Question:
I am a UK national, currently working and living in Switzerland as a
Data Mining/IT Consultant.
My girlfriend is studying for a Swiss Law degree, having previously
worked as a qualified nurse.
We are considering emigration to Australia. I think it would not be
difficult for my girlfriend to find a nursing position, but she would
rather utilise her law background. I guess my questions are:
1) Has anybody with overseas legal qualifications experience of
being accepted as a legal practioner in Australia? How difficult was it?
2) Has anybody found law related work who has a non-Australian law
background? Not necessarily as a registered lawyer.
Answer:
That's what I charge as a drafting sub-contractor, it's not great but it's
not bad. I have some tax advantages and no holiday, superannuation, sick
leave etc. As an employee $40 would be quite good, but mining is doing so
well that many people (in West Australia at least) have left their jobs for
mining jobs. Some of the incomes are ridiculous in that industry now.
In a TV current affairs programme last night, a West Australian
business claimed it was paying first year trade apprentices
(traditionally the worst paid section of the workforce) $23 per hour.
That equates to $46,000 pa.
WA is currently riding high on the resources boom though, whereas Vic
is a part of the rust belt. :)
The most important part to consider (in either place) might be the
cost of accommodation, since housing costs have risen dramatically in
recent times in all of Australia. If it's provided by the company
then yours is probably a very good offer.
I meanwhile received some further information:
I would get 4 weeks holiday and 6 days of sick leave per year. Housing
would not be provided by the company, it's a quite small company (less
than 20 employees). But since I am single I won't need a huge appartment
and I am not sure about Australia, but in Germany many females still get
lower wages for the same job as males and females usually do not get the
more interesting and better paid jobs anyway. Still, with my successful
graduate studies of Economics I would be able to get better paid jobs in
Germany with this profession but Australia does not need economists
right now so I would not be able to get a job in the management as
economist so easily anyway (I would probably not get a work visa for
such a job).
Still I encourage everyone to give me further information and advise
since I had not planned to apply for a job in Australia for the next 12
months and now this offer just came up so quickly.
