1) Useful general job-hunting websites

Live in Australia Go to Visa Programs/Skilled Visas/Skilled Occupations and select “Skilled Occupations” from the menu on the left, then “Management, Planning, Policy” from the list which appears. This site also has a good general links page listing relevant publications and agencies. 

My Career: Especially the Construction and Architecture section.

Study-Travel-Work-Australia

UK Careers Advice Website  

2) Two specialist websites

Jobs in Planning is a weekly e-mail bulletin dedicated to communicating employment opportunities in professional planning disciplines, (Town/Urban, Statutory, Regional, Transport, Social, Environmental, Economic). The majority of users and jobs are in Australia, but the service is extending now to Canada, New Zealand, UK and USA. Subscription for job-seekers is free, while employers pay a moderate charge to advertise. The weekly e-mail bulletin is in the form of a plain text message (no attachments) which lists employment opportunities according to location. Recent opportunities which remain open can be viewed on their web-site under Browse Jobs.   PlanJobs is a weekly e-mail and on-line service listing jobs in planning throughout Australia.  As with Jobs in Planning, the weekly e-mail vacancy notifications are sent free of charge to jobs-seekers. Full details are on the PlanJobs web-site

3) Recruitment agencies

Recruitment agencies in the larger cities (Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney are keen to talk to and advise qualified UK planners. One, based in New South Wales, has written to RTPI as follows:

”We still have a critical demand for planners in Australia … currently 17% to 19% of government positions remain … unfilled. This equates to approximately 700 roles across all disciplines. This is compounded by the fact that … fewer than 40 planners graduated in NSW last year… [We] can be of significant assistance to anyone wishing to apply through us. We have submitted a proposal to local government regarding planners and have developed a process by which planners work for [this agency] and work in government roles on 1-2 year fixed term contracts under the terms of a 457 visa. This has a number of advantages. First it allows the candidate to maintain a continuous employment period. Even if the planner holds multiple planning roles, they will have been employed by [us] for the whole period. This makes the application for permanent residency in Australia very straightforward. Second it takes administration of managing overseas contractors away from the end user. All we need to do now is attract overseas planners wishing to apply. We also have facilities to video conference interview candidates with a view to them securing suitable positions from the UK …”

We do not recommend particular recruitment agencies, but it is not difficult to find them using the Internet. Typing Recruitment Australia Urban Planning and the name of a place which interests you will be a good start, or look at the list on the Study-Travel-Work-Australia website.  Matthew Roe mentions some in his article (below).

4) Planning contacts

The Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) publishes a briefing on finding work as a planner in Australia. Please email the RTPI International Affairs Officer to get a copy). There is also useful information on the PIA website including information on registration with the National Employment Register - RTPI members are entitled to register on this.  There is also a state-by-state list of consultancies employing planners.  The PIA National Secretariat is at:

Planning Institute of Australia
Unit 16 Level 3
Engineering House
11 National Circuit
Barton
Canberra
ACT 2600
Australia
tel 00 61 2 62 62 59 33
fax 00 61 2 62 62 99 70

5) Advice

An RTPI member who went to Melbourne in 2000 wrote back detailing his experiences in his (successful) quest for work - see below for this article.   Another member who went to Australia in 2005 wrote: “I am now in Australia and am being sponsored by a recruitment company to work for Auburn Council, in the west of Sydney. It was not easy! I spent almost 2 months working in a call centre selling credit cards when I first arrived in Australia [on a working holiday visa], but determination paid off and I am now doing Strategic Planning which is proving to be very interesting and challenging. [I contacted the recruitment agency before I left the UK and it ] has been incredibly helpful and sorted out all the visa details etc for me. I now have a sponsorship visa for a year, but am intending to work for 6 months and then get a tourism visa so that I can see more of Australia before I head home, although the people are so friendly here it will be very hard thinking about leaving!”

A senior member of the Planning Institute of Australia has made these comments about job-hunting in Australia:

• The main PIA journal is quarterly, so it cannot perform the task that Planning does in the UK. There is therefore no specialist journal published sufficiently frequently to be a worthwhile source of advertisements.
• Advertisements for senior jobs in central and local government appear in the national newspaper (The Australian), which has a section for Public Appointments once a week. Regional daily newspapers such as the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (Melbourne) also carry such appointments one day a week.
• Less senior jobs and temporary vacancies are often not advertised in places where UK planners could easily obtain them. It might therefore be worth contacting chief planning officers in larger local authorities, or senior partners in consultancies, to enquire about current vacancies.
• An article in The Guardian of 22 May 2004 gave advice on job-hunting, banking, tax, and finding a place to live. Please ask the RTPI International Affairs Officer for a copy.

FINDING WORK IN AUSTRALIA

By Matthew Roe MRTPI, July 2000
Updated by RTPI in 2003 and 2004

On arriving in Melbourne I found employment almost immediately because Victoria is currently experiencing major problems with a lack of qualified town planning professionals. This is mainly being created by a lack of graduates and a drain of staff to other professions.  The majority of the work is in statutory planning (development control in England) in the public sector. If people are prepared to travel from the centre of Melbourne or live out in rural Victoria they should have little problem finding work.

The best way to find employment is dependent on the type of visa. Working holiday visas allow you to work for only three months with any one employer. Employment agencies are the best way of finding temporary work. All the following regularly have jobs for town planners:

Hoban Recruitment, Level 11, 257 Collins Street, tel 03 9650 0900
Hays Montrose, tel 03 9642 1900
Morgan Banks (John Sturdy) - tel 03 9623 6765
Premium Personnel (Debbie Clarke or Felicity Rolls) tel 03 9532 0333

Local authorities prefer employing temporary staff this way. “Cold calling” might work if they are desperate [Note from RTPI: at the moment, some are indeed desperate].

Alternatively people can send their CV direct to private planning consultancies. I eventually found a job this way with urbis, although the director was so busy it took him 4 months to find time to read my CV. [Note from RTPI: A list of planning consultancies can be obtained from the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) – details higher up the page.]

If people have a full visa with no restrictions the best bet to find work in Melbourne is through The Age newspaper which advertises permanent jobs of all kinds every Saturday.

Although the way planning applications are dealt with is identical to the UK, a zone-based rather than policy based system operates. Ideally people should get themselves acquainted with a Council's planning scheme (check out a council's website such as City of Stonnington) and check out the Victorian Planning Provisions on the State of Victoria's web site.

Author:

Judith Eversley

Publisher:

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Date:

01-Jul-08

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