If your company sends you overseas for a knowledge sharing or temporary transfer, they should bare the cost of your relocation. Basically you should be provided accommodation and a living allowance (i.e. $50 per day). If they'll be providing you with accommodation and allowance, I doubt they would pay for shipping of personal items there as it's only for a year and you wouldn't need to relocate your home to Australia.

As i always said, applying visa to stay is very personal. Any decision being made, we have to respect them with watever reason are. I think if you're thinking of letting your visa lapse, no one can stop you. You just have to take responsibility to bear the consequences what your family would do. If you intend to, then it's up to you. I believe you're grown up guy, what decision made, just be with it.
I made 2 big decision mistakenly is i refused to apply visa twice when there's opportunity. Luckily 3rd time is another chance for me to get it.
Been to melbourne before, yeah, like you said, the climate is horrible. a whole day will have like 4 seasons. i even got sick when i travel down from sydney to melb. the climate changing so fast.
1st entry will be whole family. 2nd entry will be going alone for job hunting. My wife still retain her job and all our property. at least a back up plan at home. Like wat my dad telling me is that we have 2 engine running, stop 1 will not giving you trouble to have income back home. but if shutting down 2 engine will giving you big trouble.haha...better listen to old man advise


This post has been edited by Nemesis1980: Feb 13 2013, 08:07 AM

I had a job offer and have relatives who's singaporean. At 1st we do consider about going down but think about children's future, no doubt that SG education is far better than MAS. However as what you're pointing out is very very true. There's no such work life balance in SG. I found our singaporean relatives always complaining their country bad things (Yeah i know they are the complain king & queen) but somehow i found that they are miserable about their life. They're rich, owning a house in SG (yeah, it's a 3 storey house) got a business, but not happy. Mostly they're complaining about concrete jungle, less work life balance,culture as all you have mentioned.

One thing I want to bring up is the frustrations of applying jobs in Australia. You see, unlike here in Malaysia in which we got two main mediums - jobstreet and the Star, in Australia all job applications have to go through Job Recruitment firms.

So the ad goes on like this:

IT analyst at SME Company dealing in premier property construction in South Australia and Tasmania.

Job Requirements:
1) Bachelor degree in IT from reputable Australian university
2) Possess MSCE certification
3) Knowledge in Pro-+ programming
4) Experience in handling and coordinating with operational staffs.

All the job ads are like this. The disadvantage is:

1) You have to undergo two levels of interviews, first being screened by the job recruitment firm, then by the employer: wasting time
2) You don't know who you are applying to, so there is no merit in your results, if you are a high distinction performer, you may just end up with a ca kai company. Lets say you currently work in a high roller position in Shell Malaysia, paid well because you got good results in your bachelor's degree but when you go to Australia to work, you may end up with a Mom and Pop company that pays no increment because of bad company performance.

So in other words, you don't get rewarded by your good results and your previous work experience because you don't know who you're applying to.

======

I know its my decision, I am just not sure if this should be my decision. I am in damn big dilemna, man. But I starting to think that there are better places to build my career like Singapore. THey got better job positions there plus its nearer to home.

I disagree, it is relevant. I would not want to limit the discussion to just AU and MY. Look, you are negative about MY. So that gives me the right to explain that MY is not all that bad, by comparing its political climate to whats going on around the world. You tell me that MY is plague with political abuse and corruption and since I don't know the political climate in Australia as well as you do, I had to bring up USA because USA is developed country just like Australia, and I am familiar with it. I am trying to tell you that developed countries also face similar problems to that of developing countries like MY.

The only thing I read that managed to get into international new is Australia admitting that their sports people has been doping all this while but you would sure say its irrelevant anyway.

Nope. Sell them what you have and turn it into what they want. If I sell them what they want and I don't have it, I am lying isn't it? Integrity is important to me.

Example:
Its like I am applying for a job as a hotel concierge but I only have experience in customer telemarketing. I have to tell them that I am good at handling customer problems which is useful when handling hotel guests complains. I can't go there and tell them that I have experience in hitel concierge front desk work, I be outright lying.

This is exactly what I am trying to do.

In addition, just a few articles that I want to highlight that Australia also has corruption:

http://www.thecheers.org/Breaking-News/art...Government.html

http://www.smh.com.au/business/australia-i...00424-tknv.html

One of the biggest factors for me to leave Singapore is, I can't buy my own place (HDB) there without a joint ownership of some sort. And I don't have that much money to buy a condo.

Then again, I don't really like living in a piegon hole, after living in a house all these years.

Small price to pay for safety, education and infrastructure - all of which rivals the best in the world (or maybe even surpass them)

umm no?
You can always ask the recruiter who are they representing.
Even in the interview you can always reject the company.
Interview is a 2 way street i.e. it is to determine if you're the right person for the job and if the job fits your own requirements.
Think of it as a willing buyer willing seller situation.
You are there to sell your services and they are there to buy your services.
Either party can withdraw their interest during the negotiation period which is during an Interview. There is no obligations.
This does not only apply in Aus but allpy worldwide

Aiyah, do you know what is Singapore's favourite pastime?
Complain la! They complain all the time. Happy also complain. Not happy also complain. Busy also complain very free also complain.
You will just learn to ignore them.
Besides most Singaporean haven't seen/don't know the situation in Malaysia or elsewhere that is why they have nothing to benchmark against and therefore they complain.

About worklife balance again i disgress.
I think its more to do with company culture/job requirements than anything else.
If you are an auditor or work in certian jobs like accounting then too bad lo. Everywhere is the same. Even in Sydney auditors work late, investment bankers work late, etc.
I mean i work for a non-asian company and people go home at 5.30 sharp or 6.00 pm. everyday, unless they have urgent things to do.
Most of the time by 7.00 the office is quiet (only the accounting folks left coz they need to do the month end close, etc which is part and parcel of the job la)
So worklife balance is good at least for me.
And the efficient public transport means it takes you an average of 30 min to get back home.
Perfect if you ask me.

any accountants working in aus now? hows the job opportunity and pay like now.. i just got my pr and im on a 50-50 deciding if i should go or not... ahh choices choices haha

We just got our PR too. I'm a quantity surveyor while my wife is an accountant. I don't know what's the really situation on job vacancies there but as far from my friends info who's living there, accountant is facing a hard time finding jobs for now. What they're mention is oversupply in the city. Rural they required. How many of us don't mind to stay in their kampung?
My friend who work successfully in sydney just moved to small town due to their job requirement.
For my profession, received lots of job vacancies which is Ozzie company but require me to work FIFO in NZ since the earthquake. Some even require you to fly to mining area which is very rural, desert place but nice salary.
If you're single, no problem, just pack and go. But if you have family like me, sometimes reluctant to travel. NZ is a depression place. For holiday is nice, for living um.....maybe not.

We just got our PR too. I'm a quantity surveyor while my wife is an accountant. I don't know what's the really situation on job vacancies there but as far from my friends info who's living there, accountant is facing a hard time finding jobs for now. What they're mention is oversupply in the city. Rural they required. How many of us don't mind to stay in their kampung?
My friend who work successfully in sydney just moved to small town due to their job requirement.
For my profession, received lots of job vacancies which is Ozzie company but require me to work FIFO in NZ since the earthquake. Some even require you to fly to mining area which is very rural, desert place but nice salary.
If you're single, no problem, just pack and go. But if you have family like me, sometimes reluctant to travel. NZ is a depression place. For holiday is nice, for living um.....maybe not.

Yeah, I try to learn to ignore them. Very 'Sai meng'!
I even heard that some people work in Ozzie bank also working very late. Well, what if we have the same workload but different salary will be another story. I don't mind to work late with same work load, salary is the main issue here.

House affordability is a problem in Australia as well.

Not true. There are companies that insist to not use recruiters to find suitable staff. These are the companies that you should target. I would get a list of companies that are within your scope and target those companies instead by visiting their website and locating the careers section. Normally employers in Australia are more understanding to international applicants who apply direct. By doing this, you are also cutting off the recruiter middle man, who mostly do not favor international applicants. I mean, just put yourself in he recruiter's shoes, would you go with somebody that has nil local work experience, may not speak good english and may not be suit the cultural fit of the organisation compared to someone that fulfills all the criteria?

This is one of the major disadvantages of applying via recruitment agencies. The company needs staff. The recruiter needs the commission. That's the reason why the applicants are at a disadvantage. It's just better applying direct and cutting the middle man recruiter.

Ok, I think you need to be corrected.

1. While a lot of job vacancies do get passed to headhunters, a lot of companies in Australia have a "Careers" page where they publish their own vacancies. This would actually suit the recruiting companies a lot more because they don't have to pay the headhunters a commission.

2. Even if you go through a headhunter, you can/should always ask them which company is it that they are advertising. I've had maybe 5 headhunters contact me in the last 2 years and they've always told me the company after I asked. It's very simple, headhunters will want you to toss in your CV into the bucket because that gives them an opportunity to get commission if you are hired; so they'll do almost anything to get you on-board.

3. As for your other comment on interview with headhunters, unfortunately that's a pre-requisite. However, you probably only need to meet each agency only once for them to get your profile in. I understand that this is a problem for you because you aren't in Australia but that's how it works. Headhunters generally prefer to meet the applicants in person to get to know them first before putting your application in. They don't want to just throw anybody's application in and get written off by their clients due to bad attitude or something from the applicants.

I personally don't see anything wrong with working in Singapore. If there are more job opportunities, it's closer to home and you aren't ready to commit to such a huge change in life yet; then don't come to Australia. Go work in Singapore first.

Yeah....but if you are a rich guy, I am sure you want to buy a merc not a viva. But all advertisement says "Car For Sale" but never specify what model the car is and what year the car is. So, in other words, you are not getting the job that fits your perceived higher qualification.

In the same sense, lets say you are a PHD qualified and you want to apply for the best companies. So I am sure you want to apply for Shell, Exxon and GE but you end up with half past six employers.

Recruitment firms will never identify the employer until after the first stage interview when they think you are the right candidate. I know because I have gone through recruitment firms. Its the privacy agreement between the employer and recruitment firm. It is also a waste of time to attend 2 interviews per employer - if you succeed though especially when you are in-between jobs.

One of my friends, she has been an Australian citizen for over 10 years, she applied for a job that she thought matched her qualifications while she worked for an Ozzy bank. Guess what? She accidentaly applied to her current company because she didn't know who the employer was. What happened after that, I don't know because I lost contact with her.

1) I hope you are not in civil engineering. I have two friends who migrated there. First one, was frustrated because the whites there didn't give him the exposure he wanted as a surveyor - he was doing photostating and documentation while he was held back from doing field work, subsequently quit and gave up migration for good. Second one, have been there for 3 years, still earning $60-70k a year, which is paltry by Australian standards and he also press down from getting promotions by Aussie whites, doing dirty work. Btw, he graduated from UNSW, one of Aussie top universities.

1. How come I hardly see any company personally advertised in the career page of The Age newspaper online?

2. They do reveal the name of employer? Funny thing, Malaysian headhunters don't reveal until the first interview but only once the reveal to me when I ask, many don't.

3. Quite a waste of time, honestly. Even if I am in Australia, its a waste of time. In MAlaysia, I can get like 8 interviews in one month, if I am in Australia, then I get 8X2= 16 interviews ! How many leaves I gotta take?

Problem is, I apply to Australia for fun and got it, now I am in dilemna. But maybe my hearts set on what I want. Still, I keep my options open. That is why I am open for debate and feedback.

Visiting their website?

Gosh its a lot of work, isn't it?

I see the convenience of jobstreet.com, I just open it, and wallah...30 jobs advertised a day.

Then in Australia, I have to think of whom is the top employers...like err, Fortesque Metals, BHP, Rio Tinto, Woolworths, Commonwealth Bank, etc (By the way I am not familiar with local Australian brand names). I have to look at one by one of the co websites? Quite taxing.

As you can see, other posters are talking about Singapore house prices.

So the debate is open to many variables not just Malaysia vs Australia work life.

Its about "Working in Australia".