Hello everybody. I hope that you're well. My name is Christian and welcome to my channel, Backpacking Bananas. Today I am here with Daryl from Welcome to Travel. And we are going to be reacting to Tik Tok advice on Australia working holiday visas because there's a lot of advice out there and we feel like not all of it is necessarily accurate. There's a lot more that you need to consider. So, we are going to improve upon it, add to it. And the reason I've got Daryl here is because I've been here for a very, very long time. So, I came on a working holiday in 2010, doing my farm work, ended up working in the travel industry, got my second year visa, ended up getting sponsored, residency, citizenship, and

now um as part of Welcome to Travel, we welcome 3,000 travelers a year on a working holiday visa. So, without further ado, let's get into it. Here are things that I wouldn't do if I was coming to Australia on a working holiday visa for the first time. So, number one, don't get a physical SIM. You don't need it. You can get an eSIM, which saves you taking your SIM out because if you lose that, it's such a pain. And number two, you can keep both your UK and Australian number on the same phone. So, when people are texting

you, it's still going through on both. I do totally agree that eims are better than physical SIMs these days. However, I think a lot of eim providers don't actually give you an Australian number, which is essential when coming on a working holiday. You need like an Australian provider like Optus Hotel or Vodafone. Yeah. And you're going to need that Australian SIM to like put on your CV when you're applying for jobs. Side note as well, we work with Optus and we work with them pretty closely. They are desperately trying to get into like the EIM market of where you get an Australian phone number. So in the near future, I think it will be good for an eim. Yeah. But right now,

no. Do not fall for the Sydney and Melbourne trap. I know it's hard, but jobs there are so much harder to get. Look at Perth. Look at Adelaide. Like, there's so many nice places in Australia you can go to that aren't Sydney in Melbourne and are so much easier to get a job in. I agree to a degree. Melbourne and Sydney are harder cuz it's more competitive. More people want to be here in like these cities. We're in Melbourne right now. Also, as part of that, it's like when people are doing like their regional work, a lot of people head north to like Canes and Early Beach and it's more competitive. Adelaide is an incredible city as well and it's one of the cheapest places to live in Australia

rather than just the cities. I would look at those like small regional towns. Yeah, I would agree with her as well that you should definitely look further a field than Sydney and Melbourne. But it's not to say that you should like rule them out because no, it's amazing in those cities and like I'd be a hypocrite if I said otherwise because I'm literally wanting to move to Sydney. Don't get a job until you get your tax file number. You need it. Like the first time that I got paid, I lost about $600 because I didn't have my tax file number. I had it the week afterwards, but having it on that first week of the

job and losing out on so much money. I won't get the money back till I do my tax return. But you lose out on a lot of money. So, make sure you have your tax file number. Don't get a job without it. I have a question for you here. If you do what she did and you don't get a tax file number for like a month after you start working, are you able to claim back that money? Yes. Right. Yes, you are. I think there's like a 28 day leeway of going, okay, I've got a job, then you can give the tax file number back to your employer and think that's what she's done as well. But if you work and then it's

like 2 3 months and then you give the tax file number, then I don't think that money like will come back into the account. Last but not least, do not overpack. Like I cannot stress this enough. There are so many nice shops. You will do a lot of shopping in Australia. Basically all the clothes that I originally had didn't wear. Went shopping. Glassens Supra cotton on Kmart. Like you will you'll spend a lot of money there, but it's worth it. I wholeheartedly agree with her because I think the shopping like the clothes shopping, I don't know what it's like for the boys, but for the

girls and like for my style personally, it's so much better in Australia. And I even if I say I'm not, I will buy so many clothes. And so she is so right that you do not need to bring half as much as you think you do. But what I will say is that you do want to have extra room in your bag to accommodate said new clothes. I think she's really good as well. I've um I've seen some of her content. So thanks D. Darina Macarena, we think you're great. I am on track to save $13,000 in just 3 months on the working holiday visa in Australia.

I came to Australia with the aim of saving enough money to travel non-stop without having to work for the next year. After making a mistake which cost me a waste of 3 months of saving, more on that later, I finally found work which will help me reach that goal. I am working at a resort that pays great wages and provides free accommodation and meals, meaning I can pocket a large majority of my wages. My pay follows the national guidelines for casual hospitality work. So I earn hourly $2846 on weekdays, $30.94 on weekday evenings, $3416 on Saturdays, and $3985 on Sundays. This means I average around $1,000 to $1,100 a week after tax on 38 hours of work. So $1,000 a week times 13

weeks is $13,000 or $26,000 after 6 months of work. This could be even higher with the opportunity to do more than 40 hours a week. So here is my advice to save lots quickly on the working holiday visa. Number one, leave the city. I made the mistake of living and working in Melbourne for the first 3 months and saved only $1,000 due to the high cost of living and constantly spending my money. So, don't be afraid to get into those remote areas. Number two, find a job that provides accommodation and meals. This will mostly be remote hospitality and farm work. Some will charge, but it's usually a very minimal $100 to $150 a week. I suppose it's like what your expectations are. Like, if you're coming to Australia and you're wanting to meet people and create like a bit of a

community, doing something like this probably isn't right for you. Jackie's goal seems to be I want to save up as much money as possible to go traveling maybe around Australia, maybe to Southeast Asia. So again, you kind of need to know what is your goal for like when you're coming out to Australia. But you also need to take this with a pinch of salt cuz she got incredibly lucky to find a job which has accommodation and food included and also 38 hours. Is that not common to find something like that? With casual roles, they're safer for the employer. So, let's say if you don't have the hours, the wage um is like a 25% increase on like the normal full-time or part-time wage and because

it's not as stable for the employee. Yeah. So, for her to find a job which is casual at 38 hours and then also her getting Saturday and Sunday work is incredibly fortunate. But she's going to be saving a hell of a lot because when I'm walking around Melbourne or Sydney, I'll get myself a little cheeky, a little almond, a little coffee. Oh, I might go for a beer with my mates and then all of a sudden that just like adds up. Do you know what I had this morning? A pistachio cronut. There we go. You're not getting that in the bush, are you? No, I don't think so. It's a big commitment to do something like this.

Like you said, you're in the middle of nowhere. She's saving a lot of money, but she's also doing that over 3 months, which is a long period of time. And so, you may not necessarily be like living that Aussie dream during that time. So, it's a compromise. I don't think she's given enough information here. She's just gone. It's really easy to get into FIFO work and you can travel endlessly and I think that can be very misleading. So I did want to get into FIFO work when I was living in Perth for a very short amount of time and I met a few people who were finding it really hard to find FIFO jobs. And so I know for a fact that just immediately that is not necessarily true. and she's saying, "Oh, it's all a mindset." But yeah, there is a mindset of where

you go, okay, I really need to apply myself to try and get this job. But there's also elements of looking in it as well of going, okay, there's a job which was available at that time and I was fortunate enough to be in that area and be eligible to get be able to get that job. Luck, isn't there? There's so much with all job finding in Australia. And she also says that you can travel endlessly. Um whilst you do have some really cool uh travel opportunities when you work FIFO because normally you'll have like this swing they call it where you're working either 3 weeks on 3 weeks off or one week on one week off, 8 days on, 6 days off, 2 weeks on, two weeks off. It's normally like this. So you

work a lot but you get a lot of time off and that's why you have a lot of time to travel. But of course that travel time is always limited. If you're like one week on, one week off, there's just one week of travel. Again, I think she's she's blanketed this saying this is really easy and this is the best thing ever, but FO work is really intense. I know a lot of people who work in FIFO and uh it's definitely not for everyone. Please look into your seasons and where you want to live in Australia because I think a lot of people don't realize it's a big country. Down south, Sydney, Melbourne, their summer is reversed to what we have in the UK. So June, July,

August, terrible months to be in places like Sydney. It's it's rainy and wet and kind of cold, which again personally coming from the UK, I wanted sun all the time. I ended up in Northern Queensland. I live in the wit Sundays. It's hot here all the time. We don't really get cold weather, but we have a rainy season and a dry season. I'm the same as her, like I will always be chasing the sun. And so the summer in Australia, like down in Melbourne and Sydney, so that'll be in England's winter is definitely like where I want to be. But what I will also say is where

it's going to be good weather in that destination, it's also going to be more competitive for jobs. So if you are someone who's going to be chasing the weather, you should think to arrive in that destination before the good season begins to try and secure that job before everyone arrives. April to September, you'd want to be like in the north. So Ken's Early Beach Darwin as well, which is often overlooked as well. And even like on the west coast, imagine if you're like in Xmouth. Then by like September time, like head yourself down. Just before she said about the seasons, she said something really big which I don't think people really think about. It was all about like network. It

is all about the people that you meet and the contacts that you make. I got my job on Hamilton Island through meeting someone when I was traveling. She happened to get a job. I knew people that were living on Ireland. I came over here to visit. I made my face known. Network, guys. Every friend that you meet, you never know who you're going to meet when you're traveling. If you make genuine connections with people whilst you're moving around, those people are going to want to help you when you are looking to settle down and find work. One thing which I see that people do badly when they come over to Australia on a working holiday is they are coming over and then they put themselves like

in an Airbnb or in a hotel and they're not surrounding themselves with people and it's super important to like surround yourself because other people are going through that lived experience and you're all on a working holiday. She got a job on Hamilton Island. It sounds like more than likely she went traveling first and would have been meeting up with people up the up along the east coast of Australia and everyone's like within that vibe and going okay I went traveling I met this person I kept connected with them on like Instagram and then I found out she had this job I saw her story probably reached out how do you get that job and this is the great thing about a working holiday everybody is in the same boat

and everybody wants to help each other out more passion More energy, more energy, more footwork, more footwork, more fashion, more passion, more energy. I totally respect the hustle and I hope that when I go to Sydney, I have days like this. Um, and it's so true that like if you're working on the weekend or in the evenings or whatever that you can get paid more. She said $72. But I don't think that you should get swept away with the hustle because then you're kind of forgetting why you're in Australia in the first place. You're not having the true Aussie lifestyle and also burnout is so real and you don't want that to happen.

I think that Seline on this video, she's probably working a public holiday and that's why she's getting paid so much. And there's one thing um as well about Australia, they love a public holiday. Yeah. But is there loads? There's loads. Loads of publications down here. Wait, there's one on Tuesday. What for? Oh god, don't test me. Uh, is it someone's birthday? No, we're getting a public holiday on Tuesday for a horse race. Yeah, it's for a horse race. And then people who'll be working in hospitality, that's when you're making those like bigger money days and go, "Okay, if she's already got two jobs, which it

sounds like she'll be like, "Okay, I want those shifts." Your employer, a hospitality job, will only give those shifts to the people who like working because it's not like you can only do those shifts. No, no. Like she's working casual. She'll probably be like a really hard worker and going, "Okay, a public holiday is coming up. I want Selene to be working um on these hours and so she's gonna like profit from that. But if you get a hospitality job and you're like kind of going through the motions, you won't get any hours. And so that's one thing as well, just go just because you've got the job doesn't mean like it's going to be guaranteed hours as well on a casual role. So anyone wondering what the job

market's like in Australia for people on working holiday visas, I work in marketing. It's rough. I feel so drained because I've been going to interview, interview, interview, progress to the final stage, meeting the teams, feeling like, you know, positive about it, feeling confident that I'm a good fit, getting loads of positive feedback. I'm highly skilled. I have two degrees. I have loads of experience. I've managed marketing departments and teams, and I'm going for roles that I'm more than qualified for, and I'm getting rejected because of my visa. I'm struggling today cuz I just got rejected from Oh, I'm going to cry.

I can't cry cuz I have an interview in 20 minutes. But I just got um rejected from one that I was really excited for. I feel really sorry for her cuz I can only imagine just how frustrating that is. But at the same time, corporate jobs are not what the working holiday visa is designed for, right? Not necessarily. No. So there's this rule if you haven't heard of it already which is the sixmon m it means you can't work for the same company for more than 6 months and so I think a corporate company would look at a working holiday maker and go well if we can only have her for 6 months what's the point in hiring her that is so frustrating because if that is what you know you're good at what you've got your degree in what you've got your skills in

that is what a lot of people will want to do when they come over and again it's that expectation of like you come over on a working holiday. Are you trying to like copy paste your life and going, "Oh, I live in London and now I want to live in Sydney and I'm expecting to be in like a like in the same job." Like maybe um Ella, she's gone through these jobs where she's highly like skilled. Maybe she needs to go down a few rungs of going, "Okay, I'm going to work in marketing and I'm just going to work like I don't like the head of marketing role. I'm going to start in like the content space, for example, cuz she must do content." and get her foot into the door and then like show her worth and gone, "Oh, actually she is worth like progressing

because nobody admits anything they've done." So, he's saying he's struggling to find a job literally doing anything and that he's overqualified. There's a lot which I don't know here. Yeah. But I can only assume he is probably in a city like Sydney or Melbourne, probably in the summer and everything is super competitive and that's why and that maybe quite simply just moving to somewhere which is less popular and less competitive might bring him some more luck. But there's a lot which I don't know here. He just says this is my Thursday. I'm not mad. It sounds like you're mad. Sounds like you're quite mad, Jake. And with the like the wording of this and this is maybe a little bit of scaremongering

and this is what Tik Tok is like quite bad at and you'll like watch that video and you go like oh he can't literally do anything and then you might see another video and you get stuck in this algorithm going well I'm not going to go over to Australia on a working holiday visa the terminology of literally anything I imagine if he applied himself and go okay I'm not going to go for like those jobs which I used to be able to do back home and I'm going to go and do like hospitality for a while. Yeah. It's going to be a bit of a bruise to like the ego. I'm sure he would be able to get a job.

Yeah. Cuz he says he's overqualified, which is the same problem that this other girl was having. But like you said, if they lowered their lowered themselves a little bit just to get in and then prove to an employer that they're worth having and then they can excel from there is a better route. Yeah, for sure. Than trying to do the same thing as what they were doing back in the UK or back wherever they were from. Yeah. I wonder how he's applied himself as well. Maybe he's gone to like hospitality. Has he handed out like a few resumes, not really follow them up?

Has he gone to recruiters for femongering with this with like literally anything? I'm sure if we looked at his um profile now, I bet I bet he's working. We can tell. Oh, he's back home. Oh, so he's a yoga teacher. No, he what? He said he was teaching a yoga class. He didn't say he teaching, did he? Yeah, he did. Oh, to teach. All right, there we go. He became a yoga teacher. Hi, I'm Ella and my boyfriend and I just did 3 months picking and packing strawberries on a farm in Queensland. So, here's how we got the job. Get on

the Backpacker job board website and make a list of the fruit and veg that are coming into season wherever it is that you're wanting to work. Open where you want to work in maps. So, for us, this was the East Coast. And search for each different type of farm. Then go through the farms and either email or Facebook message them and do the same for each type of farm. I'd just write a generic message that you can copy and paste to send to every farm just to save yourself a little bit of time. I'd recommend making a new CV to send over to them and just try and focus on practical work or showing interest in fitness or outdoor activities. Also, let them know if you're looking for your 88

days or not. And my last tip would just be to contact everyone because the majority of people will ignore you. We genuinely got about five replies out of 70 farms. And make sure you reply quick because it feels like everyone's looking for work in Australia at the moment. I think that this is brilliant advice. I think she sounds really proactive. Uh, which is something that you definitely need to be when finding a job in Australia. Only thing is for it sounds like she's British and British people don't need to do farm work anymore to get their second and third year. But some people still do it for the experience. when I did my um regional work on an avocado farm, at the time you're like, "Oh god, why am I doing

this?" But looking back with a bit of nostalgia, like that was great. That was a great time. Yeah. What they've done really well there is apply themselves and not got too downbeat because of the um lack of responses as well. It's not even rejections, it's just people ignoring you. Yeah. One thing as well which I would add onto this, I don't know if she put this in the text to the employers is like what's the accommodation situation as well because sometimes you can stay on a farm which is rare but sometimes you go to like a working hostel like within the region and all the farmers contact that hostel and go have you got any workers because we need X Y or Z zed doing and then if you're at that hostel you're

going to get a job like the next day, right? So, if you do want to work somewhere specific, what you're saying is sometimes you should just move there and the work opportunities will come to you if you're in the backpack of hostels. And you need to remember it's within like the hostel's interest as well to find you a job because if they can find you a job, they're going to be getting rent for 3 months. The great thing about it in these working hosts and I've stayed in quite a few like Monday to Friday, everybody's head down working, saving that money. No quissants on most days on cronuts.

All cronuts. Saturday, Sunday, everyone's just having like a great time. And again, you're kind of in it together. Yeah. But I really like this. And again, if you are from the UK, although you don't necessarily need to do the regional work, it is something which I would recommend cuz it is a good way to save money and if you can be surrounded by other people. I think it's really good. It feels like one of those Aussie experiences which you kind of love you love and you hate them, but it's always one of the most memorable experiences that you have. And so even though we don't have to do it anymore, don't rule it out cuz it could be fun.

My name is Pink and I'm pretty glad to meet you. You're recommended to me by some people. Hey, is this illegal? Hey, it feels so why does the six month rule exist? It doesn't make sense is the comment that she's put under that. So, there is ways around the six-month rule. It turns out there's a few loopholes. Can you talk us through them? Loophole number one is there's certain industries of where you can um work for the same employer for longer than 6 months. Well, there's healthcare. There's a number of things which we'll put on here, but one which I will like look into is like tourism and hospitality as well because these were these are classed as critical sector work.

How is hospitality critical work? because after co Oh, it was critical for them, but it's not critical for people to get their coffees in the morning. Oh, no. Wow. And then there's um like plant and animal cultivation and everything like that. Again, we'll put it up here. So, that is number one. Another loophole as well. Number two is if an employer has like several different locations as well. So, like welcome to I'll use as an example like so we've got an office here down in Melbourne. We've also got like an office up in Sydney. Let's say if we work in the tourism space.

Um, somebody could work in this office for 6 months and then move up to Sydney for 6 months. That's so good. You said as long as it's a different post code, right? Well, actually, I just double checked it. It's just another location now. It used to be post code, but now it's just like another location. So, if you're working for Woolworths, you could literally just move down the street and work for another 6 months because they're everywhere. Enough Woollies. Very hard to get a job at Worth. just so you know. Yeah. But working holiday makers.

Oh, not just cuz they want people for a longer period of time. Yeah. Well, if you've managed to get a job in Woollies as a working holiday maker, let us know in the comments. And well done you. Another loophole, now this is one which I want to like shout and scream from the rooftops. Number three, and this is for anybody and everybody coming on a working holiday, and this is what I would do. When you land, you got a full year. Get your bearings, get your tax phone numbers, get everything sorted, sim cards, get a community, get likeminded people around you. And then if you've got the uh money or the funds or the means, go traveling as well.

Similar to like what that girl was saying about the network, go traveling and find out where you like and then you can go and base yourself there. Like after you've been traveling for like maybe like 2 3 months, you can get like those casual jobs like to begin with. But let's say if you wanted to work in like your industry Mhm. marketing for an example with um those people um and let's say they landed in Melbourne went all the way up to K to go I really like Brisbane I want that city life but I don't want Melbourne or Sydney as go to Brisbane month four five six just doing hospitality work just for to make ends meet. By this time you are

on in the second half of your first year working holiday visa. Now what you can then say to employers is like yes I can only work for you for 6 months on this visa but then I'm going to go onto my second year visa and I can work for the first 6 months on that visa. So which will can so you can work for that employer essentially for a year by that time hopefully you would have shown your worth and they will be like this person is worth sponsoring. Yeah. And that's something which people don't like haven't like really caught on to. I'm like and it rolls over. Yeah. I'm like going you can do this. You could be working a 9 to5 saving up for a house, but you're making a coffee in Australia instead.

This is your time to quit your corporate 9 to5 and get yourself a job in Australia making silly little copies. Yeah. I think this just goes on perfectly from what we were just talking about, how like working holiday visas in Australia are not about just copying and pasting your life back home. It's about doing something completely new, discovering yourself if you're feeling a little bit lost back home and also just having a slower pace of life and like actually traveling, doing jobs for a little bit of time um is what it's really all about. So, I love these Tik Toks because I just think that they perfectly embody like what you're kind of supposed to be doing and that it's okay and that you don't have to just

follow what society says you should be doing of having a corporate 9 to5 back home. What if you don't want to do that? What if you want to just slow down a bit and explore some new places? I'm excited to soon when I go to Sydney like I want the job that I get to be like a funny little side quest. Like I don't want to do something which is just like all serious and something that I could do back home. I feel like I just want to do something like weird and fun. Yeah. I think you're like a really good example of that as well. Like you kind of ticking off that life list of going okay now I've got a house I can like settle. But you're like I've done things a little bit opposite actually. I feel like a lot of people

like do their working holiday visa in Australia and then maybe buy a house back home. Whereas I bought the house back home and then I was like oh actually no I'm not ready for this yet. I'm coming to Australia to have some more fun. I find like people who are coming on a working holiday visa and this could be you and please make a comment if this is you. More than likely, your life is at a bit of a crossroads right now. And whether you're not happy with your job, you might have just gone through a breakup and you're just kind of wanting to explore and do something different. Now, what I really like about this video is in this crossroads, they're going encouraging it of going, okay, you can

go on a different trajectory and just do that little side quest of going on a working holiday. Even if you do it for like six months and it wasn't for you, at least you've gone and enjoyed it and just had a bit of fun. Yeah. As well, I think people have these like preconceived ideas of going, "This is what life should be. I go, I meet my partner. I get married, get the house, I have babies, and that's it." Yeah. This crossroads in your life right now is such a great place to be. And do the side quest, do the coffee. Pinch me moment that this is my commute home after work. That is a pinch me moment. How beautiful is that? Every time like I go to Sydney

and go to see Sydney Harour and Har um like the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge, I can't help but smile and go like this is my like that was a dream. Like you see like Finding Nemo and I want to go to um I want to go to Sydney for all of your way Sydney. Yeah. And then all of a sudden you're like well this is actually my life and I've been able to see this and like how fortunate um you are to being able to make this work for you. And so it might be part of your vision board of going, I want to be able to do this. And it's just about taking that step for you to be able to do it. And yeah, that's and what's cool is that she's probably

not even lying about that being her commute because it's super popular to commute like on the fairies over the Sydney harour. And so yeah, so cool and makes me very excited to go there as well. Australia 6 months ago and now life feels like this song. So good. I love this cuz it does feel like that and especially when you're doing the traveling and the working and I think working holiday visas are also full of ups and downs and that is important for creating these memories and character building and being able to go home and say like I did that like I did this amazing stuff but I also went through these like [__] moments when I was picking berries and

but I mean this is just a travel video and like Australia is bloody amazing to travel. It really does look like that. Like this is not an exaggeration. No. And yeah, we get tagged in so many of these videos as well. And what's great about this is like Olive, for example, she probably doesn't know how many people she's inspiring. I going I've been able to do this and this is what I've been able to see. It's called the lucky country. I actually didn't know that.

Yeah. Well, there you go. Whilst you're in this like time of your life to be able to go like explore and Yeah. Australia offers so much and being able to go like on a working holiday and go explore but also save some money and meet like-minded people like the amount of people which I've met over here in Australia. So it does feel like that song. Bit of a hosier yell. Yeah, the hosier yell. Yeah, what a beautiful man. I know. And that's all the videos. Hope you guys enjoyed that video. Thank you so much to Daryl for being our travel expert and commenting on all of them, improving the advice. There was some really good

advice on there. And actually, I was going to call this video uh reacting to bad advice on TikTok on working holiday visas. And then when I was looking through, I was like, none of this advice is bad. It's just that everyone has such a different experience with a working holiday that it's important not to like hone in on some people's idea of it. I'm glad that we got to do this. Look forward to seeing you in Australia. Check out Welcome to Travel if you haven't already. They've got tours in Sydney, in Melbourne.

We don't need to do up the East Coast. Check the links in the bio. Okay, we'll see you in the next video. Bye.