August 23, 2009

Feeling decidedly unskilled

Lately I've been making further enquiries into how I'm going to get to Australia exactly. There are various work visa options and a couple seemed like possibilities. First, there is applying for jobs with my company's office in Sydney and getting them to sponsor me. I emailed someone in HR there and she made it sound very easy and possible.

Another option is the regional skilled worker visa, which tries to attract skilled people to non-urban areas of the country, where people usually aren't as willing to move. That sounded like it could be an unexpectedly interesting experience, living in a smaller town, doing something very different from what I do now and getting to meet nice and/or quirky people, a whole Northern Exposure kind of thing. But it's not as easy as saying "sure, I'll live in a regional area and do what job I can find!" You have to have skills, the right skills, things that not many people in the non-urban areas can do. And I don't really qualify. I'm not a doctor or nurse or bricklayer or plumber or baker. All these solid professions where you can say "yes, I am one of those, I've been one of those for years, I can be one of those for your town." So unfortunately I think my quirky little-town fantasy has been killed.

I've looked at a couple of other visas and I'm likely not skilled enough for them either, so I'm pretty much left with the option of transferring with my company. Which isn't bad, I am very fortunate that there is this possibility, I guess I just worry about having the one hope to hang on to. I will check into it more though, make sure it is possible, if needed start getting my manager to tell them to hire me, damnit, because I am good and they want me in their office. But they also have to convince Australia that I'm good and deserve to be in their country taking a job away from an Australian. Why does it have to be so difficult?