Surprising 'entry-level' FIFO job paying up to $80 per hour: 'Super easy to get'
A FIFO recruiter has revealed the surprising job that can pay up to $80 per hour. There are plenty of ways to pull in big paydays in the mines, but many require a trade or speciality before you head up there.
If you don't have either of those but still want to make some decent money, you can work as a bus driver. Recruiter Alana Mohi told Yahoo Finance that it all depends on where you go.
"Bus drivers can still quite easily go and earn $110,000... it's definitely doable to go out there and get a job," she said.
FIFO worker earning $100,000 a year for in-demand mining job: 'One of the best entry-level jobs'
Centrelink warning over $1,321 cash boost now available for thousands: 'Can add up'
Work-from-home debate fires up as Aussie exposes 'ridiculous' reality of return to office
"It's classified as an entry-level job, because you need a little bit of experience, obviously, but all you need is your HR driver's license and the PTD authorisation."
The PTD is a passenger transport driver authorisation, which is an annual necessity if you want to drive passengers for "hire or reward".
Mohi said the salary can range for bus drivers from company to company and can go over the $80 per hour mark if you're doing night shifts.
According to Indeed, the average base rate for a bus driver in Australia is $36 per hour.
There are dozens of jobs available at the moment across the country for this profession, and one advert gave a taste of what a regular day looks like.
"You will play a key role in safely transporting passengers to and from the village, mine site, and airport, ensuring safety and reliability," it said.
"You'll be working an 11-hour shift on a 2:1 roster (2 weeks on, 1 week off)."
In addition to driving the bus, you'll also be required to:
Conduct daily vehicle inspections to ensure safety and cleanliness, and
Support the village team with secondary tasks when required
Jess Riches moved from the UK to get a job in the mines and wound up driving buses.
She said she loved the job but warned that the summertime heat was "no joke".
To get her role, she got her White Card, which is a standard and mandatory authorisation allowing you to be on a construction site, as well as her first aid, and police check.
The UK native urged people with no experience driving buses to do training at MIRO in Perth before applying.
The W1N W1N Recruitment founder said that getting into the FIFO realm can be difficult if you don't know where to start or what route to take.
But she added that bus driving can be a great entry point that allows you to move into other parts of a mine site.
"I wouldn't go out there saying, 'Every bus driver's earning this' because some of them are on shorter swings, or they're doing mostly the utility side of it," Mohi told Yahoo Finance.
"But even one of the bus driving jobs that I was in, I was operating like a skip truck and stuff like that, and was clearing well over $130,000 so that's not hard to do.
"Bus driving is one of the best jobs for somebody wanting an entry-level job and they'll generally put you on the smaller busses before you go into the big 56-seaters or bigger than that.
"But it's super easy to get one of those jobs."
She said that one of the biggest advantages of the gig was being in an air-conditioned vehicle away from the bulk of the heat.Sign in to access your portfolio
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Markets mixed, chip stocks fall, meme stocks: Market Takeaways
US stocks (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) ended Friday's session mixed. Yahoo Finance Markets and Data Editor Jared Blikre outlines some takeaways of the trading day, including equity market weakness, chip stock moves, and the rise of meme stocks. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Asking for a Trend here. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Biotech industry faces off: US vs. China
China has become a significant player in the biotech space, potentially threatening the lead the US holds. EY Americas industry markets leader for health sciences and wellness Arda Ural sits down with Josh Lipton and Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Anjalee Khemlani to discuss the dynamics between the US and China in the biotech industry. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination Overtime here According to a recent report from the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, China has the most immediate opportunity to overtake the United States in biotechnology. For more, let's welcome in Arta Rawi America's industry markets leader and Health Sciences and wellness, as well as Yahoo Finance's very own Anjali Camlani. Welcome to you both. All right, I'll start with you. Uh, maybe it's just a big question, big picture question. Does the US have the investment power, in your opinion, to overtake China in biotech? Yeah, thanks for having me. Uh, the biotech is the innovation feeder to the big pharmaceuticals and it only uh nurtures well in an ecosystem. So to answer your question, what do you need in that ecosystem for that to nurture? Uh, investment capacity, which we have been having for the last, you know, decades, if you will, to kind of keep investing in that innovation to move on. NIH has been probably the world's largest VC over $40 billion in non-dilute funding into the entrepreneurial startups. Then you have talent who has been, you know, coming all these top universities and MDs and PhDs who are dedicated to advance it. And then you need this technology transfer system so that those intellectual property translate into a startup. And then with that investment capacity, it keeps growing and then through testing and going to the humans and then ultimately being developed for everyone's use. So, uh, yes, the US still has the capacity to invest, but it is not potentially the only game in town given the development coming from China. I'm curious, Arta, because we know, I know you've been tracking the deals and uh, we've seen the number of deals steadily increasing over the years. I saw, uh, one of the ones that you sent, which looks at the number of deals so far to date for 2025 is more than half of what we saw in 2024. So we can expect that to really outpace 2024. What does that mean though? Because I know that some of the deals that are happening are more, um, what you would call licensing deals, right? It's not necessarily that this money is going to from scratch investment and innovation, but it's more stuff that has already happened and is built up. Talk to me about that and why that matters. I mean, first of all, the numbers are pretty compelling. A couple years ago, we had pretty much like no deals under a billion dollars in 2016. And as of last year, there were $30 billion worth of licensing deals from Chinese assets into the US, and 2025 is a very strong start, so they're definitely going to beat that number. So the reason why this is happening is in 2015, Chinese Communist Party put a priority of investing in biotech and that was a priority sectors. And it was 10 years ago, and that 10 years of journey started to play out for their benefit because China historically has been known for this active product ingredients and excipients, which is like the chemicals that pharmaceuticals were using to make small molecule products. And that journey now is taking them to upstream to more advanced innovation. Probably we still have not seen a first in class, but clearly they are going for best in class, like those are the shots on goal if you are seeing more and more. Well, that's why, that would be my question because I know that we've seen sort of they're doing copycats or metoos in terms of the type of innovation coming out of China. Um, do we expect that they have the wherewithal to outdo the US then in that sense, in terms of coming up with the next blockbuster for the entire world? I mean, there are a couple examples, early examples that some of the Chinese based assets actually head-to-head comparisons, you know, beat or exceed, at least match the efficacy and safety profile of some of the Western developed compounds. But this is also a journey as the audio question. So what is it, what do they need more to get there? So they have the talent. I mean a lot of Western educated MDs and PhDs went back to China working on that. The government itself as a part of prioritization program have been investing in it. So then the question is, do they have an exit strategy for those entrepreneurs? And that I think is where they are lacking because there's no like an IPO market that is comparable to the Western standards. There's no like an M&A exit until recently. I think that's where the weakness kind of may be the opportunity for them to come up. But the deals we were talking about, they're because of the intellectual property concerns, because of the concerns of reliability and trust in the data because, you know, there's no such institution in the world like FDA that everyone trusts and hopefully continue to trust. And for that reason, the deals seem to be more asset purchases. So I'm not taking a risk by operating in China, but I'm buying the asset and in a licensing deal, and I'll continue to develop it, especially if you can make this cheaper and faster in China, which has been their competitive advantage over the Western companies, then you bring that into a human fast and then the human testing can be done, validations can be done in the more Western setting. I think that can be a winning formula for the industry. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Meta and Oakley partner on new AI glasses: What to know
Meta (META) and Oakley have teamed up to create new performance artificial intelligence (AI) glasses. Yahoo Finance Tech Editor Dan Howley breaks down the details. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Asking for a Trend here.
