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[aithankyou]

Hi All,
I am new to the group. This is my first post. Really excited about it. :)

I am currently a third-year doctoral student at a research I university in the US. I am very interested in working in Australia. Would anyone help answer the following questions? Thank you very much!

How is the lifestyle in Australia? I prefer a more relaxed environment. Somehow, I think the lifestyle in the US is too fast and academe is too stressful. Is Australia more relaxed?

How is salary in Australia? Better or worse than the US?

How is tenure in Australia? Is it as hard as in the US?

Thank you very much for your insights. I am looking forward to reading your posts.

Aithankyou

[juniper29]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA

[bulldust]

I think your general assumptions about Australia are on the mark. The way I like to describe Aussies is with the openess of the yanks and the sense of humour of the poms (British). It makes for a self-deprecating fun-loving bunch. We tend to work hard and play hard. In that sense the work-life balance is well appreciated in our culture.

Salaries and workloads are probably comparable to the US, and depending on where you settle, housing can be very expensive to reasonable. Sydney and Perth, for example, are relatively expensive places to live right now. Melbourne and Brisbane are more reasonable. All depends on where you want to live in town too.

Weather is generally fantastic (I live in Perth, which has a San Diego-like climate), and the beaches are great. Every Aussie city is on a beach (except Brissie or course, which is on a mud beach).

I have worked for a university in Australia, but not for a decade now, so my knowledge of tenure/salaries is dated, though you could find out plenty by browsing the net.

Most of all Aussies don't take themselves too seriously... see:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~bulldust/graphics/AustraliaDay.pps

Oh, and we are sports crazy, but you won't recognise most of them. While basketball and baseball are played, Aussie rules footbal, rugby and cricket (baseball on valium) are the biggies here.

Cheers,
Bulldust

*EDIT* Here are the pay scales for Curtin University in Perth (Western Australia) as an example:
http://staff.curtin.edu.au/staffservices/home/salaries/salary.cfm?page=academic-apr2008
These are in Aussie dollars, but that is almost on parity with the US$ now (not bad from under US$0.50 a few years back). But the median house price in Perth is close to $500k now, which is about the same as Sydney. Other cities would have far more reasonable accommodation priced around $300-400k.

PS> Australia is the size of the lower 48 US states in size... everyone lives on the coast and there ain't many people in the middle. If Perth is equivalent to San Diego, for example, then Adelaide is the nearest city (equivalent distance to New Orleans). On the east coast, however, cities are a lot closer together (i.e. a day's drive or less).

[figee]

Hi All,
I am new to the group. This is my first post. Really excited about it. :)

I am currently a third-year doctoral student at a research I university in the US. I am very interested in working in Australia. Would anyone help answer the following questions? Thank you very much!

How is the lifestyle in Australia? I prefer a more relaxed environment. Somehow, I think the lifestyle in the US is too fast and academe is too stressful. Is Australia more relaxed?

How is salary in Australia? Better or worse than the US?

How is tenure in Australia? Is it as hard as in the US?

Thank you very much for your insights. I am looking forward to reading your posts.

Aithankyou

1.  Apparently, yes, things are more relaxed, at least according to the US academics I've spoken to.  But this depends on where you are and what you're working on.

2.  Salaries are comparable.

3.  Tenure exisits but the process is different (as has been discussed in other threads here).

Bear in mind that the academic life in Australia is quite small meaning that there are a limited number of positions (although on the upside, there is a definite tendency to look for people from abroad in some fields), that Australia is quite a long way from the rest of the world (according to the rest of the world, anyhow.  We know we live at the centre of the universe), and that if you've not been here before, it might be a good idea to visit before committing.

[aithankyou]

thank you for every one's reply. Really appreciated your insights!

[abitatd]

I accepted a position in Australia for my first position after recieving my PhD and I am now returning to the States to work, happy to be getting out of the land down under.

The country is beautiful, the weather is great, there's always something to do, and yes, the atmosphere is relaxed. There are definitly some great things about being employed in Australia and I'm glad I took the job.

However, the cost of living (food, fuel, water, electricity, etc.) is high and continues to increase as well as interest rates, and the differences between the US Higher Education system and the Australian Higher Education are large.

The tenure process is something that takes charts, graphs, figures, and at least a couple schooners of Toohey's to begin to understand. Oh yeah - they just raised the taxes charged on alcohol. On that note, Foster's may be Australian for beer - but you won't find Foster's in the majority of the drinking establishments here.

And keep in mind that if you have student loans or other US based loans or credit cards, they don't accept (or at least mine don't) payment in Australian dollars. I calculated that I have lost about 3-5% of my annual income each year due to transfer and exchange fees.

I don't mean to sound negative, but you should definitly be aware of what you could be getting into. I'd be happy to answer any specific questions you might have, if you contact me directly.

[the_walrus]

Can you say anything, tiggeratc, about how you found Australia intellectually?  Did you feel isolated at all?

[abitatd]

Australia intellectually, like everything else, has been good and bad. I have interacted and worked with some brilliant researchers and students who could change the world, and then there have been some (both PhDs and students) who make you shake your head. While it's harder to get into Universities (fewer Unis and grades and HSC scores [sorta an SAT/ACT equilvalent] count a lot, making getting in a bit harder), you will still get students (and the occasional colleague) who make you question what is being taught in the primary and secondary levels. For the most part, the intellectual component of the Aussie University is typical of most Universities in the States.

There are many times I feel/felt isolated in trying to do research - at least at my University the researchers seem very cliquish, and the lack of collaborative opportunities is one reason I decided to look elsewhere. The conferences I have attended were also cliquish, very expensive, and a bit dissappointing - National conferences that felt more like a regional conference (majority student presentations, a bit disorganized).

I think it would be essential for someone starting here to find a mentor very early on to help with navigating the grant schemes (their term, although I don't disagree with it) and understanding the Australian education system in general.