New Blog for a New Adventure

So here I sit in snowy Victoria, on Vancouver Island, planning my exit. My lease is up at the end of January, so on February 1st, I am heading south out of the rotten Canadian winter and into California and the southern states for a couple of months before hopefully heading to the Northern Territory of Australia to work for a couple of years. I thought I would create a new blog for a new adventure, and will post here from time to time about how things are going in preparation for the adventure, and then later from Australia once there.


Here is where things stand so far. I registered with a recruitment agency last week, HCL , thinking I may get some emails about jobs, as I have been with Work Gateways, but instead, someone called me from the agency. I spent over an hour on the phone last Thursday with a recruiter and I have to say the prospect of going to Australia is sounding pretty interesting. The notable benefits are:

• higher pay, as much or more than I ever made up north. They even provided me with the pay scale and estimated where I might fall with my 8 years of experience.
• 6 weeks paid vacation in addition to public holidays. I could never get 6 weeks at any social work job in Canada, even if I stayed with the same agency for 20 years.
• Airfare to Australia (one-way), plus one month car rental, and 3 months paid accommodation (provided) while I search for my own apartment and buy my own vehicle
• they provide a 4-wheel drive vehicle and instruction for driving in the rugged outback
• they will ship about 15 boxes of personal items
• Isolation pay, based on your location of about $2500/annually
• superannuation of 9%

These are just some of the benefits of the hiring agency. The recruitment agency will help you with the Visa application process and cover all fees for this process. They will also help you with putting your best CV forward, and in preparing for the interview. After all, they want their candidates to be successful. 

So all weekend I worked on my Curriculum Vitae, my first ever, and while it was detailed, it was a great process to go through, remembering all of the past years accomplishments. Then this morning I emailed that and my references to the recruiter in Ontario. She called me and we proceeded with some of the interview questions she had for me that they use for pre-screening. This was mostly made up of scenarios from a variety of child welfare settings, so fairly easy given I have a lot of experience in child welfare. After her call I received a call from the recruiter based in the UK for the agency. We went through more screening questions such as why did I want to work in Australia, how did I hear about the opportunity, and so on. We spoke for about an hour or so. Both gals provided me with email addresses so I can ask questions. The formal employer interview will be in a couple of weeks should the Australian government accept my CV and agree to interview. It will likely be a telephone interview as they have not yet moved into video interviewing but are working on that option for the future.

I am planning for an early April departure for Australia, so I have just over 4 months to get it together. At least I have much of my documentation they need. I already have a valid passport, a birth certificate, and my degrees survived the house fire, albeit soggy and stained. There is a medical to have completed as well, but that is for the Visa application so will be asked to do that later once I have been offered a position. 

The recruitment agency has sent me a few very useful resources to help prepare for the interview and then to use for the job afterwards. Once such resource is this guide. I haven't finished reading it, but so far I am highly impressed. It was created in consultation with the local Aboriginal and Torres Islanders, and appears to be a very useful guide. 

So for now, I have to prepare for the final interview, which will cover some key areas:

1. the legislation typically used for child welfare
2. my code of ethical practice and ideals
3. my reasons for wanting to work in Australia (to assess commitment level)
4. my social work processes - such as how I write notes, court documents, reports, conduct an investigation, identify risks, etc.
5. my mandated experience, aka child welfare practice and the difference between working in a mandated role versus a therapeutic role; court appearances, factual affidavits, level of patience with a lack of resources, etc.

These tips came from the UK recruiter so I shall have to refresh my memory with some notes for the interview. It has been a few years since I worked directly in child welfare, however there are some things you never forget. I think I'll probably do alright in the interview, but if I don't get offered a job, it isn't the end of the world and this blog will wrap up the next day.


The locations they are presenting at the moment are Darwin, on the northern coast, Katherine, a few hundred kms inland, and Alice Springs, several hundred kms inland in the outback (my preference).

Stay tuned...