Perth, Western Australia. Relocation AND career change.
Good evening,
I'm hoping I can get some advice and signposting please.
I have a Permanent Visa for Australia and lived there for a few months last year, but can't permanently relocate my family from the UK until I have a job, however we are ready to go as soon as I have one.
My background is in accounting. I'm qualified with ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and have 12 years experience in practice and a couple of years in businesses until I had my children. I have spent the last 4 years self employed and volunteering in the community, mainly helping new parents and families. I have wanted to transition to a career in a library pretty much forever so for the last few months I have been volunteering in a local community-run library, which has been wonderful. My children are now nearly both in school so it's time to come back to more permanent (and paid) work. I believe that, between my accountancy career and my community work, I've got some pretty solid transferable skills that will be great for working in a library.
I have been applying and applying for jobs in libraries in and around Perth. I've had a couple of rejections and I'm still waiting to hear back from most of them but I've not exactly been snapped up. I believe the jobs I've been applying for have been the entry level jobs, usually called 'Library Officer'.
Is there anything I can be doing from the UK to make myself more attractive as an employee?
I am currently getting my accountancy qualifications converted to see what Aussie equivalent level they are ready for when I can go back to studying but I do find it quite difficult to understand exactly what I should be studying and which level I'm likely to be starting at.
Is there a 'best' path for studying? For example, as an accountant in the UK, we could either go to uni and then do the last few units of ACCA or go to college part time alongside working to do some more basic accounts qualifications and then do more ACCA modules. The second option (which is what I did) meant you worked and gained experience while studying and so had worked your way up the ladder quite well by the time the people who had gone to uni arrived and then had to start at the bottom of the career ladder and then still do the hardest ACCA modules. I would have been soooo annoyed if I'd done the uni route without realising there was a (in my opinion) better option HOWEVER I just chose my option by complete chance and luck rather than it being an informed choice, so I would like to be making an informed choice now I'm older and wiser!
I know there's a lot of info here but I wanted to give all the context so that I can get the best advice possible and I appreciate all and any input.
Thank you if you got this far 💕