Mental Preparation For Migration

Recently, I've seen a lot of questions that I myself asked when contemplating the move, mostly along the line of money; whether it's easy to find a job, how much money to bring, etc. That's understandable for if we're going to invest 20, 30, 40k or more obtaining the visa & getting settled here, we need some reassurance that our investment will pay off. But of course, as in life, nothing is ever guaranteed. Before I came over, everybody I spoke to painted a pretty picture. Lesser hours yet higher pay, less patient to nurse ratio, less workload, better work life balance. Imagine my shock when it didn't turned out the way I thought it would be initially after I've landed on Aussie ground. Yes, the pretty pictures are all true. But I'm going to tell you the bad & if you feel you still want to take the risk then you've pretty much made up your mind & just make the jump. Nothing will ever adequately prepare you for what's to come. No matter what any of us say, they're our personal experiences. Your experience will definitely be different from mine.

If you apply for a job as a nurse in Sg, you have very high chance of getting it regardless of experience. My good friend Dolly successfully got the job as a dental nurse even though she has done ophthalmology for so long. I have no doubt she will have no problem landing a home nursing or clinic nurse or ward nurse position if she chooses to now. The situation is very different here, at least in Perth. Employers want to see experience. I'm an ophthalmology scrub nurse & have been for the past 6 years prior to the move. I wanted to go back to Major Operating Theatre where I worked a decade ago. Guess what? None of the major hospital wanted to hire me. I know myself. I have no doubt I can pick the skills back up with a snap of my fingers. As much as I try to sell myself as a fast learner, I couldn't even get offered a job. You know why? Everybody says they're fast learners. So between me & other people who have recent experience in MOT, the employers are going to choose them over me. My applications to aged care (supposedly the easiest to get into), general ward, clinic, even agency nursing simply yielded a "You're not shortlisted." reply. Did my Australian degree with high distinctions on every module matter? No. They want experienced staff. Period. So your chances of getting a job depends on whether you have the experience for the job you're applying for.

Sometimes it boils down to pure luck or good fortune as I like to call it. It should be impossible for me to land a job since I'm so specialised, isn't it? I've said this before, I was going to pack up & go back to Sg once my savings drop down to 5k. I had 6k left in the bank when I was finally offered my current job. That's only 1k difference. Not even enough to survive another 2 weeks since my rent was $860 per fortnight. I suspected I had a good chance when I was the 1st to be interviewed. I was offered a part time position with a contract of 20 hours per week. In the end, I ended up back in ophthalmology. Becoz I'm already experienced & we all know what working in Sg is like, I'm so good in my job that my manager upped my contract hours to 30 hours a week after 3 months. When she was going to retire 6 months after I've joined & needed someone to take over her position, she asked if I was interested. My passion is in scrubbing. I don't like to do admin work or manage people. So I turned her down even if it means getting a $6-8 raise per hour. I came here to enjoy what I love to do. I didn't come here to climb some career ladder. As I said, good fortune played a part. I got this job only becoz a staff went on maternity leave the same time I was looking for a job. I was up against many other scrub nurses from MOT. But my manager chose me becoz I had the right experience.

The world is very small too. Turned out that 1 person who got rejected worked as an agency nurse in an aged care facility with a friend of ours. When she found out that the job was given to me, a non Aussie, she was livid. I was once asked by a patient's relative how long I've been employed in my job. At that time, I was only 1 month old in my job & 2.5 months old in Oz. Subsequently, I overheard her saying that we migrants are taking away all their jobs. (She is a nurse as well & has been unsuccessful in her search for a job for several months.) So do be prepared to encounter Aussies who feel that they're more entitled to the job than you are becoz you're merely a PR or someone with a work visa. They will not say it to you in your face coz I think that's considered racist or something. But if you look online, in FB, they say what they really think or like me, just round the corner when they make that sort of remarks.

With regards to how much money you need to survive here until you land a job is just too variable. It really depends on your spending habits, whether you're comfortable with much much less & whether you can even find a job. If you're not frugal & are unsuccessful in getting a job, you'll eventually run out of money even if you brought 100k over. If you can't drop the Singaporean mentality that everything must be good & new, then it'll be really hard. You're only going to run yourself into debts. Us, we bought our furniture from 1 of those budget furniture shops. (Becoz rental houses don't usually come furnished & if they are, the rent is higher.) $799 for the basic sets which we're still using until now. Of course, quality is worse than that of Ikea but until they've all broken down, I have no intention of changing them. We bought our TV & fridge off a garage sale for $150 (I think, can't remember) & a vacuum cleaner for $10, all of which we're still using. My $2250 car has served me well for over a year, no major problems, though do requiring some wear & tear fixes. I'm not saying that you can't buy new. But don't do it before you even got a job.

Once you land a job, the focus turns from survival to that of planning for the future. When you've got a stable income & begin to save up a sizable fortune, you can think of other things like buying a place rather than renting. For some, that can be several years away. So I'll just talk about some other day to day stuff that you need to be prepared for.

It's no secret that I love the cold. But for probably 5 months (3 months of summer & 1 month before & after) of the year, I have to put up with the heat which will definitely hit 40s. I work in an air conditioned environment. But if you're like hubs who works in a warehouse, you're going to suffer big time. The warehouse is sheltered but open. It creates a greenhouse effect & directs heat to people working under the roof. The worst thing to have during summer is a maggoty bin. Waste collection is only once a week so be really prepared for a stinky bin of decomposing food waste & having to wheel that stinky bin onto the verge for collection. I've not found a foolproof way to prevent maggots in the bin yet. Double bagging doesn't seem to help much. The only thing we can do is keep spraying insecticide whenever we see maggots. Then you're trying to wheel the bin out & watching out for maggots crawling onto your hands. Thank goodness that's hub's job. I refuse to go anywhere near the bin. I like my weather overcast, no sun. But many people find that depressing. That's the way most of the winter is. Sun sets early (5.30 pm) & rises late (7.15 am). So you get a lot of dark & people who are prone to depression are more likely to fall into a depressive cycle during this time. Summer is the complete opposite. Sun sets late (7.30 pm) & rises early (5 am). So you get sunlight streaming into the bedroom way before you're due up unless you have black out curtains.

It's best to have a hobby to fill your nights. Shops do close at 5 pm save for the big chains like Big W & supermarkets which closes at 9 pm on weekdays. There's late night shopping on Thursdays in the urbs & Fridays in the city. The shops still closes at 9 pm thought. On weekends, everything closes at 5 pm. Read, gaming, craft works, whatever that suit your fancy. I don't have a problem on weekdays coz I usually get home from work around 7ish. By the time I'm done with dinner & shower, it's time to go to bed. I fill my weekends with cooks & sewing.

Most important of all, just be patient. We're used to the internet being connected days after we've signed up in Sg. But it's normal for the internet to be up 1 month after you've signed up for it here. Calling & yelling at the poor operator working for the internet service provider isn't going to help. When we were in Victoria 3 years ago, we sat down at a restaurant for dinner. He asked the waitress where was our food when it hadn't been served 45 mins after we had placed our order. (We didn't order entree which was supposed to give them time to prepare the mains.) She got pissed off & asked, "What's your hurry?" Now, we just order a drink & entree on top of the main. Then we chat & watch the scenery while waiting for the food to arrive. If you send off an email, it may take days or weeks for them to reply. If it's urgent, it's best to call them. So, what do you think? Still up for it?