Quote: (06-19-2015 12:17 AM)UnW Wrote:
Quote: (06-18-2015 10:18 PM)Phoenix Wrote:
spent next to nothing
As an Australian, I have to say, that part is pretty hard if you live there. Not a cheap place to live.
+1 to that. Our wages are high for a reason.
All the same, it is possible to live on a reasonable budget. You probably won't be owning your own home within your first five years, but a modest place in an all right location can be rented for an average cost with the right investigation and a bit of luck.
Dining, entertainment and transport are going to be your other chief expenses. The first can be largely avoided if you're not a martyr to overpriced foodie venues or our coffee culture
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and the latter if you live close enough to the city to mitigate public transport or a car by cycling (see above RE accommodation).
A few more points given your background:
- Race isn't anywhere as much of an issue vis-à-vis the rest of the world. Yes, you'd be naïve to think that it doesn't matter, or that you'll never encounter such sentiments (primarily in small country towns). On the whole though, I think we've done rather well in integrating a massive immigrant population base that have brought excellent work ethics with them. On the other hand, certain races tend to dominate professions more than others.
In your case, I can't say I've ever seen a black tradesman, though lots of Pacific Islanders are in that line of work. Given that you sound pretty Western, your colour should hardly matter.
- Speaking as someone who likes languages, your linguistic ability will be of negligible to even negative use here. Our society is that embarrassingly sheltered from the rest of the world that a second language isn't considered as a springboard to success. Australia is at the end of the day a vastly monolingual culture by world standards (despite what some local councils will have you think). You'll probably impress hipster chicks and a wider subset of girls that have a thing for European and Latino men, but that's it.
- I don't really know of any other country that rewards its tradies as much as Australia does. A resources boom, generous wages and skilled labour shortages have seen our blue collar workers living probably more comfortably than our white collar ones. It's not unheard of for qualified tradesmen to earn six figures here (although your earning potential stagnates at a certain point).
Pros:
- Solid qualifications, recognisable and employable throughout the country
- OK hours, ridiculously generous penalty penalty rates for overtime work
- Enough time after hours to have a life.
- The opportunity to start and own your own business pretty early on (~5 years in)
- Reasonably high status in society. You're probably more likely to get laid telling a girl you're a tradie than if you worked in finance. I shit you not.
- V generous tax breaks for work expenses including clothing and a ute (don't quote me on the latter).
Cons:
- Early hours. Expect to get up at 5am for work.
- Apprenticeships typically last 4 years during which you get paid bugger all and typically are treated like bollocks. If you're already qualified skip this.
- Lowbrow/bro culture. Probably reflective to a lesser degree of the general population, but if you were brought up a certain way, you may not integrate easily with your workmates. I worked with construction types one summer and practically did not gel with them. "Fuck" and "cunt" are pretty much used as filler words.
- It fucks up your body eventually. Although this is obviously a universal thing. I laugh at the 'bronzed, shredded' tradie trope so prevalent here.
Back to your original question, it really lines up with your idea of success and where it fits in with your life goals. Is your idea of success holding down a stable 9-5 gig, strapped down with a mortgage, 2 kids, a frumpy wife gone to seed and yearly holidays to the Whitsundays and Thailand? Is your idea of success getting wasted each weeknight on a party island in the Carribean or the Mediterranean? Is it travelling the world endlessly on a shoestring, perpetually broke? Is it about spending your twenties upskilling and building connections that will see you own location-independent and influential business concerns later on? Is it banging thin, hot women around the world, maybe in conjunction with any of the previous points?
It's really something that only you can answer.
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