[negrodamus]

QUOTE (Stinky12 @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 18:54)

QUOTE (negrodamus @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 14:52) QUOTE (Piperka @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 11:57) I think you'd be better off moving to America How is he gonna get a green card and work permit and all that stuff? Moving to America is really hard. You can't just pack your bags and go there. You know that a illegal immigrants who sets foot on American soil before getting caught, gets to stay.

You mean that any illegal immigrant who gets past the border just gets to stay for the rest of his life without any problems? Thats not true at all.

[Kent Traffic Cop]

QUOTE (grope_4_that_date @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 19:21)

Move to America. London is crazy. Riots happen every week.

Not *strictly* true... we usually have riots every 20 years or so, most of the time because of a sh*te economy...

QUOTE (GTA1 @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 19:25)

Bring your own petrol. There isn't any left

FLOL!

[sivispacem]

QUOTE (grope_4_that_date @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 20:21)

Move to America. London is crazy. Riots happen every week.

Don't listen to idiots like this. Also, don't listen to the nay-sayers; the UK isn't as sh*t as many of it's residents like to make out, though times are tough here.

Yes, it's cold. Yes, it rains a lot. Yes, fuel is expensive. Yes, taxes are high if you have a reasonable income. But if you've got decent transferable skills- especially in computer sciences, engineering of all kinds and medicine (but other skills are also valued)- and some working experience, you're already doing a damn sight better than many residents. Average wages vary dramatically depending on role. Crime levels aren't really measurably worse than anywhere else in Europe, and both petty and violent crime rates are significantly below that of most US states.

Now, you mention that your aspiration is writing. I hate to put a dampener on it, but the UK media industry is incredibly over-saturated and work can be scarce even for those with significant writing experience. Have you ever written before, for instance as a contributor in the press, articles for journals and books, or for magazines? If not, then you may struggle here just as much as you would in Australia. Now, if you're qualified in something that demonstrates you've got good writing and communicative skills, then other avenues- advertising, brand management and PR, most notably- are strong possibilities but, again, there's a lot of competition from both domestic residents and working migrants across the mid-skilled/mid-level sector. Despite the current unemployment rate, jobs are quite plentiful; it's a lack of appropriate skills which is the problem, hence the use of skilled migrant work.

Avoid London unless you've already got a certain job, a "living wage" in London is about £30k and you'll struggle to get that without a few years experience under your belt. The North is the cheapest place to live, but also has the least skilled work and comparatively low pay levels. Don't go to Wales unless you either want to be a farmer, or work in the public sector (of which there won't be much left in 3 years). Don't go to Scotland unless you want to work in the oil and gas industry (becoming less and less profitable), defence industry (hit and miss, depending on company), or in the public sector (of which there won't be much left in 3 years). Most Aussies in the UK live on the South-East coast or in London.

Be prepared for people to take the piss out of you mercilessly. Get used to understanding people with accents stupider than your own.

That's about all I can say really.

[Kent Traffic Cop]

But sivis - it is crap. Just look at the recent budget. Our government (regardless of who's in power) f*cks its citizens over all day long. You've even pointed out yourself that our public sector is about to die.

Say bye bye to the NHS and remember to take you cheque book everywhere you go, just incase you get hurt and a private ambulance has to pick you up.

Even our e-mails, Facebook and everything else we do online can be watched without any real reason. As long as they've got "reasonable belief that someone is a criminal" (er... he looked at me funny) they can start hacking away. I'm ex-old bill and even I think that's wrong.

Your "member title" is getting closer to reality... this place is sh*te and as soon as I can go to Canada, I'm off!

[sivispacem]

I'm afraid we're probably going to have to agree to disagree here. I don't intend to derail the topic, but these are a few of my thoughts on your comments.

QUOTE (Kent Traffic Cop @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 21:57)

But sivis - it is crap. Just look at the recent budget. Our government (regardless of who's in power) f*cks its citizens over all day long.

There's a lot I agree with in the recent budget, and some that directly affects me. Changes to corporation tax regime? Affect me as I do my business as a Limited Company. Removing the requirements for companies with a turnover below a certain threshold requiring an accountant to audit abbreviated accounts? Again, that affects me positively. True, I get hit with a higher rate of tax on beer, smokes and fuel, but I still end up better off and I'm by no means a high earner. There's some decent policy in there; granted, there's also some utter sh*te, like the way they're addressing changes in the child benefit system, but many of the headlines seem pretty reasonable to me. The big-wigs who everyone thinks should pay all the tax (and, proportionally, do pay the largest share ) largely operate outside the income tax system anyway (operating as consultants or directors and payable in dividends or shares and therefore pay capital gains tax, so the 50p tax rate is a waste of time unless you want to reinforce 1950s class warfare stereotypes. Which is essentially what all criticisms of government policy over the last three decades, from both sides have descended into (though I have to say it's particularly pronounced at the moment).

QUOTE (Kent Traffic Cop @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 21:57)

You've even pointed out yourself that our public sector is about to die.

Every change in the NHS is accompanied by claim that it will be it's death-knell. The simple fact of the matter is that, in it's current state, it's a system which fails to deliver a quality of care equal to ex-Eastern Bloc states, let alone the established continental European powers. If a 35% increase in funding over a 10 year period results in a country slipping down the rankings for quality of care and survival rates, then there must be something intrinsically wrong with the system. When the UK sits below the Czech Republic in the tables, who have a health spending per capita of around 40% less, then I see that as a pretty solid indicator that there's something wrong with the way our healthcare is delivered. I don't think anyone has any idea how the changes in the NHS are going to play out in the long term, but their chances of success have been damaged every bit as much by the staunch opposition of those whose vested interest is in maintaining the status quo than they have by any piece of government policy.

QUOTE (Kent Traffic Cop @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 21:57)

Say bye bye to the NHS and remember to take you cheque book everywhere you go, just incase you get hurt and a private ambulance has to pick you up.

As someone whose had the misfortune of working in collaboration with the public sector for a number of years, I will quite gladly say that much of it is catastrophically mismanaged, monolithic and has been dangerously over-funded in the last decade or so. And whilst I don't agree with the administration of how public sector funding cuts is being handled, that's as much about local-level delivery as it is about central government policy. I fully appreciate the need for a properly managed, properly funded and properly functioning public sector, but it's something we lack. The Bismarkian model of professional public sector service delivery is vastly superior in every way to that seen in the UK and I fear that, until we adopt such an approach and start operating our services as a public good driven by meritocracy and productivity rather than 1950s-era Socialist propaganda, then we're going to continue to have a working environment in some elements of the public sector which actually actively discourages, rather than encourages, productivity on an individual (and therefore institutional) level.

QUOTE (Kent Traffic Cop @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 21:57)

Even our e-mails, Facebook and everything else we do online can be watched without any real reason. As long as they've got "reasonable belief that someone is a criminal" (er... he looked at me funny) they can start hacking away. I'm ex-old bill and even I think that's wrong.

This has also been blown catastrophically out of proportion. My background is in intelligence analysis and management, and even if there was a desire to actively monitor the activities of all individuals in the country, there is neither the funding nor the manpower to do so. The current proposals do not permit GCHQ to monitor the content of messages without explicit case-by-case permission from the Home Office, and aside from permitting them to harness data that it is a legal requirement for ISP's to hold anyway, the only suggested change is that the monitoring of communications can be done in real time rather than retrospectively. GCHQ has around 2,000 staff, and the vast majority of these are not trained intelligence analysts but computer scientists, administrators or cryptologists. There's just no feasible way that they would be able to monitor the communications of every individual in the UK in the way that some elements of the press have claimed they would; it's just not physically possible.

[Gareth Croke]

If you're looking at the UK, then I wouldn't say London, it blows, too expensive and full of folk who don't even acknowledge your existence. Although most the music industry (Mainstream and Visual Media) is based around the London area although not strictly limited to London City itself, more what are called the home counties just to the north of the city but close enough to the M25, these are still very expensive places to live and the cost of living is very high with little disposable income if any.

If you're looking at getting a general day job and doing freelance on the side then I would say Edinburgh would be more the thing as there is a entertainment industry there, especially during August where the Festival, Fringe and Film Festival are on, plus there is a lot of theatres to get your creative juices going. The cost of living is reasonably expensive compared to the rest of Scotland, but it's a damn sight less expensive than London.

But a word of advice for you, most Aussies I've known end up going back home simply because the weather is sh*te, granted we don't have extremes but it can be the persistent 365 shades of grey tat just do you in, plus the light temperature in the UK is very blue/grey and doesn't do you much favours in the happy stakes.

(PS, if you're wondering why someone with a US flag is giving you advice on this, I'm actually Anglo-Scots and live in Scotland)
(PPS In my own onion, go to America )

[DarrinPA]

QUOTE (LotusRIP @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 03:30)

I also write music for games, and the games industry (basically entertainment overall) is a whole lot bigger over there... I could have got a job with Rare as I was contacted by HR, but if only I was living there at the time and was in the middle of postgrad study here in Aus Even the guys who make it here in Australia, are lucky to get 1 job every 3 years. In the UK or America moreso, as long as you have the talent you're never out of work... That's what my teachers all kept telling us - who have been around the world and written music for stuff like Happy Feet and Fight Club

Haha, I wish. I've been dealing with the music industry for a long time and it's terrible. Talent has nothing to do with getting jobs, it's all about connections. When other companies need to hire music writers, most the time the jobs aren't even posted, it's all closed door meetings and those who get hired aren't the ones who sent in an application. My buddy has done some video game soundtracks, before he even had a degree He's just connected and doesn't have to look for work, it just finds him....

What college did you go to? I see this thread is going a bit off topic, pm me if you want.

[LotusRIP]

Thanks for all the feedback, some interesting stuff here.

First off, somebody mentioned I'm a writer. That's completely wrong. I compose music for Film / TV / Games. At the moment it's just freelance, and my credits listing is as good as Shockwave Games and SBS website.

My school of study was Australian Film Television & Radio School. It's the top film school in the country, only about 8 people are chosen in each field of study (Directing, Producing, Cinematography, etc). There was 5 of us chosen for the film music course, so I was pretty stoked. Anybody can apply for the courses from all over the world - and believe me, there are plenty that come from over waters just to attend the school for some reason. It was a postgraduate diploma and I was lectured by various working composers etc in the industry. The school is at Fox Studios Australia, it's literally right next door to where The Matrix was made. Just to give you an idea of what I'm aiming for...

Honestly, I would prefer to move to America for work reasons but it's a very difficult process because ever since 9/11 - we're all terrorists! My fiance and I are looking to move to the UK because not only we love the place but because it's easier to set ourselves up there due to ancestry visa, and some family members who could help us out on the other end... so it's just a more realistic choice.

Australia is a sh*tty country for weather. I honestly don't know why people bother coming out here to get baked on the beach and left with more melanoma cancers than they can poke a stick at. In summers, we get on a hot stinky bus sitting next to that drunk guy with BO. By the time we get to work, we've sweated off all deodorant and become a sticky smelly mess. Then we're expected to work a full day in the stinking heat sweating like a little pig. It's seriously overrated, give me the snow and winter any day. I've been to Europe and London for over a month before and the weather was definitely colder (March...) but it felt so much more refreshing, I mean, you could go for a walk down the road and come back feeling as though you haven't sweated a single drip. Don't even get me started on our lovely oven-baked Christmas days.

So yeah... if I had a choice I'd pick America for work reasons, but the UK still has more potential than here in Australia.

Oh, and employment? It took me 6 months to find a job, which by the time it started I was accepted into the music course (so I took that instead). Then 12 months to find the next... nothing wrong with my Resume. I applied for nearly every "data entry" or IT/admin related role as I have a certificate in IT to back me up, didn't hear a single them from any of them except a handful. I don't know if employment is any easier to find here in Australia, and I've noticed lots of people I went to school with doing a similar thing by moving to the UK for a couple of years.

This post has been edited by LotusRIP on Thursday, Apr 5 2012, 02:35

[ManDog]

I'm in a specific part of the UK, where it's easy to get a job, there's been no crimes here for years, except in our local town, where there has been murders.. yeeeaah... but only atleast 2 in a year? around that, now the bit i live in sounds bad because of that. But it's easy to get a job, there's 3 schools here in this area, 2 universertys, i don't want to give out my address, but i'll just say the area. I live in Doncaster.

[LotusRIP]

QUOTE (ManDog @ Thursday, Apr 5 2012, 02:49)

I'm in a specific part of the UK, where it's easy to get a job, there's been no crimes here for years, except in our local town, where there has been murders.. yeeeaah... but only atleast 2 in a year? around that, now the bit i live in sounds bad because of that. But it's easy to get a job, there's 3 schools here in this area, 2 universertys, i don't want to give out my address, but i'll just say the area. I live in Doncaster.

Well, speaking of crime rates, if it's any indication I've lived in Sydney for a year now and so far there's been 1 break and enter robbery at a factory, 1 shop on a main street set on fire and burnt to the ground by some punksters, and just last week a man was shot dead in a shopping centre food court! All within a 20 km radius from where I live. But with that said, I've never come across any problems myself.

People are so quick to ramble on about how the US has it's problems with guns and economy, the UK is so cold and miserable and the quality of living is so poor, yet these same people go on about how amazing Australia is and how good the weather is, crime rates, etc. That's exactly what the media gets you to believe, just as they get us to believe that everybody in America are anti-gay picketers that take guns to school. Australia has it's pros and cons. Only the people who live here can truly assess what our lifestyle is like - so it's a bit ironic coming from outsiders trying to tell us how good we have it.

This post has been edited by LotusRIP on Thursday, Apr 5 2012, 04:22

[Jay]

I just spent a good period of the morning sitting outside in 27*C sunshine with a hot coffee the smell of pussy on my fingers.

straya!

ed: I'm in Adelaide, so don't get me started on murders. Seriously though I haven't been murdered yet.

[CheesyJ]

QUOTE (grope_4_that_date @ Wednesday, Apr 4 2012, 19:21)

Move to America. London is crazy. Riots happen every week.

This part is nonsense. There was a riot last year, but generally, places like London aren't that bad at all. They're not perfect, but tell me a place in America that is.

I can guarantee you right now that a lot of the crime ridden cities in America are 10 times worse than London for this sort of stuff.

[Vercetti27]

we're already over populated , stay at home

[El Zilcho]

The advice given here (particularly by sivis and Gareth) is pretty good, I'd pay close attention to that and less to the stupid sensationalism (riots every week? please.)

I live in the North West, but one of the rich, pensioner full areas. It's expensive but generally a very nice place to live in. As already mentioned, I wouldn't recommend moving to London unless you want to give a pint of your blood for living costs. I can't comment to much but I did used to live in Colchester for some time and it was quite nice, but I was too young to recall specific details on the area beyond superficial niceties.

Overall, the UK is a great country. Not many would acknowledge that but it is.