# Civil Engineering



## tw2408 (Feb 27, 2011)

Hi Guys!

I am a civil engineer based in the UK with a wife and young son. We are bored and we're toying with the idea of moving to Australia. I have a few questions for any of you kind enough to help:

1. Is the civil engineering jobs market as good as it seems? Looking online there seems to be plenty of jobs and much better pay than the UK - is this too good to be true?

2. My wife is worried she'll get lonely with a young toddler at home all day - is it fairly easy to meet friends and get involved (in other words is it a friendly place to live)??

3. Taking into account the above where should we focus our efforts? We're really new to this so no idea where's best in Aus to live, bring up a young family etc

Thanks in advance for any info!


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## anguschaz (Jan 21, 2011)

tw2408 said:


> Hi Guys!
> 
> I am a civil engineer based in the UK with a wife and young son. We are bored and we're toying with the idea of moving to Australia. I have a few questions for any of you kind enough to help:
> 
> ...


Hi!

I'm a civil engineer too, and have just been offered a job in melbourne, now waiting for my visa. for me my basic salary will be slightly higher in relative terms, but i will also get a company car, 9% super (which is same as pension in the uk) and bonus (could be no bonus too lol if i dont do well..). i was approached by an agent who found my cv on one of the major uk jobsites. i was quite surprised as i only have 4.5yrs exp and not chartered yet. i know many companies are recruiting though.

i'll be going on my own hopefully end of march/begining of april an then my gf to follow in november.. so i'll be the lonely one i guess.. but i've already joined some meeting groups (eg melbourne young professional etc) in melbourne so hopefully will meet some new frds. i also have a couple of australian frd who ive met back in london.

i think u can start by looking at recruitment websites (google it) and also u can try all the big international consultants and contractors.


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## tw2408 (Feb 27, 2011)

anguschaz said:


> Hi!
> 
> I'm a civil engineer too, and have just been offered a job in melbourne, now waiting for my visa. for me my basic salary will be slightly higher in relative terms, but i will also get a company car, 9% super (which is same as pension in the uk) and bonus (could be no bonus too lol if i dont do well..). i was approached by an agent who found my cv on one of the major uk jobsites. i was quite surprised as i only have 4.5yrs exp and not chartered yet. i know many companies are recruiting though.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the info mate. Can I presume your salary is already quite decent then being based in London? I am in the Midlands (suburbs) and currently only on 24k a year with 7 years experience (from apprentice up) and I'm just about to finish my masters. Many ads I've seen for australian posts seem to be around the 80-100k mark does this sounds about right to you?

Good luck to you in Melbourne!


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