My first job post expat life

Looking for a teaching job for me was quite a challenge as I have never taught in Queensland after I have completed my teaching degree. I decided to give it a go anyway. I applied to any teaching, child care, and teacher aide jobs advertised, both state and private. I also applied for tutoring jobs. I heard back from 2 out of all the posititions I applied for. One went as far as an interview, the other collected my referrences but both never came back with any offer.

I then decided to apply for office jobs, such as students admin officer, working with refugees, and call centres. Out of all the jobs I applied to, I heard back from the call centre. They sent me an interview request, which was done by an AI. I didn’t have high hopes as I did not have a clear idea on what the job was. I think I may have gotten it mixed up with another job that had a similar JD. A couple of days later, I got a call just before my online tutoring class started. I decided to take the call, thinking that it could be from the Medicare people. Turned out is was about the call centre job. They did a more thorough interview, asking me questions about how my previous experience as a teacher would help me in the job, etc. The most interesting question they asked was if I were going to do any traveling in the next 4 months. I kinda chuckled after she asked the question and said that I have no plan to travel as we are in COVID time. I can’t leave the country and if I could, I wouldn’t be able to come back. Only after the interview, I realised that she was talking about domestic travel…

A week before Christmas, I received another call to inform me that I got the job, starting date, probation time, onboarding salary, basic salary, over time pay and security screening that I had to complete. A few days after, I received the employment package and completed the mandatory eLearning before the onboarding.

The job wasn’t bad. Once you have completed the onboarding, completed one month on the ‘rockpool’, you would have a pretty good understanding of the processes, the interface that I worked with, and how to meet the company’s KPI (Key Performance Index). The quality people would listen to 5 of your calls a month and you get to find out what areas you could improve on. After working there for 4 months, I managed to meet all the KPIs and managed to get a green scorecard for my last full month there.

I handed in my resignation letter a week before the end of my probation and left the job after my probation has ended. I was getting comfortable with what I had to do and there were days where I really enjoyed what I did, but I saw that there isn’t a lot of room for me to grow. I would be extremely lucky if I could get promoted to either a team leader or quality control or any other positions within the company. I watched how someone with very little knowledge of the processes got promoted over someone with 15 years of experience, who had done quality and led teams with good results. I have heard and witnessed an employee with poor personal skills got taken off the floor and promoted to a trainer to avoid getting constant negative feedback from her clients.

One good thing about the company, it values punctuality. If were to finish your work at 8PM, but got held up in a call and logged out at 8:03PM, you can claim that 3 minutes as overtime. Later I found out that the reason for it is to make sure we as a whole can keep our ‘adherence’ at a certain percentage.

Road to finding a job

Finlay and I started looking for work as soon as we had all of our paperwork in order. The process for Finlay and I are different. So let me tell you what he needed to do before he could apply for a job in Australia.

Finlay first needed to have a Medicare card, bank account, tax file number and convert his UK driver license to an Australian one. To apply for most things in Australia, you need to have 4 points of ID. This could be a combination of a passport, driver license, bank card, Medicare card, a letter with your name and address on it, birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc. This is a new concept for him because as an expat, a passport is the highest form of ID you could have, depending where you live.

We tried to open a bank account online while we were still in quarantine. However, we were advised to go to a branch to validate his identity before it can be completed. We went after we got out of quarantine, and in about a week, Finlay received his bank card. 2 points of ID collected. By far this was the easiest process we had to go through.

Next we went to Centrelink. Those who lives in Australia know how frustrating Centrelink can be, though that depends on who helped you. We visited the Nerang branch as they can help us with the Medicare card application. They gave us good information, and sent us off with a certified copy of Finlay’s passport, highlight which part of the form needed to be completed and evidence to submit. We did have to contact Medicare to confirm that the option highlighted is the right one for him. This is a not a very complicated process, but took the longest to get. 1 point of ID collected.

Once we have 4 points of ID, (passport, a bank card, a letter with his name and current address, and a Medicare card), we went to get his driver license. He brought in all the document, including his UK driver license and a completed application form to the Department of Motor and Transport. This is when we started to hit some speed bumps.

Finlay had a paper license, the size of an A4 paper. When he went and handed in all the document, he was questioned about it, and had a to write a statement about why he never updated his UK license. First they said no as it is not a typical license. Finlay said that his license is valid for life and it is accepted anywhere else in the world. The lady at the counter was very patient and understanding. She checked with her supervisor, came back and asked Finlay to write a statement as to why he never had or exchanged his license to a newer one. At the end of it, his application was approved, paid the fee and had his photo taken and was told to wait for the license to come in the post.

The last thing Finlay needed to go was his tax file number. He applied for one back in 2019 and never heard anything back. So we called the tax office and gave all the details they asked for. Unfortunately, I had to tell him the answer for one of the questions and it wasn’t accepted, as it was coming from a 3rd party. The advice given to him was to apply for a new one. The process was easy enough and he got his tax file number soon after.

This is one of the advantages of living in an English speaking country. We have a full understanding of all exchanges, including what the problems were, what we could do to correct it, and the timeline. Such a different experience compared to what we were used to.

Life in Queensland during quarantine

After arriving in Brisbane, we were whisked into Four Points by Sheraton after completing security check at Brisbane airport. We didn’t do any swab (PCR) test after landing like we thought we would, after hearing what other travelers had gone through to go back to their home country or enter their host country. They didn’t even ask if we had done the test before flying out of Malaysia. We did however get a daily phone call to make sure we are mentally and physically healthy. The swab test we were so looking forward to came a few days before we were due to come out of quarantine and we received the result not long after.

Now, lets talk about the quarantine itself. Our group had quite a lot of families, they were also staying at the same hotel as us. However, after advising the quarantine staff that the room is too small for a family of 4 or more, they were moved to a service apartment accommodation. Their food was delivered earlier so the little ones don’t have to stay up past their bedtime to have their dinner. Food for us adults was great for the first week, the second was a repeat of the first week. No more excitement, no more worrying about whether or not we would have enough in between meals. We enjoyed most of them, especially when it was a meat pie day. They were quite generous with their serving portion too.

The view from our hotel room was windows to other office blocks or hotel rooms. We weren’t able to open any windows, however, we had access to a workout program and outdoor/fresh air time if we needed it. We were curious about it, so we decided to go for it. We went 3 times before deciding it wasn’t worth it. Our hotel doesn’t seem to have a rooftop facility, so we were taking our outdoor time in the car park. We had to be mindful of cars leaving the car park and there wasn’t much sun coming through…. there was a gap on the roof, so that was the only sunshine we had when we went outside. If they did have a rooftop facility, it wasn’t made available to us.

From some Facebook groups related to quarantining in Australia, we read about the amount of dust in the room. Yes, it is very true. Dust build up so quickly that if you don’t wipe the surfaces daily, it looked like your room is covered in Parmesan cheese shaving. Some people posted a checklist on what we could or should have, which helped. We brought in some sauces, chilli paste, as well as our favourite tea and coffee. Our parents also sent us 2 Coles bag worth of food, including 2 bottles of wine, adapter and Australian SIM card. We could order alcohol from the hotel if we wanted to, but they rationed it. I guess it is to prevent us from being drunk and damaging public properties. Having lived in Asia, we are so used to having food panda, Grab, or Gojek for deliveries. We learnt that we can have alcohol delivered, but not to our hotel address. Oh well, we live and learn.

We are very grateful that during our quarantine days, we still had jobs (online tutoring). Our days were filled with lessons planning, creating power point presentation for the students and teaching. When we weren’t doing any of that, we applied for jobs, set up mygov, opened a bank account for husband, attempted to do yoga, did HITT training, downloading and watching Fringe, doing laundry, and taking turns picking up our food and recycling our rubbish.

It was an experience and I must say that at the end of the day, you do what you need to do to keep you and your family safe. We could have stayed in Malaysia but with Whiskey already in Brunei, we thought it is best for us to start the journey home. We don’t regret it and we are continually adjusting to life in Australia.

Almost home for Whiskey

Whiskey has had a long “holiday” in Brunei, since October I think. About 3 months ago, it was confirmed that PetAir Malaysia has secured a place for her at PEQ Melbourne.

She was scheduled to fly to Melbourne on the 13 May. Our agent wasn’t happy with the date as that is the start of Hari Raya celebration, New Year celebration for our Muslim friends. Nothing much would be operational in Brunei during that holiday period. We had to contact PEQ and requested for an earlier date, which we did get, 12 May.

Yesterday, Bryn, Whiskey’s host parent showered her, making sure she is clean and pretty. This morning, she sent us a photo of Whiskey in her crate, ready to fly back to Australia. We were also told that we will receive an update once Whiskey has landed. The cost of her stay at PEQ will be sorted by the agent at the end of her 10 days.

We have also organised a flight for her from Melbourne to Brisbane. We will be picking her up at Brisbane airport on the 22nd. We are really excited about it and hoping that she will get along well with the other dogs.

Other dogs? Yes, we are staying with my parents after we left Malaysia. We haven’t found our own place yet and that would be another story in the near future. My parents have 3 dogs, unfortunately, 2 of them are quite territorial. We will be introducing her to all three one at a time. Making sure that when we go to work, all of them would get along well. No fights and they would not invade her space either.

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Hope Whiskey will be okay during her 10 days at PEQ. We have heard stories from a Facebook group about pets coming out from the facility with minor injuries/infections or pets who had throuble adjusting to the dry food they got given. So far, everything has been great, praying that it will continue to be great on her last quarantine.