After all this time in Australia, I’ve seen different jobs, I’ve done a bit of everything and I have enjoyed every step of the path so far. If you work abroad you will get a life lesson every day.
When you move overseas, one of the things that worries us especially is how easily we will be able to find a job. I know that Australia and USA are two very attractive options when you think about moving to another country but, if you want to work… are they very similar? Well, my answer is no.
Size
-More than 200 million people live in US, whereas barely 25 “fill” Australia. That means that you have to compete a lot in the US!
-I can’t even think about how many cities are in the US offering decent numbers of employment but, if I look at the Aussie map, around 8 cities with big numbers of employment offers. This balances the previous point a little bit.
Hours
– Get ready to wake up early if you work in Australia. Usually the day starts with the sunrise, and this is something that didn’t happen at all when I was in California. If you are an early bird, you will love the aussie style.
– In both countries you can get to work long hours, but truth to be told, in my experience, they do respect that a lot. If you’re planning to work or study in the US, that’s a positive. Your boss will recognise your efforts and I also get very positive feedback anytime that I give a bit more than just the expected in Australia.
Salary
In my experience, salaries in Australia are a bit higher than in the US, but this also has some gaps. If you’re thinking about moving to a city like New York, you might consider the salaries together with the cost of living. In Australia, you can compare that to Sydney, where the salaries are slightly higher than in other cities, but the cost of living is pretty high.
Sydney CBD from the Harbour
To me, the biggest difference comes when you’re working in a non qualified job. If you decided to study or work abroad, and you have to take the first job that comes up, chances are that you end up working in hospitality. Mainly, because is an industry that allows you to study at the same time. If you do work in hospitality, you’ll find that in the US salaries are lower than you would like, but they are combined with huge amounts of tips! Up to a 20% of the price in the bill. This means that you can actually see how your wage jumps to the roof if you perform well and are a bit lucky.
On the other hand, if you work in Australia you will notice that there is not such a “tip culture”. Some people will indeed give you tips, but that’s not part of the business. Having said that, your base salary could be 4 times higher than in the States. What a dilema, isn’t it??
Knowing this, what option would you pick if you decided to work abroad?
