Tree Change & the Job Search Process - accessing local information

In my post Tom & Tree Change & the Job Search Process - the story of Katrina and Tom continues I outlined a number of general sources of information that Katrina and Tom might access to find out about job vacancies. They can then use this information to start investigating localities that might be of interest to them

An alternative route if you have already identified areas that might be of interest to you is to start with the local council. Increasingly councils and their economic development officers are playing a pro-active role in trying to attract people to their areas. This is best illustrated by example.

The city of Greater Taree in the beautiful Manning Valley on the Mid North Coast of NSW has a population of 43,000 and is home to a number of significant industrial establishments offering, among other things, the type of boilermaking work of interest to Tom. In this case, the Council web site has a specific relocation section including an on-line job matching service. Here you can enter details of your skills and Council will then match those with local employers needs.

Not all councils are as well organised as Taree. Sometimes you have to dig down a bit.

In the case of Dalby in Queensland for example, the council web site provides a range of general information about the town, but does not appear at first site to have any jobs information. However, if you keep clicking on links you will finally come to Your Guide to the Dalby Wambo Region which does have jobs information.

This split in information sources between councils and local guides, community or development sites is fairly common.

Rockhampton is another example. Here if you visit the council site, then click on tourist, migrant and business information and then on Rockhampton Tourist and Business Information (Information for Migrants) you will be taken through to the information site. This includes a relocation service.

The split in information sources can be a nuisance where proper links are not provided. However, you will usually pick up both through a web search on the town name.

Tamworth, NSW, provides another example of the need to dig down. Here you go to the council web site. Under business/industry there is an employment page. This provides some general information, but it is very general.

In this case, the council does not appear to offer direct relocation support. Your best bet is to go the regional directory on the council site which has a search facility that allows you not only to identify employment agencies but also firms in a variety of industry areas. This allows you to investigate directly.

Some councils sites, Duaringa Shire in Queensland is an example, may not provide any employment information. This shire contains a several mining centres. In this case, you will need to contact the council directly.

Tree Change & the Job Search Process - the story of Katrina and Tom continues

Photo: Park scene, Dalby, Queensland, one of Katrina and Tom's options.

This post continues the story of Katrina and Tom's search for a future in Regional Australia.

In my first post I reported that Katrina had sought advice on relocation possibilities in regional Queensland or possibly NSW. Because final choice depends upon family needs, my second post discussed Katrina and Tom's needs based on information supplied by Katrina.

At this point I diverted from Katrina and Tom's story to discuss the case of Contessa and a possible move to Tasmania. While a diversion, the theme (the need to think through needs) was the same.

Now that we understand Katrina and Tom's needs, the next step is to help them scope the marketplace for Tom's skills as a boilermaker. As they do this, we will then be able to start scoping the pluses and minuses of particular locations. Remember, it's not just a job for Tom that they want, but a life style no longer available in metro Australia.

Information Sources

Many skilled trades jobs in Regional Australia are no longer advertised simply because employers have found it so hard to get a response. I will talk about ways to access this marketplace later. For the moment, I want to focus on major information sources that Katrina can access via computer.

I start with Seek. This site used to be pretty awful outside metro areas, but is now getting much better regional coverage.

I started by doing a search on boilermaker/welder in NSW other. Eleven jobs had been listed over the last 30 days mainly located in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. This is an area where the growth of the coal industry has had a major impact.

I then looked at Queensland, other. Here there were 26 boilermaker/welder positions listed again with a bias towards manufacturing and mining areas in Regional Queensland. So this simple search has generated over 35 possibilities listed in the previous 30 days.

I then looked at the Rural Press JobsGuide. This covers job ads in Rural Press newspapers. I did not find the search categories here as helpful as the Search categories (there is no provision to search on boilermaking), so ended up searching on trades & services, light industry, NSW. This threw up a few jobs, including an urgent need in Oberon, a town that exactly fits Katrina and Tom's specifications.

I then did a similar search on Queensland, but Rural Press is weak in Queensland, so there was nothing there at this point.

I then looked at APN, who have major newspaper holdings especially in Regional Queensland and the North Coast of NSW as well as parts of NSW. I had a little difficulty finding the APN equivalent of JobsGuide. Finally I found a site called Checkout that allows you to search APN classifieds on APN sites. I then clicked on jobs all locations. I got through the first time identifying a number of boilermaker positions, but then the site went down.

I then found a Queensland Government site providing information on over 12,000 job vacancies in regional Queensland. This site also carries you through to the Australian Jobs Search site, a national site listing over 100,000 job vacancies around Australia. From this, you can drill down by area and occupation.

Next Steps

This should give Katrina enough information to start scoping job possibilities. In the next post I will change focus to look at the approach to be adopted in selecting between localities.

In Search of the Regional Alternative - the case of Katrina and Tom

On 19 October I invited people to submit questions about life in Regional Australia that I and my colleagues would try to find to answers for. Subsequently Katrina emailed me:

Hello I currently live in outer Brisbane with my husband and four children aged 13 years down to 9 weeks, we are looking to make a "country move" but there seems endless information that tells you not a lot I am afraid. You see my husband is a trade qualified boilermaker with transport and fabricating experience as well as some fitting and body work experience, and we are looking for a small town some where who needs the services of a boilermaker who loves a challenge , therein lies the trouble, finding one!

I was wondering if you new of any small towns in Queensland that are looking for the services of a boilermaker that can turn his hand to almost anything fabricating and isn't afraid of trying new things. If you don't would you be able to help us with where to start we don't have a specific place in mind but mountains come to mind and rivers! We love fishing and camping so we are planning an exploratory holiday in the Christmas holidays so any pointers as to where we may start would be greatly appreciated. I guess that isn't exactly a questions is it oh well we won't know if we don't ask.

I have read through your questions and answers section of the blog site but it seems to deal with NSW not that I have anything against it and from what I can gather we could move there with out worrying about work either but again I have no idea where to start. Thank you for your time. I look forward to your response.

I was very pleased to hear from Katrina since she and her husband are just the type of people Regional Australia needs. So we are going to try to help her. With her approval, we are going to feature the on-going story on this blog.