I’ve lived in Australia for more than one decade. There are certain periods of time when I felt lost in life, e.g., getting divorced, being made redundant, being fired, resigning from a company without having a new job, etc. Each of those is a long story. There are many stories that tell us how beautiful life is, but we probably shouldn’t miss out on the interesting texture of life – what about the challenging aspect of life? What can we learn from adversity?
Big cities have more jobs, whereas small cities have significantly fewer jobs.
“When candidates come to the job interviews in Adelaide, they all told me that they already want this job,” says Michelle, the hiring manager of an Australian company, “But when I was interviewing candidates in Sydney, I could feel that they were also considering other options.”
“That’s because Adelaide doesn’t have many jobs, while Sydney has a lot of jobs,” I said to her, “Your company is contributing to the South Australian economy by establishing an office in Adelaide.”
At that time, I was Michelle’s employee in Adelaide. I left Michelle’s company because the policy was changed by the government – her company was not sustainable anymore and everyone’s employment was automatically terminated.
Several years later, I went to the building in which Michelle’s organization was located and saw that office was still unoccupied – nobody was hiring that office. In fact, that building was relatively empty.
Another office building nearby is almost completely empty because there aren’t enough businesses in Adelaide.
Because there are not enough businesses in Adelaide, there aren’t enough jobs in this small city. Also, cafes and restaurants near those office buildings don’t make lots of money due to limited traffic, so food and drinks are expensive – they have to charge a higher fee. Actually, many restaurants and cafes went bankrupt already, especially during and after COVID-19.
Robert is a friend of mine who runs a reasonably successful restaurant. Every day he receives at least one phone call from another restaurant owner who asks him if he would like to buy their business because they can’t run their business well. Clearly, the hospitality industry in Adelaide is struggling.
I’ve lived in Australia for 12 years and I’ve had 9 jobs.
9 jobs in 12 years – that sounds slightly crazy, right? But one job lasted for more than 6 years, whereas some jobs only lasted for several weeks. Also, sometimes I had 2 or 3 jobs at the same time. Therefore, 9 jobs in 12 years can be normal.
According to my experience, less stressful jobs last longer, whilst more stressful jobs last shorter. For instance, two of my less stressful jobs lasted for 5 years and 6 years. I left the first less stressful job because I moved to another city for love; I left the second less stressful job because the pandemic shut down that organization.
More stressful jobs last shorter: One stressful job lasted for 3 years (which isn’t too short); another stressful job lasted for 1.5 years (which is okay).
Less stressful jobs are similar: The environment is nice; the people that I interact with are good; the pay is reasonable. In contrast, more stressful jobs are stressful in different ways: physically demanding / difficult managers & crazy co-workers / etc.
Overall, living in Australia is an enlightening experience that I highly recommend because we all learn from challenges in life. Also, don’t forget that there are many positive things in life, too!
“If you are interested in living in Australia, please be sure to remain open-minded.”
