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Perhaps you can help me

10:18 / 10.01.03

I'm an Australian graphic designer and I've lived here all my life. I'm 42 but young for it. Online I met and fell in love with a Brit girl and in 20 days I turn up to live in England looking for work. I've been there on holidays 5 times so far (for about 5 weeks a time on average). I'm clueless! But I have a British Passport thanks to my heritage.

Hopefully this: http://users.bigpond.net.au/dadesign/CVS.pdf will convince you I'm not a complete wanker (it's big, nearly 900k so beware). What to I do first? Do I try to find a temp agency? Do I look in the UK Yellow Pages? What? Do you know of any good contacts for work in and around the Milton Keynes area? I'll be living in New Bradwell if that means anything to you and I'm not into commuting. I work from home here, have done for 14 years and I want the least amount of culture shock I can manage but not enough to make getting work difficult.

ANY advice gladly received.

22:35 / 10.01.03

Hi Mu Mu,

I'm not able to give you much (or any) advice on finding work and I've never heard of New Bradwell -- but I don't want your thread to disappear unanswered. I hope it all goes well for you. Do come along to a Barbe-meet and meet everyone. And I hope it all works out for you.

01:08 / 11.01.03

Awwwww thank you Ariadne.

I guess what I'm after is anyone with experience of employment and temping agencies operating in the Milton Keynes area, or more general information on how a person would find out about job opportunities beyond the employment pages in the papers. I'm not expecting any prospective employers to pipe up and say "hey, I'll give you a job".

I just don't know how the employment market works in the UK (it's been so long since I was anything but self employed I don't even know how it works here in Australia anymore either!).

02:34 / 11.01.03

My knowledge of Milton Keynes extends no further than its concrete cows, JAM, but hope your move goes well. Having just moved my entire life from one country to another (though only some hundreds of miles, not from half a planet away), I have found that the one indispensible requirement was an expectation that everything will turn out for the best and the faith to just do it. Everything else is mere detail.

The weather would be the greatest challenge to an Australian at the moment, I would expect, but you'll be used to that from your previous visits. If you get homesick, you can always go to The Spotted Dog in Willesden, NW10, where they speak Australian and show the homegrown football and rugby on a giant screen.

Good luck with your heroic endeavour!

02:42 / 11.01.03

Just remembered this thread from last Summer (when I was still in Scotland and looking for London work, since very successfully achieved) which gives lots of links to sites where employment in your line might be found. I was after something very different (organisational development consultancy) but the Guardian site I mention there covers a wide variety of substantive media/design/IM&T opportunities in the SE of England. There are a fair few others more pertinent to your line perhaps linked by other clever Barbeloids.

Go here.

Cheers.

10:07 / 11.01.03

Thank you Xoc. Excellent link and a lot of help.

I AM going to find the weather a challenge though - I've only ever been there in your summer before. Eek. I've never seen snow beyond a mountain holiday resort 20 years ago and have never had frost on my car window in the morning, let alone seen a lake freeze! I'm living the blind optimism thing and you're right, it's been indispensible to even get to the stage I'm at with 19 days to go and sheer terror lurking just the other side of my calm facade. I'll keep The Spotted Dog in mind!

17:27 / 13.01.03

Isn't this the sort of thing Tom's latest web project is supposed to be good for? I can't remember the name, but it gets mentioned quite a bit on plasticbag.org.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

17:35 / 13.01.03

Would Rothkoid be able to give advice here?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:14 / 13.01.03

Actually, grant, that's a bloody good point.

http://www.upyourstreet.com
This

could indeed be a big help.

20:39 / 13.01.03

Oh yeah, that! Probably very useful for me.

Thanks again people! It's nice to have some help, hard to get the mind focussed on stuff like this myself right now. Everyone I talk to just rabbit on about the weather and how it'll shock me or how I'll be missed or how many going away parties can be squeezed in before I leave.

From the previous links I have found quite a few suitable jobs but mostly they seem to be in London. That's about an hour away on the train and I don't know if I could stand that much commuting. As I said, I am very used to working from home and even when I worked in an office, well, Adelaide is called "The 20 Minute City" because nothing is more than 20 minutes drive from anything else. Mind you, it HAS also occurred to me that perhaps commuting might be healthy for me as it would guarantee at least 2 hours a day to myself. I've lived alone for about 24 years so the other scary part of all this is the idea of living with someone else.

16 days to go... aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!

The Return Of Rothkoid

22:00 / 13.01.03

My sole piece of valuable advice to an ex-pat would be that you should avoid going to The Walkabout chain of pubs. If you value your life, that is. Not from the patrons, but from me. Bastardlike places: we're not an nation of B&S balls exclusively, fuckya!

Hrm. What sort of advice do you want? I know about London and about migrating, but not Milton Keynes. I lived there for three years before being ripped out, mandrake-like. If you're looking in London, though, I'd heartily suggest this site.

22:37 / 13.01.03

Don't worry Rothkoid. I'm not another crocodile hunting wanker Australian looking for fellow Fosters drinking Aussie Rules footy worshiping loudmouths to get trashed with and generally annoy the locals. I hate Australian Rules Football. I don't like Fosters. I rarely go to pubs except to play the odd game of pool over a few beers. There is more than one Australian culture and the one I subscribe to largely involves having picnics on the grounds at McLaren Vale wineries or eating alfresco at the local Thai restaurant. I did go to a B&S Ball once, had a great time but once was enough. I was young at the time.

I guess I'm not really looking for advice now. I've received links to websites to help me find work and that was my main reason for starting this topic. Fortunately I don't need to find accommodation but thank you anyway for posting a link. I'm moving there to be with a woman I met years ago (who happens to live in the MK area) and have only been able to spend annual holidays with so far, so that side of things is all taken care of as I'll be living with her.

I'm sorted. All I need to do now is, well, DO it!