Finding Work

After applying for your TFN, brush up your resume (or CV as they call it in Australia) to showcase the skills you’ll need in the jobs you’re applying for. Although you can technically apply for any job opening, the majority of working holiday-makers do hospitality and restaurant jobs, as these are easy to find and the most flexible when you want to travel. They also pay quite well, with a national minimum wage of AUD $18.29 and most hospitality jobs paying in the low-to-mid AUD $20 range with higher wages on weekends and public holidays.

A major factor that affects the availability of work is time of year. Summer in Australia runs from December to February, and unsurprisingly, restaurants and hotels have the most staff during this time, with places usually tapering their staff around mid-January before building up again prior to the Easter holidays. Permanent Holiday discovered this to our dismay when we showed up in Byron Bay on January 28th. After going into literally every restaurant and retail store, we figured out that there was nothing available and moved down to Sydney, where there are enough restaurants to make time of year less of a problem. If you want to work in a Byron Bay-type town, such as Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, we recommend arriving before Christmas at the very latest or waiting until Easter rolls around.

If you’re like us, you may not have a wealth of hospitality/restaurant experience to showcase, but there are ways around this. We’ve found that highlighting internships with customer service or administrative work can help make up for a lack of restaurant experience. Although both Danny and Noah came with prior experience as waiters, Zach’s sole restaurant experience was in a fast, casual joint as a salad-maker and cashier. Because of this, it took him a little longer to find his first serving job. Once that first job was out of the way, however, he was on close-to-equal footing with most restaurant applicants. While it is 100% possible to come with no experience and find a job, understand that it will likely take longer to find someone willing to give you a chance.

In our experience, the restaurants we worked for did not check our CV entries, but there is no guarantee they will not. Permanent Holiday would never recommend lying, but it should be noted that people frequently exaggerate their hospitality experience. Again, we don’t advocate lying, but maybe you worked six months at that restaurant instead of just two.

There’s one last administrative detail to take care of before you begin your job search and that’s your Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) competency card. This generally consists of an online or in-person course that lasts a few hours and goes over the specific alcohol rules of the territory you’re working in. Unfortunately, each territory requires a different RSA and they do cost to obtain. In New South Wales, expect to pay around AUD $100; in Victoria, around AUD $40; and in Queensland, around AUD $18.

Once you’ve got your CV, TFN, and RSA, it’s time to hit the streets. Although there are plenty of job sites to browse through online, which we’ll go through shortly, we’ve found that the most effective way to find a position is to walk into restaurants at off-peak times with your CV, be polite, and ask to speak to a manager. Although many won’t be hiring at that moment, they’ll usually take your resume for when a spot inevitably opens up. Remember, most hospitality workers are travelers just like you, meaning jobs open all the time. Although it can be slightly intimidating at first, the more places you visit, the better your chances are for landing a position!

If you’re worried about finding a job, you can increase your odds exponentially by completing barista or bartender training prior to leaving for Australia. There is pretty much a permanent need for these positions, as well as for chefs.

In addition to walking around, you can also search online. Gumtree.com.au and Seek.com.au are two websites that post openings, while Found is an app that is essentially Tinder for jobs. We also advise looking into Sidekicker, which provides temporary staff for hospitality, promotions, events and business support. Sidekicker allows you to apply through its app after you complete a basic skills test and onboarding, but be warned that the availability of jobs varies drastically depending on the city you choose. For example, Sidekicker is very active in Melbourne, but much less so in Sydney. There are also staffing agencies you can apply to, such as Clifford Wallace in Sydney, which found jobs for the entire Permanent Holiday team.

Prior to finding a full-time position, expect to be asked in for an unpaid trial shift. These are generally two to three hours and are intended to gauge whether your CV matches your skills. As long as you show a willingness to learn, you’ll probably be fine.

Office jobs are also fairly common amongst backpackers. If you live in one of the big cities, you can pursue a job as a receptionist or administrative assistant. This can help beef up your resume for your eventual return to the States by showing more experience in an office environment. However, most of these jobs end up being nine to five and will make it harder for you to take trips or explore the city night life during the week. If you do pursue one of these jobs, we recommend moving out of the hostel quickly because backpackers rarely abide by the nine to five schedule.

Lastly, there are laboring jobs available, most of which require you obtain a white card signifying your understanding of construction site safety before starting. White cards are valid in all Australian territories and cost around AUD $39 to obtain. Having never worked a laboring job, we don’t have much expertise on the job market, but from what we know, it pays well above minimum wage and requires no prior experience once you have your white card. You can either pursue a permanent job on a site or apply through one of the many laboring agencies to receive temporary work. While there are many agencies, Hays is one of the larger agencies that is available in most of the major cities (which is convenient if you decide to move). There is also opportunity to gain experience quickly and raise your job prospects after minimal time working in labour. After you gain experience, you can take courses in order to raise your pay by becoming a shift supervisor, learning how to drive a forklift, etc.

Although this may seem complicated, it’s really quite easy to find a decent job in one of the bigger cities. Depending on your motivation, getting a position should take just two to three weeks. Just in case, however, we recommend flying over with enough money to live unemployed for at least a month. Happy hunting!