. It was about 4am so not too busy and we were seen fairly quickly. They gave me really good happy juice aka morphine pretty quickly and I proceeded to soar through most of the day. It was determined that I had a really large gallstone and I had to be transferred to the specialist hospital. This was done late afternoon and they operated the next day. I was not considered an emergency so could have sat for a few days, but they got a gap, and did the deed. Haven't seen the bill, was treated by wonderful nurses who knew what they were doing, and hey the hospital was clean!!!! Just kicked me out quickly just like the hospitals in SA but hey they did it nicely lol. There is still more good than bad, and most of the "bad" is just because it is so different to what we are used to I think. Still have no intention of leaving....provided we can get jobs somewhere along the line...we are seriously starting to consider moving inter-state but don't want to as we are on a 176 and we really like Adelaide, but it might become a necessity.

[Jordy]

What sucks about Australia: Today was really hot and I was in the car and felt like a tin of coke. This would set me back anything from $3 to $4.50. There is no way in hell I would pay that especially as a 2 litre costs $2.69.

I miss the days of being able to afford a tin of coke. Now I have to drink that healthy stuff water from the tap.

[sianvz]

Jordy I'll take a $3 can of coke over the current food and petrol prices in SA! I'm dying here, considering getting a bicycle!

[Eyebrow]

What sucks about Australia: Today was really hot and I was in the car and felt like a tin of coke. This would set me back anything from $3 to $4.50. There is no way in hell I would pay that especially as a 2 litre costs $2.69.

I miss the days of being able to afford a tin of coke. Now I have to drink that healthy stuff water from the tap.

Coke is definately cheaper here...

But there is no gas in it anymore. Flat! Was due to some carbondioxide shortage a year or so ago at Mosgas in Mosselbay, but it never really got back to how it used to be. Tastes like the flat Coke your mother gave you when you had diarrhoea

[GideonVD]

Coke is definately cheaper here...

But there is no gas in it anymore. Flat! Was due to some carbondioxide shortage a year or so ago at Mosgas in Mosselbay, but it never really got back to how it used to be. Tastes like the flat Coke your mother gave you when you had diarrhoea

That's because they are using "alternative" means of gassing it now

[Mikej]

Was due to some carbondioxide shortage a year or so ago at Mosgas in Mosselbay

*desk plant*

So South Africa is the only country in the world not drowning in carbon dioxide. I see an opportunity to stop global warming here by exporting carbon dioxide to South Africa.

Yes I know my logic is fishguts but the gap for a joke was wide.

[GideonVD]

*desk plant*

...

Yes I know my logic is fishguts but the gap for a joke was wide.

Yup... MILES

[Jordy]

So what does a can of coke cost at say Spar? I don't think one can compare it to cafe prices as we don't have corner cafes.

[GideonVD]

it would basically equate to less than a Aussie dollar per can...

[Toitjie]

With regard to not hearing from companies, yes that happens, especially when the company gets 200 applications for one job.

good golly...how I wish I could say the same. At the moment here in good ol South Africa where unemployment is so high, the average number of CV's I get for a position is around 3000.

[MandC]

So what does a can of coke cost at say Spar? I don't think one can compare it to cafe prices as we don't have corner cafes.

I haven't seen a corner cafe in yonks... Since the garages have shops, the corner cafe's became extinct mostly.

*SIGH* How I miss the corner cafe "slap chips and russians"

and the "Donn squash tomash" from the portugese/greek cafe owner...

[Toitjie]

M - and today's slap chips just arent the same...I remember when I was small, that the chips came in a newspaper, and it really smelled of vinegar...today's vinegar is not the same strength as those days.

[HadEnoughofJuju]

So what does a can of coke cost at say Spar? I don't think one can compare it to cafe prices as we don't have corner cafes.

The last time I bought a can of cold drink at the spar they were R6.95 and the 500ml bottles were R9.95 I saw 2x750ml bottles of coke advertised yesterday at a Subways in Brisbane for $4.45

The weird thing for me is the sizes of the bottles. I am used to only getting 500ml, 1 litre or 2 litre bottles whereas here you can get the can which is 300ml (I think and not 360ml) and bottles in 500ml, 750ml, 1 litre, 1,25 litre, and a 2 litre. Some of the gas cold drink brands even come in 1.5 litre sizes. Very strange to me but the shopping experience was fun though.

[Mikej]

The rather peculiar layout of houses in WA. Most of the times the main bedroom is either to the left or the right of the front door. The font door can point in any of the four corners of the compass.

At first I was also amazed that the main bedroom is often at the front door but I have a theory.

In South Africa the bedrooms are always together for security reasons but that is not an issue at all in Australia so people design the main bedroom away from the kids bedrooms. Sound travels through the soft walls here and it is more pratical to have the parents bedroom apart from the kids rooms. When I designed our house it was on a tight budget and I discovered that if you want the main bedroom seperate from the kids rooms it has to be near the front door or alternatively off the living area.

So that is the bigbedroomnexttothefrontdoor theory.

[HansaPlease]

bigbedroomnexttothefrontdoor .

It's really annoying when you have babies or toddlers, having to traipse across the house to them if they wake up at night. We've recently moved and now we are upstairs and the kids are downstairs which is even worse when it's 3am and your legs don't work properly... Poor kids have to find thier way up the stairs to our room if we don't hear them.

I guess we'll change our attitude and be thankful once they're teenagers!

[Caz]

If you really need your Coke fix that bad, you should consider one of these specials (more like a "permanent deal") at Woolworths, Coles, Kmart & BigW.

My Maths may not be that good but I think that $28 for 48 units is a good deal?

Edited April 3, 2013 by cmh

[Jordy]

Yeah thats the thing .... I just want one tin of coke on a hot day. I dont want to buy 48 tins. I just want one tin and thats it. Not two crates of the stuff. If I buy one tin I pay $4 each. If I buy two blerry crates I pay $0.58 cents. My point is that the price diff is too huge. If they can sell them at 58 cents then I think it is incomprehensible to charge ten times the price for a single.

To put this into perspective, if you walked into your corner cafe in Egoli and George charged you R50 for a single tin, would you pay it?

[GideonVD]

If you really need your Coke fix that bad, you should consider one of these specials (more like a "permanent deal") at Woolworths, Coles, Kmart & BigW.

My Maths may not be that good but I think that $28 for 48 units is a good deal?

Sounds a little cheaper than here

[GideonVD]

To put this into perspective, if you walked into your corner cafe in Egoli and George charged you R50 for a single tin, would you pay it?

Nope, I'd shake it and open in into the vendor's face

[Jacques Voogt]

Yup, on our trip over December we bought these deals.

Carried them a few kilometers to our guest house/hotel and filled the fridge with them.

Every morning we would then pack 4 or 6 of them with some hotdogs or other food for the day and went out to explore.

It works a lot cheaper if one prepares and not end up having to buy food and drink where ever you go.

McDonalds had a 30c Ice cream deal. We had a couple every day. Specifically in bloody hot Perth.

To me, groceries was not all that expensive. Some items yes, but not that much more than in RSA. Services and items made by Australian labor was expensive.

[PruKitty2]

Shucks, this is off putting stuff, wonder if I'd know all about these things if I would have made the move? Don't like the bogan & hoon thing......sounds simply dreadful!