In Chile nowadays is very popular for people who just finished their degree on whatever to come to Australia -or New Zealand in some cases- to work and travel. For the ones that geography wasn't their favorite subject at school, it's near India and the southeastern part of Asia.
In my case, I finished my degree on Digital Design worked for two years in digital and design agencies, traveled and then, finally, at last Work and Holiday so pretty much I feel the veteran of the chilean W&H here.
I don't want to make this a very long post but I have plenty of interesting tips for the ones that are about to land in this continent.
*Very important: Take your passport to everyone of this places because they need some ID proof that has the important things in both english and spanish.
MOBILE PHONE
Have one asap. If you want to have a job you have to be able to receive calls or SMS.
I bought a Prepaid kit in Vodafone for $30 AUD a month but it has little data -I don't mind because we have WiFi in our flat and when I'm out and about I only use the 4G for whatsapp or google maps- if I use it for instagram it would be dead in about 5 minutes- so keep that in mind.
BANK ACCOUNT
Commonwealth Bank and they give you everything you need to be a person in the city -credit card, saving account, papers to start working-. They open a lot of Work and Holidays accounts so they would probably know exactly what you need.
TFN (Tax File Number)
You need to have an address. You enter here and you ask for it. It's for free and you need to have it because every time someone pays your salary they need to discount taxes and your taxes need to have identity otherwise you wouldn't be able to claim them when you leave the country -not a nice thought-.
RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol)
If you want to work in any place that sells o manipulates alcohol you have to have this certification.
In Sydney you have to take a 9:30 to 16:00 course to get it. You book it here, pay online -prepare to pay $110 AUD-.
The thing is, if you don't have this there are to possibilities: either you're not looking for a job in a restaurant, catering, bar o café, or you'll be working in one of this places outside the law and you could face real trouble if selling alcohol inside the venue -haa felt like Louis Litt there-.
You choose.
OPAL CARD
The same as Bip in Chile or Oyster in London. Public transport card.
Right now there's an ongoing campaign about the elimination of paper tickets for public transportation so -in a not so far away future- Opal is going to be the queen.
So, I think that's pretty much everything and maybe there are some things I don't know so if you know please comment so we can help lost W&H people coming here.
Ohhh and to find a job I think it's better to print your CV rather than trying to contact employers through Gumtree, Pedestrian Jobs, Seek or The Loop
And in case you're wondering, I've been searching for a job for three weeks and I got a waiter job at a really nice café on weekends so I keep on doing design jobs as a freelance so I can pay living here -really expensive btw-.
