Working in Australia
After locking in my twelve month career break from my job in funeralcare back home, it was time to hit the road. It was an absolute privilege to spend four months traveling New Zealand and Australia—achieving a lifelong dream of mine. It was expensive, too. With the savings drained and a lovely little studio in the Gold Coast procured, I headed out with my CV's and scoured the internet for job listings.
Job hunting is a brutal game. While I received enough rejections to take a hit at my self esteem, the number of jobs that flat-out ghosted me was much higher. I'd never been asked to work a trial shift before, either; as far as I'm aware that's not common practice in the UK. How it's legal to work for two hours entirely unpaid only for them to never call you back is beyond me.
Luckily, the next time I was asked to do a trial, they did ring me back and they did offer me the job. I'd been living in Gold Coast for two weeks when I got hired as wait staff at a beachside restaurant and started immediately with full availability.
This is the first time I've worked in a restaurant—my previous hospo (the Australian way of saying 'hospitality') experience in the UK being purely bar-based. I had carried plates before, very seldom at The Engine Shed, in Lincoln, UK when the venue hosted dinners and balls. That, however, was four years ago, so it took a bit of practice getting my confidence in that department back. One week in at the restaurant though and I was zipping around with three plates on my arms. I've realised I prefer this side of hospo to being behind a bar; I love darting from one table to the next, delivering food, resetting the tables perfectly for the next guests, and so on.
As many casual jobs go, the restaurant wasn't proving to be quite enough hours. Luckily, on the day I accepted my job offer as wait staff, I received a phone call booking me in for an interview at Krispy Kreme. To celebrate my two successes in one day, we went out for a nice meal and simply had to do a recce at the doughnut place to check where I needed to go for my interview (and sample the products). Totally yummy, and totally easy to find.
The interview went great, and it was suggested that I could be up for the team lead position rather than team member. No complaints from me, having adopted a leadership role back in the UK as a funeral director, and wanting to get as much responsibility on my CV as possible so I can someday aim higher. I got a call a few days later inviting me to the second interview towards the position. This time online and with two interviewers, but no free doughnuts.
I must have done a good job; I got the phone call one morning while sipping my post-run coffee on the beach and watching humpback whales in the distance flipping their flippers out the water. And just like that, I am officially a gal with two incomes.
Training at Krispy Kreme has been fun yet challenging. There's lots to remember, and processes to follow, but I'm enjoying it and that's what counts. I even know how to use a proper coffee machine now! I am incredibly proud that on my first official 'bean screen' test, where I was marked on checking the calibration of the coffee machine and making the perfect latte, I achieved a whopping 97%. Go me!
It's great to be earning money again after the travel life left us penniless. I'm also happy with the type of work I've found; while I applied to multiple 9-5 jobs, it's incredibly freeing to be working random hours on random days in hospo and getting mid-week days off to explore the gorgeous Gold Coast. This will (probably) be my only time living right by a beach with hot Australian weather, so I'm glad I'm not cooped up in an office (or wearing all-black and thick layers if I'd been successful in continuing my streak as a funeral director). This is something fun, different, flexible and sociable and has helped me create the exact lifestyle I wanted for my time in Australia on a working holiday visa.
Think I'll save the more serious jobs for the more serious weather back in the UK—it's too sunny here to be sitting at a desk!