There's plenty of work for coffee baristas in the cafes in and around Sydney.
Many young people travel to Australia with the right visa to take a working holiday in Australia. They fly into in Sydney, find a cheap place to stay, and then look for some temporary work to help pay for the next phase of their journey.
Australia has a reciprocal arrangements with 18 countries for working holidays. These are the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malta, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cyprus, Italy, Belgium and France.
United States citizens may obtain four-month Working Holiday Visas under a pilot program being negotiated between the US and Australia.
Only applicants from these countries who are are eligible to apply for Working Holiday Visas may apply. Also, you have to be over 18 and no more than 30 years old, and you can’t have any dependent children.
Working holiday makers are permitted to do any kind of temporary or casual job, but you aren’t allowed to work with the same employer for more than three months.
There are several agencies in the city who specialize in finding short-term jobs for travellers on working holidays in Australia. One of the best I’ve seen is in the Dymocks Building in George Street, right in the heart of the Sydney central business district (the CBD).
They have notice boards on the wall listing cheap accommodation and house shares, and all kinds of office work, laboring jobs, factory work, some farm work and even fruit-picking, when it’s in season.
These agencies have free Internet facilities there for visitors, and they’ll register you and try to find you a job. You can also add your email address to their database and receive automatic notifications every few days while they’re recruiting.
For some jobs, such as Nursing, you will need to prove your qualifications. And some of the other casual work in New South Wales actually requires you get a NSW qualification before you can work here.
Most building sites, for example, require the so-called Green Card, before you’re allowed to take one step onto a building site in Sydney. (The Green Card, by the way, is white.) It is issued by WorkCover, the government bureau which enforces safety codes, investigates accidents and then pays some of the cost when a worker is badly injured on the job.
Other New South Wales state certifications exist for working as a barman or barmaid, it’s called the RSA Certificate (Responsible Service of Alcohol). There is a similar course for working in a pub or bar with gambling machines (pokies, slots, one-arm bandits). You can elect to do both courses, and maybe even a Bartender’s drink-mixing course.
Another useful course to take is a coffee-maker’s Barista course – which teaches you how to make all those fancy Expressos and Short Blacks on an expensive coffee-making machine.
Working holidays give you a chance to meet other travellers from all across the world, to earn a little money, have a good time and eventually arrive back home with some great new skills and work experience.
Picture Credit: The Suss-Man (Mike) via Flickr.
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