Working/Living Abroad

[Iason]

Not technically finals week, but I have an exam tomorrow. I'm always up at this hour anyway because that's when my friends at home are awake I spent Saturday in Brooklyn!
Long Island is lovely

Long Island is...........Long Island, haha. Montauk is very nice, and the Hamptons are cool too. You've seen what passes as a beach on the East Coast, so I'm guessing you're missing Oz just for that reason.

 

[Poseidon]

Doing that right now - best decision of my life Fire away any questions if you have them.

What program are you with? Are you working while studying? Roughly how much cash would you need when you get there? Shoe size? What are you studying? How hard is it to get accepted to a Uni/application process?

 

[wce4premiership]

Thinking of doing this at the moment. Roughly a years time I'll be doing it. Have a few questions though.

Do you need work lined up or can you just arrive there and ask around?
Will getting a British passport be of any benefit?
What sort of work has everyone else done over seas?

I do have a trade (sparky) which could come in handy but am leaning towards just wanting to arrive in Europe, trravel for three months or so and then find somewhere to work, even just behind a bar/cleaning dishes.

 

[DrVanNostrand]

Thinking of doing this at the moment. Roughly a years time I'll be doing it. Have a few questions though.

Do you need work lined up or can you just arrive there and ask around?
Will getting a British passport be of any benefit?
What sort of work has everyone else done over seas?

I do have a trade (sparky) which could come in handy but am leaning towards just wanting to arrive in Europe, trravel for three months or so and then find somewhere to work, even just behind a bar/cleaning dishes.

I posted a few bits of information on the first page of this thread http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/working-living-abroad.1002750/#post-28027891

http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/working-living-abroad.1002750/#post-28030655

In short there's a group of countries that allow Australian passport holders to enter without pre-arranged work on a working holiday visa. These vary between 12-24 months depending on the country. These countries are Canada, the UK, Ireland and most of western Europe. USA requires pre-arranged work and a company sponsoring you. With NZ there are no requirements and Aussies are allowed to stay and work for as long as they please. Some Asian and South American countries are in the same group as USA - need pre-arranged work - but these also have language requirements.

Seeing as you have a rather handy trade qualification, you could probably try your luck anywhere.

 

[Dont be a lemon]

Will getting a British passport be of any benefit?

If you're British they will let you in and out until the end of time and not a single **** will be given.

 

[EFL Boy]

I think the ideal way to go for me would be to get qualified up, & then apply for the green card lottery for USA and/or a working holiday VISA for Canada, and then to try my luck at applying for jobs if I am lucky enough.

All hypothetical though of course!

 

[dales.girl38]

What program are you with? Are you working while studying? Roughly how much cash would you need when you get there? Shoe size? What are you studying? How hard is it to get accepted to a Uni/application process?

1) Deakin
2) God no, I'm not slaving away for $8 an hour when I could be doing...well, anything is better than that. It's just not worth it, I don't know any exchange students who bothered getting a job over here, unless you want to be a TA which is unpaid anyway.
3) It really depends on what you want to do, I started off with ~$23k after student loans/grants, and I have roughly $10k left with 5 weeks remaining. $5k went on accommodation and fees, $1600 on flights, beyond that it's all been food/spending money and I've done a lot with that. If you want to travel, I'd recommend saving as much as you can - we're getting towards the end of our trip here and some people are starting to have to knock back trips because they're running out of cash. If you want to soak up uni life and spend every weekend at dorm parties and hanging out, you won't need as much cash as if you spend every weekend seeing Broadway shows or travelling interstate.
4) You'll never know
5) I'm studying business over here, my psychology units weren't running but I had an arts elective up my sleeve that I'm doing. Easiest subject of my life. The structure is very different over here though, lots of small homework tasks graded on completion, marks for attendance (my arts elective is 50% graded on participation) and even the mid-terms/finals tend to be worth only 25% or so. It's hard keeping track of all of the due dates, but the work itself is easy, much easier than back home.
6) The application process is designed to suck. Only those who persist will get through, but if you do persist, you will get through. You need to have passed 8 subjects in order to get student loans, and if you are entering second year with only 7 or so passes and 1 fail, you will need to prove yourself a bit more to get accepted (technically you're not allowed), but it is still possible. You need to still have 4 credit points remaining to complete when you return home. Seriously though, the process sucks, getting subject approval sucks, but if you persist with it, you will get an offer.

Do it.

 

[Poseidon]

Thanks DG38!

 

[blueboy25]

Thinking of doing this at the moment. Roughly a years time I'll be doing it. Have a few questions though.

Do you need work lined up or can you just arrive there and ask around?
Will getting a British passport be of any benefit?
What sort of work has everyone else done over seas?

I do have a trade (sparky) which could come in handy but am leaning towards just wanting to arrive in Europe, trravel for three months or so and then find somewhere to work, even just behind a bar/cleaning dishes.

Get the British passport, makes things so much easier traveling around and working in Europe.

I took my application form into the British consulate in Perth and had a brand new UK passport in my hand in 4 days.

 

[The Passenger]

Will getting a British passport be of any benefit?

if you have access to a british passport do it mate. will make life so good. if you want to go and do some work in any EU country you can.

 

[wce4premiership]

Cheers guys, seems I've really hit a mini type jackpot with this passport thing (which I don't actually have but pretty sure I'm elligible) it would be a shame to waste it.

Would also love to work on the slopes in Canada / French Alps / Swiss Alps if that was possible.