WHV Australia: working experience - part 1: starting from zero

As I wrote on previous post about my background shortly, so that I am gonna go straight away to peel this topic.

But first thing first, before I go further and deeper, it's important for me to tell about my goal by answering this question, "Why did I come to Australia?" I think I am gonna write another post specifically about this one, one day in the future. One of the reason I came to Australia is I want to explore Australia (and also saving money), hahaha. It sounds unnecessary, but it really does important. At least for me. Why? Because every decision that I make later on, it leads me to realize my dream. Okay, let me explain this a little bit. When I feel stuck, lost, or confused about what I should do or where the next place I should go, at least my unconscious mind gives me an idea.. I have some options, why do I have to feel stuck?

Because my goal is exploring Australia, I was focus on finding a job in hospitality industry. Why? Because by working on that sector, I can find a job in the exotic tourism area all over Australia. Did you see the correlation with my goal? The fact was I have zero experience working in hospitality industry at that time. Super challenging at the beginning to find a job, to convince your employer that you can work well. In Australia, especially in the city, it's normal when the employer call you to come to their place and do some trial. So that, they can see if you are good enough or not good enough for the job. I think as long as you are keen on learning something new (it can be seen by your attitude when you do trial, I guess), I think sooner or later you gonna find a job. And don't easily give up when you fail. Because you learn something by that failure. So you can do the coming trial better.

On my fifth day in Sydney, I got a one day job. My first job was carpet cleaner. The owner is Indonesian and he only need a hand for one day to help him cleaning the carpet in schools all over Greater Sydney Area. This job doesn't require any experiences, but you need to carry heavy stuff. My job basically is helping him to bring some cleaning equipment and machine to the area. And also doing some cleaning stuff with those machine.

First job!

Inside the van

Setting up the machine

School in NSW

Three days after that job I got a call to do the trial at the cafe at Artarmon. I did two hours trial as kitchen hand. I think the trial went well, but I didn't get the job. The main job is washing the dishes.

Cafe in Artarmon Home HQ

Another trial! Still on the same week, this time I got a call to do a trial as sandwich hand in one cafe. I forgot the exact location, but it was around 20 minutes by bus from Sydney CBD. I found this vacancy on Gumtree. Actually they need the experience one, but I just applied it and I wrote on my cover letter that I have no experience. It was a total failure of trial! The owner asked me to cut the tomatoes and I did it too thick. I think it took less than 5 minutes and he stopped me. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of this place.

Next! I saw the job advertisement on Facebook, so I decided to drop my resume to one Korean Barbeque restaurant near my place. They were looking after a kitchen hand. But since I have no experience at all, the chef asked me if I am okay doing the dishes (as dishwasher), and I said yes. I was doing a trial straight away since I was available at that moment. Kitchen hand at this restaurant is different with the cafe. The kitchen hand here, they help the chef to do preparation like chopping, cooking. And washing a dishes is the job for dishwasher. Working as dishwasher at BBQ restaurant is really really hard. Especially when you have to scrub the grill. Nightmare! Hahaha. But I did the trial well and the chef asked me to start working the day after. The good thing working at restaurant is you can get free meal!

Dishwashing area

Staff meal

Another trial at the cafe in Sydney CBD as kitchen hand! The main job is doing the dishes and helping the chef with some simple preparation. Much better comparing with doing the dishes in BBQ restaurant. The good news was I got this job after the trial! And after that I left my previous job in that BBQ restaurant.

In this cafe, there was one Indonesian chef, and he helped me a lot. Thank you so much Chef Frenky! I learned to do some preparation like simple chopping and also picking some vegetables. The important lesson was... knowing the name of vegetables in English! Hahaha. It was really challenging because I knew the name in Indonesian, but not in English. And you know what? Because I got this job, I went to supermarket just for taking a picture of vegetables and trying to memorize it. Always learning!

Cafe in Sydney CBD

Dishwashing area

Meet up with Chef Frenky before I leave Sydney.

Because of the job in cafe only gave me two and half days shift, I need to find second job. Living in the big city is so expensive! At that time, I got another trial as kitchen preparation at one burger shop in Barangaroo and another trial as kitchen hand at one cafe & bakery in Randwick (I didn't have any pictures of this place as well). I was accepted for both places, but I chose working at the burger shop because the location was walking distance from my place.

At this burger shop, I learned about many things. As a kitchen preparation, I have to prepare all the toppings like cut the tomatoes, slice lettuce, onion, cabbage, and etc. As the time goes by, from kitchen preparation, I was trained as kitchen fryer. Frying the chips and all fried patties are the main job of this role. Sounds easy but when it comes to busy hour (especially lunch time because so many office near Barangaroo), it's really stressful. Especially for the first time. But once you get used to it, you can handle it. Time management and ensuring that you don't miss anything are some key points to do it right. There are three sections at the burger shop: fryer, grill, and assembly. I tried once in grill and assembly section, but before I get used to it, I have left the job because I got another new job.

One of the menu at the burger shop

After a while, considering that the cafe that I worked only could give around 25 hrs per week, and the burger shop could give 8~11 hrs per week. I think that was not enough since my saving target at least I get 38~40hrs in a week. So that, I was finding another job opportunity!

There was one Japanese bistro in Crows Nest that texted me. They didn't do the trial for me, only an interview. I got the offer and accepted it because they could give me more hours. Because of that, I decided to leave the job at the cafe and also at the burger shop. I was working in as kitchen staff at this restaurant. The role is doing preparation and also doing the plating before the dishes served to the customer. I also learned more about knife skills here. The challenge of this job is this bistro has a lot of menu. It's kinda difficult to remember what toppings, sauce that I should put on, and also which plate I should use. The first two weeks was very hard. I did a lot of mistake, even the owner asked me to talk privately on the second week. He told me to do better, make no mistake (of course with some pressure). I think after that, I was getting better and make a few, even no mistake. The Japanese food at this restaurant is really good because as a staff, we can pick one menu as our lunch when we are working. For dinner, we just accept whatever the chef make. The coworker were really nice here, maybe because most of us have similar age, so that we can get along easily. I had a good time working there.

My section

Tonkatsu

Omelette Soba

Lunch time!

In uniform 😆

My last day at the Japanese Bistro

2nd farewell because they didn't work on my last day at the resto

So those are my stories of working in Sydney. Oh, I forgot one thing. The reason why I always find a job in the kitchen is because I like cooking. By working in the kitchen, I can learn new recipes and also I can cook my own food at home better than before.. maybe in the future I can cook for as well for my family hahaha. As conclusion, I enjoy working in the kitchen. I had been staying in Sydney for 4.5 months before I move to Queensland. All of my jobs in Sydney were in the kitchen. I felt more confident working in the kitchen after those time.

Such a very long post. See you on the next part (hopefully I have enough will to write it lol)!