Starting my adventure has been super duper fun, until reality sinks in. I needed to get myself a work and holiday job.
$Money$ OUT > $Money$ IN
Which is why I highly advise everyone to have ample of savings. Just in case you’re not able to secure a stable job as soon as you land.
It took me roughly 1.5 months to secure a stable work and holiday job. The keyword is “stable” as that is the most crucial factor that will make or break your income stream.
I stress a lot on that term because I did manage to get a job within 2 weeks. However, the hours weren’t enough as I arrived just as the peak season died down. A huge bummer but I was utterly grateful to the kind couple who hired me even though it was for the shortest time.
You see, I had close to ZERO hospitality experience. I worked corporate since graduating university. So, you can imagine the amount of hustling I had to do before landing my first job. Perseverance is key (and the idea of running low on cash scared me shitless lol.)
It took a lot of resume tweaking, walking into different restaurants/shops/bars/cafes/hotels every.single.day, talking to people, checking online, asking friends and so much more. Some people are lucky enough to rock up somewhere and be given the job immediately. Some not so lucky and aren’t able to find any job even after 3 months. I was considered fortunate enough to have found something during that time.
You see, Cairns is very much a tourist destination. And with tourism, there are high and low seasons. I had just missed the high season boat when I arrived and coupled with the high arrival of backpackers, I was caught in a situation where there weren’t enough jobs to go around and yet there were all these people competing for jobs.
So what should you do?
Don’t give up (cause I nearly did! And I promise, it will be worth your every effort if you stay)
Now that we got the important aspect out of the way, here are some ways that you can look for work.
Where can you start?
- Online
- Walk-in
- Friends
- Meet-ups
- Strangers
The Online Method
This method is probably the simplest of all methods. I am pretty sure most, if not all, of you have tried looking for work online at some point in life.
I’ve personally used Seek, Indeed, Jora, Gumtree, and other job sites to look for work. Seek has a bigger pool of corporate vacancies whilst Gumtree has more hospitality/farm work ads going around.
That being said, I highly highly advise that you do not fully trust everything posted on Gumtree. I have had friends who applied to posts on work and holiday job that sounded legit but turned out to be something else.
There are legit job ads on Gumtree but you just have got to be smart about it. Check out the ad, research on the company, call or e-mail to ask.
Tip: NEVER give out any personal details that can bring harm to yourself.
That aside, there are also plenty of Facebook Groups where many backpackers share information with each other. Join FB Groups set up in your area. Almost every city has its own FB job search group so you might be lucky enough to find good job postings there.
The Offline Method – Walk-ins
I found this worked best for me, only because I had so much of free time on my hands and I wanted to explore the city better. Plus, this was how I got my first job.
I printed copies my resume and went into almost every cafe/restaurant/bar and applied directly. This method allows you the chance of being interviewed by the owner/manager if you are lucky to have walked in when they are around. Either way, you can always drop your resume with the staff who will pass it on if they are looking for someone.
All I did was walk into the cafe, asked if they were looking to hire someone and the owner came up and asked me a few questions and gave me a day to try out the job. Up until that point, it was about 2 weeks of getting nothing and I was so so so excited for the opportunity!
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you will come across a “Hiring” sign pasted on the shop’s front. Walk in immediately and hand over that resume of yours. I did, and that was how I got my second job.
Tip: Make sure to check the opening hours of the shops near to you. The cafes near me opened as early as 6AM and will close around 1PM. Try to avoid rush hour (peak lunch/dinner time) as the staff may not be able to attend to you, hence you might lose your chance to speak with the person in charge).
Friends
As a solo traveller, I made a point to approach people and at least try to make friends. Of course, be cautious with who you approach. If you don’t feel good, don’t pursue. Make Common Sense your best friend.
While travelling around, I did walk up to people, said hi and tried to ascertain if I could get along with him/her from the way they talked and responded to me during our conversation. Some, I hit it off almost immediately, some, not so much…..
C’mon, it is a year’s worth of adventure, go out and make friends! It’ll be more exciting to share your experiences with someone physically near you!
So anyways!
Once you have your network, ask around. Let everyone in your network know that you’re looking for a job and the kind of job that you’re looking for.
For me, I was looking for hospitality work as my visa does not require me to do any farm work to get my second year extension (thank god!).
And this was how I came across 2 of my jobs, all because I asked and some friends guided me and I was super duper grateful!
Meet-ups
While I was still in Townsville, I came across a post on a FB Group that someone was hosting a meet-up about a few days after I am set to arrive in Cairns. I messaged the host and asked if I could join, got the details and went to the meet-up and winged the whole thing!
Sad to say, I didn’t enjoy it at all. Lol!
But I did get the chance to ask around what everyone was doing and that gave me an idea of what I could look into.
One or two were kind enough to point out some ads they saw on work and holiday job nearby.
Strangers
I was unsure if I should include this as a method and I really stress on that “Make Common Sense your best friend” thing I mentioned before.
In my case, it was customers that I had attended to who referred me to other jobs which not only broaden my network but also gave me a foot in the door opportunity as I was already speaking to someone who knew someone.
Australians are generally pretty friendly and can start up a conversation with easily so they might just point you to the right direction.
In Summary:
Each of the above method will work differently for different people. So go in with an open mind. You’re there on a one year adventure so try to make full use of the opportunity.
Just make sure to get as much details on the job before saying yes to anything.
And remember, make Common Sense your best friend (I sound like a broken recorder at this point.)
So yeap, just keep on trying and never give up. You’ll eventually find something.
GOOD LUCK!
