Crossing the pond

[BobSA]

This forum has given me so much assistance and just reading about the experiences of others has helped me prepare for my journey and know what to do when I arrived.  So I felt it only right to share my experience of crossing of the pond. 

 

After all the planning, waiting, stressing, good-byes and packing I have finally landed for my attempt at a new beginning in Strayaa! Melbourne to be specific…

 

 

Where to start on this long journey- I guess many people can identify for the need to seek a better environment for family, kids and just general well-being whether your choice be local or international. Ditto for me, having had a few nasty experiences with violent crime and feeling helpless I couldn’t bring myself to let my future, including raising kids in an environment I have so little control over, be in SA. Every country has crime, problems and other social issues but unfortunately I felt there were just too much variables I could not control in the current climate with further deterioration on the horizon with regards to tertiary education, child and women safety and economic stability.

 

 

So began our search and exploration of different potential destinations. The usual suspects were considered: Canada (too cold and skills not on required list); New Zealand (Not a thriving economy and limited jobs); USA (Tertiary qualification not recognised and lottery system to get selected); UK (Non EU passport holder and skills not on list); Hong Kong & Singapore (English not 1^st language in public and no family) and so we chose Australia. We were on the skills list; the process had an estimated time we were comfortable with; no language barrier; we had family there who had settled well and with our background opportunities were plentiful.

 

 

Fast forward to March 2016 and our PR visa (189) is granted and we are super excited and scared at the same time. We decide that there is no time to waste having already alerted our close family of our application and intent to move. Plans are put into motion and a decision is made that I will move to Melbourne in June 2016. Extended family and friends are informed. Some are excited and supportive and some are plain shocked. In a more surprising development many of these very people seek advice on how and what is required to start this journey as they have also had the same thoughts! 

 

 

I arrived on Sunday 12^th June on Qantas in Sydney via JHB. I didn’t have a window seat so missed out on the views which was a pity. Passport control at Sydney airport was quick and painless nothing like on Border Security on tv. Soon as they swipe your passport they know you have a PR visa and its smooth sailing. I had clearly stressed more than proved necessary as the service was efficient and pain-free. Select a window seat for domestic hop from Sydney to Melbourne departing at 16h30 in anticipation of enjoying the view of my new home from up above. Forgot that the sun sets at like 17h15 in winter and when we approach for landing it is just multiple skyscrapers and lights and looks amazing and impending at the same time. Pilot decides to perform a bumpy landing and I hope this is not a sign of things to come. 

 

 

I am greeted with cold and overcast weather. Get scooped up by some relatives at the domestic terminal after realising you need to ‘hire’ a luggage trolley. In order to save costs you pay a fee to get the trolley and if you return it to a designated trolley area you get your money back. In this way they save on hiring staff to be trolley staff I figure. Just as a side note the bigger grocery wholesalers and liquor stores employ the same system so you need a A$1 or A$2 coin to get a trolley.  

 

 

Jump into the car and head out the airport and the first impression you have is of how clean everything is. The absence of litter on the ground, roads and sidewalks is impressive and continues all along my 1 hour journey to where I am staying. Secondly the sheer size of Melbourne- the amount of tall buildings, the fact that so many hi-rise buildings are actually residential in nature and how you realise you would need to have the JHB CBD up until Sandton CBD as a whole to compare the magnitude of it all. Highways are broad and wide and everybody adheres to the speed limits and there is no 10% allowance here. Also it is a toll system on some portions so you need an E-Tag.

 

 

I land on a long weekend as Monday the 13^th is a holiday for the Queen’s birthday so that allows me to settle in and spend some time with family and ask a few questions. Thankfully they live close to a bus stop and nothing is far from their place so even without a car this should be doable. I make a trip with them to a mall down the road. This mall has everything I will need in my 1^st week: Medicare, bank branch and cellular providers. And now that they have shown me where it is located even without a phone and Google maps I will be able to get around and get started. I email recruiters, attaché CV and request appointments now that I am physically present in the country. On Tuesday, in just my second day here, I am able to verify my Aus bank account which I opened while in SA and collect my new card. I register for TFN online, go to Medicare and get a membership number with the permanent card to be posted to me (yes the postal services still work well here) and I select a cellular provider. A$40 a month for unlimited calls within Aus, unlimited texts within Aus, unlimited texts to certain international destinations including SA plus 300 mins international calls again including SA and 7GB of data. Great deal as normally it is only 120 international mins and 3GB data but due a special if you sign on for 12 months contract I figure this is worthwhile. Efficiency- what a thing!  On Wednesday I make my way to Melbourne City for the first time to explore and walk around. Everything you read about coffee and foodie culture is true and there are numerous places. I have a great latte at a Italian coffee store just off Bourke St. I thankfully, get calls from recruiters asking more about my experience and when I mention I’m currently in the city they invite me over for a meeting to discuss my history and their thoughts. This happens with 2 recruiters out of the 4 I have emailed. I go home on the train after walking around for 12km thinking this has been a crazy start and how amazed I am that I have sorted out so much. On Thursday I get a call inviting me for an interview on Friday and I am in shock at my fortune and how this has all transpired so quickly. Interview goes well I think, very much a case of judging personality fit and how you cope under pressure instead of worrying about qualification and CV. Spend first weekend meeting other South Africans and family at a braai in 10 degree weather on Saturday. Brrr, wrapped in a scarf etc I taste a good Aus beer, excellent food and the post clean-up project the next day. No help here to clean the braai stand, deck, house etc.

 

 

All in all a positive first week for me, while it is too early to draw any conclusions, the family here have allowed me to settle quickly and made me feel welcome. I am enjoying the liberating experience of walking around freely as a stranger and love the independence of public transport.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2016 by BobSA

[Hoping4Oz]

Hi BobSa. Thank you. This is such an amazingly detailed post. We got our 190 visas in April and we're doing an LSD trip to Adelaide in August, mainly with the aim of meeting recruiters face to face before we move permanently a few months later. Your experience with recruiters is very encouraging for us and we've taken "notes". We've reached out to a couple of forumites and they've been incredibly forthcoming with advice and offers to show us around.

 

i can't wait to repay yours and their generosity when I post my own experiences and tips later this year.

 

wish you all the best.

[Moose2014]

Hi @BobSA,

 

So happy to hear you're settling well and have managed to sort out some of the NB items so quickly, holding thumbs for you re: employment!

 

Keep the updates coming!

 

Little Moose

[RedPanda]

Sounds like an excellent landing! (Apart from the characteristic Qantas stomp-down) Pity you missed the mild weather of late May, it was the last whisper of Autumn, very pleasant.

We also loved the freedom of movement, and the 'alive' feeling in the CBD during the day, and even the early evening. It's wonderful to see a functional public space CBD where people walk around during lunch time, and go out in the evening, and everyone is just walking in the streets.

Anyway, enjoy exploring Melbourne  (we love it)

[BobSA]

Having now been here for a few months I feel I can now give people a better insight into my first 4 months in Australia and specifically Melbourne. The good and the bad no detail will be spared.

 

The good:

• Customer service is good and in fact excellent compared to my average SA experience. This is from my local coffee shop, to tram drivers to cashiers at all places. Call centre staff also seem efficient (bear in mind many of these are located offshore so not much credit to the Aussies there) on a side note Foxtel (their version of DSTV) has its call centre in Durban, South Africa so when you dial Foxtel it goes to SA. I was able to get my electricity and gas connected on the day I asked for which was day I collected my keys after calling them only once. ISP (Internet) arrived for appointment as planned and internet was easy once I had purchased a router.

• Public transport- I do not have a car and have rented one for occasions when required. Like when I purchased furniture and moved into my place. The train and tram are close to the place I am renting and I have found them to be reliable and convenient for all my daily needs. Slightly difficult when you have heavier groceries but there are ways around this.

o   Uber for the odd occasion when you have heavier goods. Minimum charge for 5km is AUD$6, thereafter $1 per km

o   Coles has delivery service which is free when you have a minimum spend

o   Buy one of those grocery trolleys that you normally see pensioners with. I was given one as a gift and think it could prove quite handy for canned good and heavier 2 litre bottles

• Turnaround time banks and Public Services- Staff are helpful, stick to appointment times where applicable and are there to do their part. If you have all the required information, forms and documents by simply calling ahead or using Google to check what they are you will always be done in less than 30 mins. Yes there are peak periods such after weekend and public holidays where waiting times are longer but compared to a 6 hour wait at a testing station in Sandton only to be told systems are down I am quite happy!  

o   Medicare

o   Vic Roads (Drivers Licence)

o   Banking

• Freedom- To walk/jog around the many parks both paved and trail; use the numerous bicycle trails; let your kids/family enjoy the Jungle gym/slides/swings located in aforementioned parks. The kids equipment is maintained and in working order and they are safe to use. Ladies and kids do not need other people to be around or fear for safety. Parks have designated picnic spots, coin-operated gas braais, certain spots even allow consumption of alcohol.  

• SLEEP and Security- When is the last time you were able to drive with your window down without being afraid in your own city and on main roads. It’s a great feeling and something I have missed in JHB having been too scared to do it. The ability to not fear every noise in your home and get out of bed to go check that everything is ok. I definitely can vouch for the fact that I have a more relaxed and ‘dead’ sleep compared to home. Don’t get me wrong, crime happens, but I believe that if we keep our South African level of awareness that we will be perfectly fine.

• Coffee- love the coffee culture here.

 

The bad:

• Weather- I’m from Johannesburg so maybe Cape Town (Lose a mountain and keep the weather if you move to Melbourne ) people will adapt better.  It is just terrible. Spring is still in hiding. This weekend we had the coldest day for the month of October in Melbourne’s history apparently, 13 degrees. Rainy, windy, wet can’t plan anything or do anything. Have to leave house with a jacket, umbrellar and a backpack to carry all these items at all times. Find it annoying that its 3-4 seasons in a day so you can’t plan once when you wake up in the morning.

• Office staff- I find locals out in the streets to be friendly and polite. I can count really rude people on 1 hand since I have moved here. However, in my experience, this doesn’t extend to the office. Locals tend to stick to themselves and don’t make an effort to get to know people apart from a work perspective. They are not outwardly rude but I can fellow foreigners to be much easier to chat to and get along with. These include people from New Zealand, India, Ireland, England, South Africa, China, Zimbabwe.

• Food cost- Anything that has a labour input is really expensive here. From basic canteen food, basic lunch like a sandwich/wrap to fruits and veggies at the grocery store. Average lunch is AUD$10. Yesterday I paid AUD$4.50 for a small bunch of spinach at Coles.  Even if you earning local and don’t convert I think it would be silly to purchase lunch daily. On that note- Nandos here is not up to SA standard from a taste point of view.

• Time Zone- Nothing worth watching on the sporting front is at a decent time. Once in a while you get lucky but mostly say goodbye to international cricket, EPL soccer and Rugby. Unless they playing in Aus its while you asleep or at work. Hardly watched the latest whitewash where the Proteas won 5-0 against the Aussies. Unsurprisingly that was kept to a minimum in the tv news headlines this side.

• Recruiters- Melbourne job market at the moment is pretty flat. Supply definitely exceeds demand at the moment. Recruiters tend to want to box you and force you into roles without listening to you. They just want to place you to make the commission. They not trying to help you find your preferred career path or interest. They know that they have the upper hand at the moment and quite frankly their response time, service and attitude is reflective of that.

 

Please feel free to ask questions. I will continue to update on our journey.

[JackoFam]

Thanks @BobSA We are moving to Melbourne in January so found this useful

[Husky]

Thank you @BobSA

We are Melbourne bound in 2017 and grateful for the honest insights. Curious about a few things;

1. Did you find a job? You mention an office but also speak of recruiters.

2. Is your family with you and how are they settling?

3. Any tips on finding a rental?

[BobSA]

Happy to help @Husky

 

1. Yes I have a found a job. A temporary contract role but it has served to gain local experience and more importantly earn local currency. Currently seeking a permanent role.
2. No kids yet, just my wife and I. She arrived 4 months after me so she is new to Melbourne and still complaining about the weather having left a sunny Spring in JHB
3. As a new person seeking to be a tenant with no local rental history most landlords would want a minimum of 1 year. Rental is anywhere from $300 to $600 per week depending on 1 bedroom or 2 and proximity to City. To illustrate the same price close to the city for 2 bed 2 bath with 70sqm would be a 4bed 2bath 2garage and a garden option in some suburbs. You would need approximately 6 weeks rent as a deposit also. Melbourne is big and every person you meet will recommend a different area/suburb. There are like 243 surburbs of which at least a 70-100 would meet your needs I would guess. Some links to check out:

   a.       For rentals- https://www.realestate.com.au/rent

   b.      For rentals- http://www.domain.com.au/

   c.       For suburb reviews: http://www.homely.com.au/find-places

   d.      Use this suburb quiz to roughly estimate some areas that would suit you based on your non-negotiables i.e. saftey, schooling, internet, going-out etc: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbournes-most-liveable-suburbs-and-a-little-secret-revealed-2015

 

[Husky]

Wow, thank you. Very useful information.

[RedPanda]

On 10/26/2016 at 4:18 PM, BobSA said:

 

d.      Use this suburb quiz to roughly estimate some areas that would suit you based on your non-negotiables i.e. saftey, schooling, internet, going-out etc: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/melbournes-most-liveable-suburbs-and-a-little-secret-revealed-2015

 

 

Just as an aside, this link now redirects to some other article. The correct article can be found by copying the text of the link into google's search bar.  

[ChrisH]

New Link

[BobSA]

Thanks @RedPanda and @ChrisH for the updated link

[BobSA]

Been a while since I posted an update on our journey so I thought I’d share a few updates.

 

Work, jobs and recruiters:

 

So it has been 11 months since I moved to Melbourne. I started a new job this week which I am feeling very positive about. It is a type of role I was seeking when I first got here.

 

To summarise this experience I thought I’d share some stats:

• Made contact with 17 recruiters in this time, meeting 10 of them one-on-one sharing my aspirations and role preferences and going through my career history
• Stayed in regular contact with 6 of them
• Only had 4 interviews including the 2 I had in the first week I arrived in 11 months.
• Numerous calls for the role I did 5 years ago as a junior with the related junior/grad salary but never a call about role I had immediately before leaving SA or the roles I had indicated a willingness to do. I’m in my 9^th year of my career and was willing to take 2 steps back both ito of pay and role but I was NEVER going to go back to a grad level/entry role
• At least 5 roles where recruiters aggressively chased me to put my CV forward for a role and then I never heard back from them even when I called them
• About 60 roles applied for via companies own website and/or LinkedIn with no progress and automated rejection response

 

In addition my favourite story is a recruiter who tried to force me into a bad role (fit, location, pay) and was extremely rude when I stood firm and told him that I was not interested. The role was at a company that has been in the media recently with negative headlines who are struggling and who are not doing well. The recruiter did not think that I followed business news and tried to sell me on this being “ a great role in a dynamic organisation with room for growth”. Unfortunately for him I have family that works at the company and knew that they were facing challenging times and letting staff go etc.

 

This recruiter even told me: “it has been 10 months since you been here and you still have not found anything permanent so why don’t you stop being fussy and take what you can get”. So they resort to trying to guilt new emigrants into bad roles as they know we are potentially facing financial and other pressures just so that they can make a buck. Even blatantly lying about the company and its actual culture/climate! 

 

Essentially I tell this story to let people know the journey is long and only you can and WILL put yourself first. Draw a line in the sand about what your starting point is whether that be location, pay, role and/or for fit! Most people, myself included, don’t have the luxury of dictating all aforementioned things as newbies to this land but there might be some elements that you need to be firm on! 

 

Life

 

I think we have managed to settle in really well a lot quicker than I had expected with the day-to-day things. Our circumstances and luck allowed that to happen due to finding roles relatively quickly to ensure financial pressure on SA savings was kept to a minimum. As mentioned in previous posts meeting new people in our age group with similar interests has proven to be more of a challenge. But we have made good progress on that front too and have made new friends and found that to be good source of comfort, knowledge sharing and just to a casual conversation and beer with.

 

Still can’t say I am 100% comfortable with cost of living as my mind still does the: “this is so expensive in Rands” when I get the bill at a restaurant, get a haircut or buy booze. Have found a lot more friendly local people at my new workplace which makes a huge difference. Even if for them to share more about the city and tell you about things I never knew existed.

 

Annoying things:

 

Enough of the good and positive things. Think it is only fair to share a few things that annoy me:

• Traffic- new experience to be in a city where weekend traffic is probably worse than weekday traffic on some roads. If you are from Johannesburg imagine Fourways type traffic almost everywhere in the suburbs whether its due to kids being transported to activities, people headed to play and watch live sport or most importantly people headed for their favourite pastime- SHOPPING.  I mean 6km can take 30 mins. I guess it has a lot to do with most households being able to own 2 vehicles and that there just are so many more vehicles on the road.
• Drivers- I find the local driving population to be very polite by giving way and respecting pedestrians and overall very law-abiding to the rules of the road. However the most annoying thing about all drivers is the SA style Taxi move of sitting right on your tail while behind you whether it is on the highway or main road and irrespective if is a large truck, van or normal vehicle. I have been on cruise-control doing 103km/h (safe speed to avoid a fine) in a 100km/h zone in the middle or 3^rd lane and had people still sit on my @$$! I don’t get what the big 24/7 rush is so clearly I need to find out and ‘join the race’
• Impatient people. Speaks to the above point. I think Melbournians must love Fast and the Furious and live their lives a quarter mile at a time because they live the motto “if you ain’t first you’re last”. People need to be first and in this race 24/7 even when  walking about on the weekend and pushing kids, senior citizens and the like out the way is common.

 

[AlwaysThankfull]

Thanks for the update BobSA! Great following people and hearing their stories, I am dreading the job hunting experience but it is a hurdle that must be crossed

[RedPanda]

Glad you finally got the job you were looking for  

We also arrived in Melbourne middle of last year. I must say, the tail-gating hasn't bothered me (when I'm going at the speed limit) because I've noticed that's just how they drive, as though they get nervous when alone on the road so they have to cosy up for comfort. I take this view based on the fact that these people will not try to overtake me, even when given a good opportunity to do so, in other words: they want to drive where they are. So I leave them be.

All the best with your second year about to start!

[Fidjet]

On 10/24/2016 at 7:17 AM, BobSA said:

Recruiters- Melbourne job market at the moment is pretty flat. Supply definitely exceeds demand at the moment. Recruiters tend to want to box you and force you into roles without listening to you. They just want to place you to make the commission. They not trying to help you find your preferred career path or interest. They know that they have the upper hand at the moment and quite frankly their response time, service and attitude is reflective of that.

 

HI BobSA

Your experience with recruiters sound so familiar. I am still in Sa patiently waiting (read getting worried but know it's still early days) for our VISA grant, and all the while I'm still looking for a job. It feels like I have spent at least 3 out of the 5 years since graduating looking for a job, and the sad thing is when I do the math its not far from true. 

 

The newest thing here is that recruiters change your CV to fit the role, you have to send them a Word CV and if you send in a PDF CV you are usually eliminated automatically. I am a female Mechanical engineer with 3 years design experience. I have been sent to jobs as a Mechatronics engineer, or a civil drafter. The best was when I arrived at a job in the mining industry and when HR saw me he was very surprised, "but youre a lady" apparently there original add specified an African male, and somehow the recruiter changed my CV to fit that discription. 

 

Anyway, I am happy to see that all the effort finally paid off and that you have found a good job and that you are settling in that side.