Thinking About the Move to Australia – 3 Ongoing Concerns

On the odd occasion that I allowed myself to imagine what it would be like to be in our current position – check the timeline if you aren’t up to date.

I’d think that now, with visas obtained, we’d be full of excitement. Organising farewell meetups and spending evenings picking out rental accommodation by the beach etc.

The reality is that the stress continues. It’s different from the paperwork and waiting etc, but still stressful nonetheless.

I’m hoping that putting some of the things currently on my mind out there may both help myself and others.

A lot of those issues are related to financial concerns when moving to Australia from the UK.

Probably my number one concern personally, and this is coming from Mr HTWA in this instance, is around working in Australia.

At 30 I changed my career from retail manager to web developer.

Having worked myself back up to a reasonable salary I’m now going to move to the other side of the world.

I think anybody who has aspirations of moving from the UK to Australia is aware that it is not a cheap process.

So the last thing I want to do is start again from the bottom of the career ladder, on low wages while trying to restore the level of creature comforts we have in the UK.

I think the move may just be triggering some imposter syndrome which is not uncommon in my profession.

What is imposter syndrome?

“Imposter syndrome is when you doubt your own skills and successes. You feel you’re not as talented or worthy as others believe, and you’re scared that one day, people will realize that.

Although it’s not a mental health diagnosis, imposter syndrome can cause real harm in different areas of your life.

You might also hear it called imposter phenomenon, fraud syndrome, or imposter experience.”

Taken from – https://www.webmd.com/balance/what-is-imposter-syndrome

Regardless, it’s making me anxious that I will turn up in Australia and my skills will not be relevant or required. After all, I wasn’t the primary visa applicant.

With that being said, I’d like to explain a few things I’m doing to try and overcome the job anxiety.

1. I’ve now had a conversation with my boss about my move to Australia. I’ve explained that I want a better lifestyle for my family etc, and that the move is not career-driven for either myself or Mrs HTWA.
   
   As part of that conversation, we discussed the possibility of me working remotely, even for a set period of time. Even though now at the time of writing there is no guarantee of that. Having the conversation 9 months ahead of moving has opened up the possibility and that would be very comforting for me to know that I could make the move, and then have a guaranteed income upon arrival in Australia.
   
   As I said, there are no guarantees at the moment that this will happen. My boss is aware of the differences in pay in Australia vs the UK.
2. An obvious one, but I’m checking the web developer jobs on Seek just to keep an eye on the skills that are in demand over there and how they align with my own skills, and in turn, what I may need to learn to improve my employability.
3. As a web developer, it’s important to be able to demonstrate my skills, so I can work on my portfolio over the coming months to ensure I’m showing off my skills in the best way possible.

Quite a self-explanatory one this one, but with children aged 10 and 12. We know we are moving them at a difficult time.

They are establishing good friendship circles and soon both will be secondary school age.

The main thing that reassures me about the kids is I moved schools at the same time in my life when my family moved from one side of the City to the other.

I know we’re talking about different scales in terms of distance here! However, day to day, much of what changes for them will be the same as it was for me when I moved. School life will be the majority of their everyday life. So we just need to take some time to research schools and areas that will hopefully suit them well.

With a 190 permanent residency visa. We at least do not have to pay additional school fees, this helps with the financial concerns.

I put a post out on Reddit the other day looking for general information about Adelaide to help us with the move, and in particular choosing a school. One of the most interesting things I found was a list of high schools with special interest or specialist programs.

These programs are varied but cover sports including:

• Soccer
• Cricket
• Basketball
• Football
• Sailing
• Rowing
• Athletics

These will be of great interest to my son.

In addition to sports the specialist programs include:

• Arts
• Languages
• Rural Operations
• Science, technology and mathematics
• Advanced Technology Program
• Entrepeneurial

There are similar specialisms assigned to UK schools. However this list does come in handy when selling the idea of schools in Adelaide to the kids. So they can see what they can expect rather than just be told it will be better for them in the long run.

Seriously, why would anyone like me? Oh it’s my old friend imposter syndrome again.

With that said, I have read in a number of places online that it can be hard to break into the friendship groups of locals in Adelaide/Australia in general.

It’s understandable, people will have their friends from school/college etc and they are pretty settled with that. It’s the same here in the UK really.

Over the last couple of years I’ve made new friendships by trying out new sports and being prepared to say yes.

Sound weird?

It’s simple really, you think about the things you enjoy doing or are interested in. Find a local club or opportunity to participate via social media sites. You turn up and then say “Yes” when someone puts out the inevitable invite to a team social.

I’ve already found a facebook group for over 35s soccer in Adelaide, I’ll engage with it when we make the move over to Australia.

If you are somewhat of an introvert like I can be, this can be daunting. Just remember you’ve been brave enough to move to the otherside of the planet. So talking to a few randomers is not the hardest thing you’ve ever done is it?

Also, there will be a number of British migrants or expats, just like yourself who are looking for friendship in a strange new part of the world too.

It does help to talk about these concerns you have. Just typing these out has given me some clarity.

If you have financial concerns when moving to australia, or anything else on your mind for that matter.

Feel free to contact us and share via the website contact form, or Instagram and we’ll help where we can.