The office is in Newington. Should be suburb I suppose? I will be given a company vehicle which can be used privately.

I've never lived overseas before so it's very difficult to foresee my expenses.
Thanks

Anybody knows whether I'll be required to take driving lessons in order to drive?

Again, don't take this as a given..... Australia are one supposedly one of the western country with the longest working hour...

I do receive emails during weekend and in the middle of the night and many ppl work till 8-9 every day too... Not as common as Malaysia, but it is not as rare as you think.

i will pursue my study in aust or uk..but im intend to work abroad for a year or two to cover my study loan..i already calculate the amount to study in aust in way expensive than in uk..different around rm100k..but i can work easily after graduating..ist true??because i dont want to waste my money if i cant work in aust after graduating..

and i heard its very hard to get a job in uk for foreigner..if i study in a top uni in uk will it be easy for me to get a job in aust??

All the best man and remember to understand the format. It's the most important thing rather than your usual english grammar stuffs.
Good advices up there but I would love to add some stuffs on. For engineering marks are not everything, you need to have a great balance (shown in the resume). For example, vacation work, part time work, volunteering work and even extra cocu. I still think we should all give the big dogs a shot as they will hire international more often than the smaller companies. I managed to land a graduate work a few months ago (whilst still studying in university) with some big OnG company as an international student.

If anyone here requires some proof reading on the resume you're free to have some feedbacks from me.

Yeah, i think shouldn't be picky now. Getting a job ain't easy here. I think construction now is slow here.
When booming time, my friend told me they won't even ask u too much question as they need people they'll give u. When industry in deep shit, they'll give u watever shit reason.

are you referring to the Graduate Visa ?
If yes, this is the list of recognized institution..

Yeaps I understand but the living cost in Malaysia is so much lower and the most important thing is the food =( Not sure how I'm going to stay in Australia for the next 10 years =(

I graduated from G8 unis in Civil & Structural back in 2012. I managed to get multiple offers and choose to join a large consulting companies even before I graduated. My advise is to work hard and be the best student in your course. Job market is tight but the best student will definitely manage to get multiple offers.

P.S: I have decided to resign and leave Sydney by the end of this year and return to Malaysia. Australia is not as good as you think. Limited opportunities. When I just graduated, I am attracted by the big salary Australia has to offer. But, the biggest motivator in life is to be given the opportunity to learn, to contribute, to grown in responsibilities and to be recognized. I have seen a lot of people wasted their time in Australia just to chase the elusive Australian dream. Is just not worth it. If you have the substance, you can succeed in Malaysia as well.

well done

best student in the course is a bit of a stretch for most people... im in a different field and really struggling even with solid grades and corporate experience

how do u think it will be in Malaysia?

I graduated in 2012 and start working in 2013. Anyone in the engineering industry will tell you that is tough to get a job in 2012. If you google "engineering redundancy", there is a lot of big consulting companies making redundancy in 2012 and 2013 (post-mining boom). Number wise, out of 220 graduates, only 30+ managed to secured a job. Only 5 of them are international students.

In regards to economic prospect, Malaysia is certainly better than Australia (in Civil & Structural Engineering at least). The problem with Australia is people are being paid too much and their productivity & talent does not justified their paycheck. That is precisely why all the car manufacturer shut down their plant in Australia. There is no real economic output from Australia. The only thing that keep Australia afloat now is education and migrants bringing in money to Australia.

Due to high cost, many of the large consulting companies outsourced their work to their overseas office. My charge-out rate per hour is AUD 220. My colleague in Malaysia (graduated from G8 unis as well) have a charge out rate of RM 100 ringgit. This means that he is "6 times more cheaper than me". Hence, engineers in Australia nowadays seldom do the design work. They only do the client facing role and package the work to be sent overseas. Working in Australia hampers my technical development. You only do project management and simple technical calculations for small projects. All the big and interesting stuff was designed overseas. 20 years from now, Australia won't have a strong engineering workforce (*discount migrants from overseas).

As if why Malaysia or Asia collectively is better, I will reserve that for my next post. Running out of time, need to head out for dim sums with friends. TA.

The higher ups especially in banks do not give 2 hoots about that. They usually hire another team of people to check and re-work it if necessaary and it will still be cheaper than paying an aussie to do it.

Further, these managers are judged solely by how much they have saved for their company.
Think about it. You go to a shareholders meeting and say "look we have boosted our Net Profit by 20% by shaving off 50% of staff cost" would sound a hell lot better than "Net profit was flat becuase cost were higher led by staff salaries and wages despite the better quality of work.". You think the shareholders gives 2 hoot about the quality of work as opposed to the bottom line?

Sounds very interesting to me. I got a different experience of engineering industry in Australia from you.

Point 2:
On outsourcing, I think that our Indian or Asia office (except Bangkok and Manila ~ I have to rework their design for them) have done a very good jobs. We manage to win and deliver a few projects by partnering with our overseas office. With outsourcing, I think there are mixed of good and bad apples. I still remember my first RC frame design job. The drafter were based in Manila. I mark-up the drawings and wrote "delete general notes". One day later, the drawing came back and there is an additional note below the general note that say "delete general notes". At that moment, I feel like slapping the drafter.

But again, coming back to the cost issue. A drafter in Manila might charge only AUD 20 per hour (I can't remember the exact figure) but a Australian drafter charge-out rate is about AUD 100 or above. Theoretically, if timeline is not an issue, he can rework for 5 times and still cheaper than it being done in Australia. If big consulting firm start to seriously invest in training our overseas counterpart. I think it is only a matter of time that more jobs are sent overseas.

Point 3:
Yes. AUD 220 is quite expensive for young graduate. I start out with AUD 180. After the year end performance review, my manager decided to give me pay rise and increase my charge-out rate to AUD 220. Jump 2 category in that process. Honestly, I don't think I deserved it although I have made significant technical progress in my first year of work. With this new charge out rate, my utilization fall to an all time low. I wasn't selected to be part of the project team for few of the new project. Any idea what I can do in this circumstances?

Point 4:
Seems interesting. Are you in the structural space? Mind to share exactly what new technical works that your are doing?

Point 5:
I have speak a number of senior engineers both in Malaysia and Australia. There are currently more projects and learning opportunities in Malaysia. A few of our practice leader were relocated from UK and AUS to Malaysia & Indonesia.

Apart from learning opportunities, I don't see myself doing well in Australia 10 years from now. As a young engineer, I might have the technical abilities to do the current job I am allocated to. But 10 years down the road, as I progressed slowly from graduate to senior engineer, there is pressure or expectations for you to win project for your organisation. To win projects, you need to have a strong relationship with client. I believe this will be the real problem for most of the migrants (or me at least). To develop strong relationship, you need to have a common topics. Given that I am not born in Australia and not interested in for example Australian football, is hard for you to build good friendship with your client. If I can't build a strong relationship, I can't win project and ultimately I will reach the stagnant phase of my career.  

P.S: I have tried to build relationship with my client. I watch AFL every weekend and tried to read more on Australian culture to ensure there is a common topics. My efforts paid off and last week, I manage to win a small 50K project for my office . But this is too time consuming. If I am in Malaysia, things will be a bit different. We have more common topics and easier to build that solid relationship. I have seen how my uncle and my father done it. To quote from Peter Ducker, "One should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence. It takes far more energy and work to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence".

I am very interested in hearing more from you. It very exciting to see people having a different perspective. I would like to know more about the technical work that you do and at your level, how you manage to win work and bring in project for your organisation.

If you want to finish work on the dot, there's no place like oil and gas. Working the field for more than your allowed time is grounds for dismissal due to safety

In my old workplace I used to do 8 to 3 lol. Days off were whenever you bloody wanted em. Most times the boss would say fark it, we won't take it out of your annual.

But of course your home you go home to is a small room in camp though
100k is pretty good if you're single in Sydney. Generally you're looking at 75k take home and with that you can get a 500k house on loan, of course you'd be shooting about 3 grand a month but hey it's an investment.

You're working for an engineering consulting firm right? Thiess? Monadelphous? Aecom? How's the work like? Do they pay more if you have CPEng?

Gents, i have a situation and would like to seek for advice. I am going to relocate back to Malaysia and will be working from home. But my salary still issued from my Australia office.

I am currently using CurrencyFair to transfer money back to my Singapore account/Malaysia account. So it is not a problem for me to get the money.

The problem is with the tax, so to which country i should pay my tax ? Australia or Malaysia ? and if paying to ATO, what is the usual rate ?

and ya, i am holding Visa 457.

Any CPEng here? Got some enquiries for Aussie system.

Engineers Australia is the board managing CPEng? There is MRA between Engineers Australia with IEM. IEM member can become Engineers Australia member = MIAust = CPEng and vice versa MIAust also can be considered as PEng Malaysia through MIEM?

Thanks for the info. There is some MRA that give member status, and some give CPEng status. For those who get member status, still need to go through another process to apply CPEng (mean interview and exams)?

Does this agreement cover Chartered Membership?
Yes, the agreement with IEM does cover Chartered Membership. Chartered Membership can be
obtained using the attached application form. Applicants must have qualifications recognised
under the Washington Accord or recognised qualification with 7 years practical experience and
at least 2 years in responsible charge of significant engineering work and also provide evidence
of continuing professional development (CPD).
Applicants should approach IEM for confirmation of their current membership. This
confirmation should be submitted with the completed application form

anyone can shed a light on this? thanks.